It seems that Porsche is breaking tradition by making their current hardcore models (GT3 & GT3 RS) available only with PDK instead of the manual transmission. While many welcome such move, purists are the ones who see this as blasphemy as such a model deserves to be paired to a stick shifter.
Luckily for them, Porsche is one of those companies that actually listens to their fans and has announced that the next GT3 model will actually come with a manual transmission. Porsche will be using he six-speed manual gearbox found in the 911 R and it will still be featuring a naturally-aspirated engine “for the foreseeable future”.
The head of Porsche GT models, Andreas Preuninger revealed this to British magazine Autocar and also added that the Cayman GT4 will soon have a successor with a six-cylinder engine in the rear, despite the introduction of the new turbocharged four-cylinder engines. And if the 911 R gains a strong reaction from the audience, Porsche is also considering offering more ‘purists’ models in the future.
The 911 R was actually from a manual development car made for the 991 GT3, but it was the PDK prototype that eventually made it for production. “We had a GT3 manual test car left and we all loved it. The manual still had many positive sides. So we took the spoiler off the test car, added some lightweight stuff, some stripes and a classic interior. At this point, I took it to the chairman. He liked it, but we had no engineering capacity so only started work 13 months ago. That’s a short time, so I insisted on all the decision-making and a long, long leash from the board,” said Preuninger.
