Acura NSX News
01-27-15, 01:07 PM
#661
Super Moderator
01-27-15, 06:48 PM
#663
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
no chance.
it's not a hybrid.
good times for sure (i had 5 spd legend coupe and 6 spd gs sedan!), but it just means you're getting older.
it's not a hybrid.
good times for sure (i had 5 spd legend coupe and 6 spd gs sedan!), but it just means you're getting older.
01-27-15, 07:29 PM
#664
Lexus Fanatic
Why? Just to satisfy auto mag reviewers and other people who are not going to buy the car. The vast majority of people who actually buy expensive exotic cars don't want or buy manual transmission cars anymore. The take rate for the last manual Ferrari's was less then 5% which is why Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Bugatti, etc don't offer them anymore and why Porsche did away with them for the turbo/GT3 so it makes no sense to spend all that money to engineer a manual transmission which will be slower and less fuel efficient then a modern DCT not to mention clutch jobs on exotics are normally nightmares and wallet drainers.
01-27-15, 09:24 PM
#666
Super Moderator
I was in a Porsche dealership showroom couple days ago and except for the 911 turbo S which is PDK only , and the Panameras and SUVs, the rest of the cars: boxters, Caymans, and 911 Carrera and Carrera 4S coupes and convertibles in the showroom are all manual cars, so the dealer still do order them, so there must still be demand here ......
01-28-15, 12:13 PM
#667
I was in a Porsche dealership showroom couple days ago and except for the 911 turbo S which is PDK only , and the Panameras and SUVs, the rest of the cars: boxters, Caymans, and 911 Carrera and Carrera 4S coupes and convertibles in the showroom are all manual cars, so the dealer still do order them, so there must still be demand here ......
01-28-15, 12:42 PM
#668
Super Moderator
LoL BMW dealers told me TEN years ago that 3 series (supposedly a driver's car) manual cars have to be special ordered and you have to be lucky to get to test drive one because none will be available unless a used one got traded in . So it's nothing new for North America, but I hope manuals will still be available for cars like cayman , boxters, corvettes and miata for years to come still ...
Last edited by Gojirra99; 01-28-15 at 01:02 PM.
01-28-15, 01:57 PM
#669
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
this article from australia says 80% of porsches are now bought with pdk (auto).
http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/p...214-2efl8.html
but that's still 20% stick which is nothing to dismiss.
then there's this article where a reporter whines about lack of stick on new gt3 and engineer tells him to shut up and drive.
http://www.wired.com/2013/05/porsche...-transmission/
besides, it's all pretty irrelevant as in 20 years hardly anyone (except the uber rich) will be driving themselves at all, and they won't really be driving as the car will still be doing almost all the work.
http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/p...214-2efl8.html
but that's still 20% stick which is nothing to dismiss.
then there's this article where a reporter whines about lack of stick on new gt3 and engineer tells him to shut up and drive.
“It used to be about engineering, but today German car companies are all about sales, sales, sales,” says Road & Track west coast editor Jason Cammisa. “It stinks, but you can’t blame Porsche: It’s a business, and there are more rich people who want prestige and easy speed than there are true enthusiasts who care about the driving experience.”
The massive sales of the Porsche Cayenne SUV and Panamera sedan bear that out.
Cammisa, who snagged an exclusive drive in the all-new GT3, quotes Andreas Preuninger, the engineer behind Porsche’s GT cars, saying, “I don’t get this Stone Age idea about what a 911 should be.” He’s speaking about the Porschophiles screaming bloody murder over the lack of a manual option in what is (used to be?) the brand’s most hardcore track weapon.
When Cammisa tacitly admitted to Preunigner that he’s among the whiners, the Porsche engineer responded, “Just shut up and drive the thing.” Cammisa did so and was more than impressed with Porsche’s latest speed demon, but still, something was missing.
“Putting an automatic in a GT3 is a sin in my book,” Cammisa told Wired. “Sure, it’s faster to 60 mph and it’ll be easier to turn consecutive fast laps on a race track, but in the process it walks away from what made all previous GT3s so brilliant: how much work/fun/excitement they were to drive on the street.”
That’s a sentiment echoed by driving enthusiasts the world over, but it’s not going to stem the rise of the automatic gearbox in high performance machines.
At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, where the GT3 debuted, Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren all showed off new breeds of hypercars set to go on sale this year. And all of them had some flavor of automated gearbox. But a car like the GT3 is supposed to be the last bastion of the purest driving experience. And now it’s gone, and that pains Cammisa, us and thousands of other drivers.
“If the manual ever does die, the GT3 should have been the last 911 to give it up, not the first,” says Cammisa. “But without a clutch pedal, it’ll be an easier sell the GT3 to really rich old guys who’ll use it to sit in traffic.”
The massive sales of the Porsche Cayenne SUV and Panamera sedan bear that out.
Cammisa, who snagged an exclusive drive in the all-new GT3, quotes Andreas Preuninger, the engineer behind Porsche’s GT cars, saying, “I don’t get this Stone Age idea about what a 911 should be.” He’s speaking about the Porschophiles screaming bloody murder over the lack of a manual option in what is (used to be?) the brand’s most hardcore track weapon.
When Cammisa tacitly admitted to Preunigner that he’s among the whiners, the Porsche engineer responded, “Just shut up and drive the thing.” Cammisa did so and was more than impressed with Porsche’s latest speed demon, but still, something was missing.
“Putting an automatic in a GT3 is a sin in my book,” Cammisa told Wired. “Sure, it’s faster to 60 mph and it’ll be easier to turn consecutive fast laps on a race track, but in the process it walks away from what made all previous GT3s so brilliant: how much work/fun/excitement they were to drive on the street.”
That’s a sentiment echoed by driving enthusiasts the world over, but it’s not going to stem the rise of the automatic gearbox in high performance machines.
At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, where the GT3 debuted, Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren all showed off new breeds of hypercars set to go on sale this year. And all of them had some flavor of automated gearbox. But a car like the GT3 is supposed to be the last bastion of the purest driving experience. And now it’s gone, and that pains Cammisa, us and thousands of other drivers.
“If the manual ever does die, the GT3 should have been the last 911 to give it up, not the first,” says Cammisa. “But without a clutch pedal, it’ll be an easier sell the GT3 to really rich old guys who’ll use it to sit in traffic.”
besides, it's all pretty irrelevant as in 20 years hardly anyone (except the uber rich) will be driving themselves at all, and they won't really be driving as the car will still be doing almost all the work.
01-28-15, 03:32 PM
#671
I was in a Porsche dealership showroom couple days ago and except for the 911 turbo S which is PDK only , and the Panameras and SUVs, the rest of the cars: boxters, Caymans, and 911 Carrera and Carrera 4S coupes and convertibles in the showroom are all manual cars, so the dealer still do order them, so there must still be demand here ......
01-28-15, 03:54 PM
#672
Super Moderator
BTW, we are getting off topic, let's go back to the new NSX
01-28-15, 05:46 PM
#674
As I said with BMW even 10+years ago, they won't even order any for display if nobody buys them. I think Porsche still sell a good % of the lower hp 2-door models with manual transmission, where buyers know they are not the fastest but are going for driving enjoyment .
BTW, we are getting off topic, let's go back to the new NSX
BTW, we are getting off topic, let's go back to the new NSX
01-28-15, 06:00 PM
#675
sure... a lot of it is because of the price and poor performance with small engines/ cheap cars - speed, refinement and mpg. Of course, we do learn to drive on the stick, so thats removing one of the big barriers.
