TT Surgeon

A lot of guys buy em to scratch that itch, then realize is not a friendly car to drive daily or realize they'll never be track rats enough to justify. A lot of guys just want the latest greatest every yr and change cars like underwear. Look for a lot of the 991 gt3s to hit the market when the manual gt3 is reintroduced later this yr.

Southpaw

To the manual-only guys, does this rule out owning a 458 Italia, Huracan, McLaren, or even a 918 Spyder if the means are there?

Many of you put heavy weight on the manual, so would you rather own an older Porsche with a manual (997.1TT, 993TT, 964, 930 etc....) over the current exotics? Is rowing the gears a worthy tradeoff of faster, newer tech?

Bear in mind, I don't lean one way or the other. I've driven manuals for over 20 years, have tracked manuals in the past but also owned an M3 with a DCT and 997.2TT PDK (as well as 997.1TT 6-sp). So I'm pretty open minded, pros and cons to both. Some moments I wish I had a manual, other moments I wished I had a DCT.

..but one of my dream cars is a 458 Italia so I need to be open to dual clutch transmissions

TT Surgeon

Give me an aircooled 930s 4 spd over any modern Porsche, had one will get another, in the meantime the 997 6mt does the trick.

autobonrun

Hagerty Insurance puts on a good program to teach teenagers how to drive manual shift cars. They usually have two sessions a day with 20-25 kids in each session. They depend on local enthusiasts and car club members to provide the manual shift cars and be the instructors. They set up a driving course then during the first hour or so show a video on the mechanics behind automatic and manual transmissions.

Then we let the kids drive our cars. They just walk up to the car and the owner provides the instruction and they drive. I brought my e39 M5. During my session there were a couple 911s, a 356, ferrari, A model Ford, several corvettes including one from the 60's and a big buick from the 40's with 3 on the column.

It's a good way to keep interest alive in a generation that doesn't get many opportunities to drive a manual. Maybe this year I'll bring out my old SC with the balky 915 gearbox and see how they cope with that.

Here's a link on the program.

https://www.hagerty.com/corporate/ho...ing-experience

johnbelk

Thanks and that makes sense. Almost made a similar impulse purchase of a very nice Factory 5, Ford Shelby Cobra replica with all the bells and whistles... Thank my lucky stars I didn't buy it, as I would have kept it 6 months max. JB

goofballdeluxe

When all is said and done, it's a highly personal decision. I will never own a sports car with an automatic transmission of any sort.

Southpaw

Great points indeed. You are truly correct that it's a highly personal preference. It's my competitive nature that gets me and makes me want open to the modern cars. I'm ok giving up a little driver feel to keep up with the upper echelon.
I'm split right in the middle and love both.

Dennis C

One of the things that really made me come to terms with PDK was driving a Ferrari 458 Italia on a race track. That car was incredibly fun on the track, and the ability to change gears rapidly with the paddle shifters made the experience very fun. I later drove a 991 GT3 with PDK on the track, and I had a very similar experience.

sidwin

i've driven everything imaginable. pdk made me hate my shifting ability. drove my buddy's gt4 and felt almost as bad afterwards. i guess if i wanted to fake the funk i would get the auto rev matching tranny's. you can still shift but heel and toe days are numbered.

in my viper that tranny feels more mechanical than the refined porsche tranny. My getrag in my supra and sti were in between the viper and porsche.

thanks,
sid