There’s no badge for it on the bootlid. Somewhere in 2012, a gunmetal 599 GTB Fiorano rolled out of Maranello with a gear lever in a polished metal gate. As far as anyone can show, Ferrari never built another. No farewell edition, no press release. Just chassis 187007, a signature on the door sill and a small plaque behind the seats.
That’s the official story, and it’s only half of this one. The other half belongs to a handful of California buyers who ticked a box almost nobody else ticked. Between them, these cars mark the exact moment Ferrari’s customers voted the clutch pedal out of the company. The 599 got the credit. The California might be the rarer car.
Why Is Chassis 187007 Called the Last Manual Ferrari?
Because Ferrari built just 30 manual 599 GTBs, and RM Sotheby’s catalogue says this was the last one completed. That makes it, in the auction house’s careful words, “said to be” the final manual-gearbox Ferrari of any kind. Ferrari itself has never published a closing date for the option, so the claim rests on the car’s provenance.
The numbers show how fast the gate closed. According to RM Sotheby’s lot notes, the 550 Maranello was built only as a manual. Its 575M successor found 246 manual buyers, and the 575 Superamerica just 43. By the 599, three pedals had become a curiosity that Ferrari’s own sales staff would have struggled to explain.
Sources: RM Sotheby's Sealed catalogue for chassis 187007 (2025). California figure is reported, not confirmed by Ferrari; earlier reports put it at two.
The F1 paddle-shift gearbox started the slide in 1997 with the F355, and Ferrari’s racing success sold the idea. Faster shifts and an easier drive won the showroom argument. The old-school manual was never killed off. Customers simply stopped ordering it, which makes the last few manual cars more telling than any official send-off.
Inside the 599’s Manual Spec
The engine is the F140C, the 5,999cc V12 related to the Enzo’s, rated at 620 metric horsepower (456kW) and 608Nm. In the manual car all of that went through a six-speed gearbox and a clutch pedal, with a chromed open gate in the console. Ferrari quotes 0–100km/h in 3.7 seconds for the 599 GTB.
Chassis 187007 also carries the HGTE handling pack, with stiffer springs, a thicker rear anti-roll bar, a lower ride height and a retuned exhaust. On F1-equipped cars the pack also cut shift times to 85 milliseconds. On a car with a clutch pedal, that part of the brochure was always going to be academic.
Built for One Hong Kong Collector
It was ordered by a Hong Kong VIP who collected it at the factory alongside two other right-hand-drive manual 599s, according to RM Sotheby’s. Luca di Montezemolo signed the door sill. The spec reads like a collector’s shopping list: Canna di Fucile over Cuoio leather, with carbon-fibre dashboard, wheel, door panels and sills.
Source: RM Sotheby's Sealed “The Final Pair” catalogue, October 2025. Estimate converted at the time to roughly US$1.0–1.1 million by Autoblog.
Charcoal leather lines the carpets, A-pillars and upper dash, and quilted Alcantara covers the roof lining and parcel shelf. Then there’s the plaque on that shelf. It reads “THE FINAL 599 GTB MANUAL”, which is about as close as Ferrari came to admitting it knew what was happening.
The California Buyers Who Ticked the Box
The rarest manual Ferrari of the era may not be the 599 at all. Ferrari confirmed a manual gearbox for the California at its 2008 launch, and Autocar reported in 2010 that the factory expected about 10 per cent of buyers to choose it. The real take-up was close to zero.
How close is still argued over. RM Sotheby’s says three Californias were built with a manual, and that the 599’s first owner kept one of them in Japan. A 2014 report put the number at two. UK specialist Stance Auto wrote in 2021 that three were built and one was later crashed, which would square both figures.
A UK listing for a silver right-hand-drive car, published in August 2026, described it as the only RHD manual California and one of two gated six-speed cars in existence. Ferrari has never published an official figure. What’s clear is that the option disappeared before the 2012 California 30 update.
What Does the Last Manual Ferrari Sell For?
Less than its estimate, so far. RM Sotheby’s offered chassis 187007 in its online Sealed sale in November 2025 with a guide of £750,000 to £850,000. Classic.com records the lot as not sold. For a car with this story and just under 6,600km, that’s a pointed result.
The history isn’t spotless, which may explain part of it. RM’s notes disclose a minor accident in 2016 that led to a replacement left front guard, fixed by Ferrari’s Yokohama dealer before the car ran Ferrari’s Cavalcade through Japan. It was sold by its first owner in April 2025 and now sits in the UK.
It’s a reminder that collectors pay for originality and story in equal measure. The same logic drives the values of manual Porsche 996s and, at the extreme end, the Bugatti Veyron in Australia. A perfect history would have added a lot to this car’s value.
A Gate That Won’t Reopen
Thirteen years on, Ferrari still hasn’t offered a manual car, and it’s betting heavily on electric power and paddles. Its recent analogue-inspired interior design shows the brand knows what drivers miss. Rivals like Porsche and Koenigsegg have found buyers for new manuals, but Maranello hasn’t followed.
That leaves 30 manual 599s, two or three Californias, and one car with a plaque behind its seats. Closer to home, the manual gearbox keeps vanishing from Australian showrooms too. Chassis 187007 isn’t the fastest Ferrari ever built. It’s the last one built with a clutch pedal.
Source: RM Sotheby’s, Sealed: The Final Pair, 2012 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano lot
Via: Lead image: Ferrari S.p.A. Body photos via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons: Danny Galvez (CC BY-SA 2.0), Cooper Classic Cars NYC (CC BY 2.0), Charles from Port Chester (CC BY 2.0), Damian Morys (CC BY 2.0), Shane K (CC BY-SA 2.0). Images show representative cars, not chassis 187007.
