The manual transmission is a dying breed. There are just 29 new cars you can still buy with a stick shift. Porsche sells two of those cars, the 718 and the 911. While things don't look good for the mid-engine 718, which is set to go all-electric later this year, the 911 will have at least one manual variant for the foreseeable future, as far as Porsche GT boss Andreas Preuninger is concerned.
"From my personal point of view, it was always super important to have a manual," Preuninger told Motor1 at the launch of the 911 GT3 in Valencia, Spain. "I prefer a manual as a driver's car," he added. "I don't mind shifting a car even on the track, knowing exactly that the PDK is faster."
The sentiment comes just three weeks after Porsche revealed it had dropped the manual option for the 911 Carrera S, leaving just the GT3 and the manual-only Carrera T as the final stick-shift cars in Porsche's lineup.
The GT3, refreshed for 2025, is now the only Porsche where a buyer can choose between a manual transmission or the company's PDK dual-clutch automatic. Buyers are split down the middle in the US, with 46 percent choosing the stick on the normal GT3 and 75 percent going for three pedals on the wingless Touring model.
"I think it's always good to have choices, and it was always in my head, even on the 991, to bring back the manual transmission, which we did through the 911 R," Preuninger told Motor1. "The 911 R was, more or less, the development project of the gearbox that we still have today."
But with dual-clutches becoming more efficient each year, some fear the manual could eventually be killed off due to emissions. Preuninger, who has been leading Porsche's GT division since 2000, doesn't think so.
"[The manual] is lighter, so it contributes to better consumption and to less emissions, and you have more power at the wheel because the internal resistance of a manual gearbox is substantially lower than on a PDK," he told Motor1. "You don't have a power pack that has to produce hydraulic power for the clutch system. You don't have two clutches that run through a wet sump, which is resistance as well."
"In real world, the manual car uses less gas and therefore puts out less emissions than the PDK," Preuninger adds. "That's a fact."
So the manual is seemingly here to stay for the GT3, as is the high-revving, naturally aspirated flat-six. An engine like this has no place in this world of modern emissions regulations, so to keep it around, Porsche has to use four catalytic converters in the exhaust. And to keep it making 502 horsepower, engineers had to add new cams, different throttle bodies, and a handful of other small changes. A worthy headache, according to Preuninger.
"[The manual,] in combination with the high revving 9,000-rpm ICE engine, is just such a big, huge fun factor," he told Motor1. "I think and we are in the entertainment business with this car. It's not a means of transportation. We have to go for the smiles."
