No manual 911 Carreras for Australia

Two days ago Porsche announced that a manual-gearbox could now be ordered for all 911 Carrera S and 4S models in “European and related markets”. The news followed confirmation that the US would also be getting manual versions due to a Stateside spike in demand for three-pedal cars.

This pleased us greatly. Even though Porsche’s seven-speed manual has never been our favourite (it was first developed in 2012 but the GT division’s six-speeder has always been much sweeter), there’s just something right about a three-pedal 911.

What we didn’t know, until now, was when the manual gearbox would arrive Down Under. The news isn’t good, we’re afraid. Despite our hope that Australia would fall into the “and related markets” part of Porsche’s product planning, we’ve since been told that no manual Carreras will be coming our way.

“Porsche will not offer a manual transmission on 911 Carrera S models in Australia,” said Porsche Cars Australia head of public relations, Chris Jordan. “Traditionally, only a small number of owners select a manual transmission in these models.”

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Wheels understands that the take-up of manual Carrera models was in the single digits percentage-wise, with the majority of owners opting for Porsche’s superb eight-speed dual-clutch.

Normally this would be cause for concern but in this instance, we can understand why. Porsche’s dual-clutch is arguably the best performance automatic on sale. And despite being around 35kg heavier, PDK-equipped cars are also more efficient and noticeably quicker. Where a manual Carrera S takes 4.2 seconds to hit 100km/h, the dual-clutch is half a second quicker.

But fans of the manual shouldn’t fret just yet. There’s a silver lining here.

“Porsche will continue to offer the manual transmission in Australia on several high-performance 911 models, where the manual option continues to prove popular,” added Jordan.

Porsche is yet to confirm exactly what those manual models will be, though we’d be sticking our money on the GTS and GT3. Plus, we shouldn’t forget the GT3 Touring is manual only.