[ds968]

This month's EVO magazine had an article titled " R.I.P. the manual gearshift " . No cars will ever be produced with a manual shift ever again. And although I get all of the advantages and ease of the paddle shift, I am going to echo a statement made by former NRA president Charlton Heston, but with a slight twist to it :



" I'll give you my MANUAL SHIFT when you pry it from my cold, dead hands " <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/angry.png" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[flash]

this has been coming for a long time. it's sad really. part of the enjoyment of driving a sporty car is the direct connection you have with the shifter.



it sounds like i won't be buying any new sportscars. good thing i built one i like.



but, it will leave my right hand free to send text messages, eat my burger, drink my soda........................

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[WJH]

Those that can shift, those that can't paddle.

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[Rap]

That's the great thing about choice! Have your cake and eat it too by having one of each. There are good points to each yet one must wonder about the fact that this is an engineering design by more than one company and more than one level of racing is using it.

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[flash]

there's no question that the new automatics are better, faster, and more accurate than manual transmissions.



i still hate them in a car i want to play with.



that being said, i rather like the one in the SL550.

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[craigawoodman]

I think that the topic is a bit misleading, as a DSG is technically a manual gearbox, simply with automated clutches. So whilst there may not be manual clutch changing, is it really the death of a gearbox that is connected to the engine via a friction clutch, no.



Due to Government intervention and things like CAFE, manufacturers have no choice but to go down this road. Same issue that is driving manufacturers to develop 10 speed gearboxes. Why, when you are tootling along in Eco mode, rather than Road Runner mode, it can disconnect the clutch and free wheel, turn the engine off, deactivate cylinders, etc. it is all to save a decimal point in terms of fuel economy. Plus, most people buy automatics (or DSG's).



You may be able to retrofit a manual, but given most of our driving is in the city and our roads are choked to the point of gridlock, where can you really exploit a manual, and even then, over here if you go a minute amount over the speed limit the Tax Office (sorry, the Police) will fine you (and out speed limits are 60mph).



I love manual cars, and manual motorbikes, but you can even now get auto motorbikes. But the only manual car we have is the 968. The others are an auto and a DSG (excluding the two motorbikes).



For cars like the GT3, I think it is a pity.



Even large trucks now can get automatic clutch manuals - where will it end?



Perhaps, there will be a very small manual option. To me, it is like one of the conversations about the 911 when Porsche was trying to kill it off. It was a difficult car to drive well, but if it was, it was very rewarding. Perhaps in the future, there will be something avant guard and defining about being able to pull up in a manual car, it may make more of a statement about the driver, than the car itself. Perhaps, because it will be unusual, it will be cool.



We can only hope.



Of more concern is the push for autonomous cars, where the driver no longer exists.

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[Lear35A]

There's a lot of grumbling that the new GT3 is only available with the PDK (yeah let's just call it an automatic). Porsche's chief engineer told its customers to pound sand. Porsche knows best.

However the market can (and I hope will) speak. If sales go down and surveys and dealer feedback say a manual is needed, one will appear.

I personally want my sports cars to have a stick shift.

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[Tom030]

"but, it will leave my right hand free to send text messages, eat my burger, drink my soda"



<img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/glare.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Hang up & drive!

""""

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[Cloud9...68]

I like manuals, too, but they really are dying, for all the reasons Craig states, and the shear fact that the vast majority of driver simply don't want to deal with doing their own shifting. And it isn't just the new automatics that are faster around a track - I remember reading someone on this site who's a driving instructor saying that he can consistently achieve better lap times with a 968 tip than with a manual, despite the stick's huge acceleration advantage.

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[bombfactory]

I recently rented a brand new auto-trans Chevy Cruz for a weekend Vegas trip. While I was actually impressed with its handling feel and build quality, when I was in heavy traffic and I needed to go RIGHT NOW, I'd press the pedal to the floor and absolutely NOTHING would happen for three or four seconds! (ok, the AC was on, but still) If this is the state of 'regular' automatic transmissions these days, automakers have a long way to go.



Manual only for me on every car I've owned (except for my '68 Dodge Charger).

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[tamathumper]

The 2013 Boxster I just rented had a button labeled simply "A" with a circular arrow around it. The car shut off every time I stopped, and only restarted (albeit very quickly) when I let off the brake. It was tremendously annoying because my radar detector shut off every time the car did, and came back on with a series of beeps as it rebooted. So a quick press of the "A" button and the darned thing would at least idle in stop-and-go like a normal car!

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[Rap]

I was at first somewhat uncomfortable with that feature but quickly grew used to it. I wasn't using a reader detector and that on and off again would also annoy the living bejesits out of me

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[craigawoodman]

Once again, the A with a circle around it is the Automatic Stop/Start feature in the car. When you pull up, if you have your foot more than halfway down on the brake pedal, the engine will shut down. Once you lift your foot past halfway on the brake pedal, the engine re-starts (and the car automatically holds the brakes on for you).



Why does this feature exist you ask - simply to save fuel and emissions. My Audi Q7 has it, great for fuel economy, but strange to have the engine starting and stopping. You can turn it off, but you have to do it every time you get into the vehicle.



Blame government and Green groups for pushing CAFE targets. Soon you will not be able to buy a sports car. Why, because most of these groups don't want you to have a car, they want everyone on public transport. You cannot actually enjoy driving - it is polluting, but then again, so is farting.



When cars drive themselves and travelling is just an activity rather than an undertaking requiring skills and effort, the car will simply become another appliance. I am sure like watches and push bikes, that there will be exotic appliances, but it will all be about looks, rather than what it does. After all, all watches tell the time, but some people spend $100,000's of dollars on watches and push bikes.

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[94SilverCab]

Craig, I think you are right, and it makes me sad...Jay

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[Inkedupfatboy]

I guess we will all have our past (to quote a RUSH song) -



"I strip away the old debris

That hides a shining car.

A brilliant red Barchetta

From a better, vanished time.

I fire up the willing engine,

Responding with a roar.

Tires spitting gravel,

I commit my weekly crime...



I love driving a stick..but so few people can do it. I have the 968 and the Volvo flatnose, so I am good for a while. Next year adds a Rubicon to the fleet (it was going to be this year, but well the 968 got in the way of that- lol, and that will be a stick. Want to have my last few years of flings with the manuals before my knees give totally out.



I don't care for the paddle shifters, it is not the same. I have driven auto/manuals with the paddle shifts and never was able to get the same rythym as with the true manual.

I took the harley out last night for the first time in 8 months and it is still there, the timing, the movements, you just don't forget the flow of the gearbox. It connects you to the vehicle in ways other's can't understand.



I hope it will be a cool thing to pull up in one once everything is auto - might be the same as when I show up with a 40 year old Nikon that shoots film (Gasp!) around my next.



Later

Ed

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[Lear35A]

I am not so ready to write off manuals. My observation in Europe is that the majority of cars have manuals in spite of the über green culture there. Most people buy little cars due to space (lack of), taxes on engine displacement, and crushing taxes on fuel. So people there, young/old/male/female, can drive sticks. Historically at least manual transmissions are less costly to produce and weight less, both important considerations for smaller cars. So with this situation, why would manufacturers stop developing, manufacturing and selling manual transmission cars?

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[986boxster1998]

The new 7 speed manual gear boxes that Porsche is making is encouraging. I'll buy a manual any day over an automatic. Years ago I even went to the extent of turning down the use of my folks 968 tiptronic while in college in favor of purchasing a 5 Speed Manual 944 S2 Cabriolet; I just couldn't connect with their tiptronic car the way I could with the manual.

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[Chris Vais]

I think that if we want to be able to have a high performance gasoline car we are going to have embrace the idea of driving with something akin to a PDK transmission. I really enjoy driving a manual transmission, but there are times in heavy traffic where driving a 6-speed is a major aggravation and I can't imagine that driving one of the new 7 speeds is any better in that regard. As has already been stated in this post when auto manufacturers a looking to save 10ths of a mile per gallon so they meet fuel economy standards, adding additional speeds to the tranny helps.



As Lear observes Europeans tend to drive small displacement light weight cars with manual transmissions. The little Alfa my brother drove in Florence, when he lived there, had a 5-speed and was powered by a 4 cylinder Turbo diesel. Nice car, but you'd never get the thing imported into this country as it would never meet our safety standards. We could make cars lighter, for the past several years the 911s have graduated from pure sports cars to bloated luxury liners that have to make a huge amount of horsepower to move all of that mass. All of this translates into higher fuel consumption when it should be going the other way. I had hoped that Porsche would produce a light weight Boxster/Caymen with a turbo flat four, manual or pdk transmission, no power seats, no power windows, no power top, no power sunroof, aluminum or composite door skins, trunk lid, bonnet lid, light weight glass windows. A truly modern 550. Who among us would not jump at the chance to buy such a car?



On the subject of PDKs. I've had the opportunity to drive a Caymen S with a PDK around Infineon Raceway, where I have also driven my 968. I really liked the PDK, especially using it in the manual shift mod. I've been driving manual shift cars almost exclusively since 1968 and I consider myself an expert at it. I went 130K miles on my last 968 clutch if that is any indication. I found that using the PDK even in manual shift mode permitted me to be more focused on hitting my apex in the curves and really focus on trail braking deeper into the curves. An enjoyable experience.



Cars driving themselves, God help us. It did not go un-noticed by me that the Navy catapult launched a drone off of an aircraft carrier. I did notice that they didn't attempt to land it on the carrier but flew it to the beach and landed. It's enough to make you cry!! There just isn't anything that will replace the thrill of a night time carrier landing, or a cat shot for that matter.

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[Cloud9...68]

Yes, to Lear and Chris's points, the Eurpoeans do several things differently from us, diesels and manual transmission to name just two. Maybe it's a cultural thing, coupled with the fact that diesel is so much more expensive here than gas, but I think it will be difficult to get Americans to move away from larger, relatively powerful, gasoline-powered, automatic transmission-equipped cars. This will force the automakers to rapidly innovate and adopt things like start-stops systems (as annoying as they can be), cylinder de-activation, 8+ speed automatics, direct injection, small-displacement turbos, and a host of things those of us not inside the industry can't even imagine, to meet the gas mileage standards, without resorting to the tiny, manual-equipped cars most Americans just won't buy.

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[Rap]

Ed get your knees replaced. I got my one done and felt confident enough to purchase my first 968. The new knee made it possible. Chris your absolutely right about being able to concentrate more of braking and turning!

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