ok people, i hate threads like this, not only is half of the information incorrect, it's also twisted and distorted beyond believe, then throw in your average ferrari hater and people don't know what to believe.
i have just a few points to make,
1. Ferrari are not idiots, when they put paddle shifters on their cars they do it for a good reason, They ARE Faster!. However i am not saying that if you would put two identical drivers in two ferraris, one in a paddle shifter and the other in a manual that whoever is in the paddle shifter will always win a race, this is because give or take a few fractions of a second here and there, a ferrari road car will shift gears about the same as a pro driver. Any advantage gained by a paddle shift over the coarse of a full lap could be thrown away by a small mistake in just one corner!. So for a professional driver, paddle shifts in ferrari cars may not be a big deal, however i myself are an amateur driver and i know that if i step into a ferrari with paddle shifts i will be able to change gears like a pro EVERY TIME!!. plus in a paddle shifter you can keep your hands on the steering wheel saving more time as you don't have to fiddle with a stick whilst trying to break into a tricky corner.
2. The paddle shifters in the ferrari 575 or enzo and later cars do change faster than even a pro driver, this has been proved by pro test drivers - fact.
3. I don't know why you're getting upset about paddle shifters appearing on run of the mill (or crap) cars, it doesn't matter, the chances are there crap and are just for show. Ferrari done it first, and if you look in the history books ferrari where the first to do quite alot of things!. I don't know too much about mustangs or cammys as we don't get too many of them around here, but over here we get paddle shifters on a whole host of cars, for instance for somewhere between £10,000 - £15,000 you can buy a citroen saxo vtr and get a paddle shift as standard, but i know it's knowwhere near as good as ferrari cars. It always makes make me laugh when i see some boy racer in his souped up saxo with a stupid body kit trying to impress a bunch of idiots on a friday night by tearing his tyres to shreads thinking he's micheal schumacher, just because some idiot at citroen put a crappy "automatic" gearbox with a couple of pieces of plastic on the steering wheel and called it a paddle shift!!. So don't worry about Ford or anybody elses execs trying to make a little more profit by pretending to have F1 technology in their cars. "immatation is the best form of flattery"
4. Don't go around comparing anything to an F1 gearbox, nothing comes close not even an enzo, an F1 gearbox costs more than most sportscars and only has to last 200 miles!
5. For most people who buy a ferrari it's simple a matter of taste which gearbox they choose. Most of the old guys prefer the manual which is still one of the best gearboxs in the world.