Manual Transmissions Are Here to Stay
The manual transmission is not on the road to extinction. At least not according to Andreas Preuninger, the man responsible for Porsche’s GT cars, including the new Cayman GT4. If you’re familiar with this latest Porsche, it is the highest-performance Cayman ever offered by the German carmaker, and it is available exclusively with a six-speed manual gearbox. Porsche decided to offer the GT4 with a stick to attract “purists” who appreciate driving in its purest form, with minimal assistance.
According to Preuninger, a manual transmission is lighter than a PDK, and although it is not as effective as its dual-clutch counterpart at cutting quick lap times, it has less frictional losses and consumes less energy from the engine than any other type of transmission.
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Although automatics now claim better fuel economy numbers during fuel economy testing, manual transmissions can be more fuel efficient than other transmissions under real-world driving conditions due to their lack of power-sapping frictional losses. And all other factors being equal, a car equipped with a manual transmission will have a higher top speed than one equipped with any other type of transmission.
More and more cars are being offered with various types of automatic transmissions as standard equipment, and many don’t even have a manual transmission option. Preuninger, who is also responsible for the GT3 RS, which is available only with a PDK gearbox, predicts that the manual transmission will always be around, though he believes it will become more of a niche item, catering to driving purists, and available mostly in sporty cars. Let’s hope he’s right.