Porsche to sell more manuals

Porsche expects its world-first seven-speed manual transmission to spike renewed interest in non-automatic versions of its new 911 Coupe and Cabriolet in Australia.

Like Americans but not Europeans, Aussie new-car buyers lean heavily towards automatic transmissions, with slow sales of manual vehicles even leading to the discontinuation of some three-pedal sportscars.

Although it attracts a higher proportion of manual model sales than many other brands, the same applies at Porsche, whose once-dominant 911 manual now accounts for a small minority of its overall sportscar sales.

Last year automatic transmissions — in this case Porsche’s highly effective new PDK twin-clutch automated manual gearbox — were fitted to a big 80 per cent of all 911s sold here.

However, Porsche expects its new seven-speed manual, which has just been released as standard fitment in both the new 911 Coupe and Cabriolet, will comprise far more than 20 per cent of total 911 sales from this year.

Porsche Cars Australia spokesman Paul Ellis said the innovative new manual gearbox, which remains $5950 cheaper than the PDK auto in all new 911s, is likely to appeal to the tech-savvy early-adopters that traditionally make up the majority of 911 buyers.

“PDK was 80 per cent of the (previous-generation) 997 series (911), but we expect the new seven-speed manual to be far more popular than 20 per cent with the 991 series,” he said at this week’s local launch of the new 911 Cabriolet, which itself is expected to comprise up to half of all new 911 customers — up from 30 per cent previously.

Essentially a manual version of the seven-speed PDK auto with a single dry clutch, the first seven-speed manual transmission fitted to a production passenger car reduces engine speeds in top gear by some 19 per cent over the six-speed manual it replaces.

Like all new 911s, it comes as standard with a fuel-saving idle-stop system, which along with an all-new lighter (yet bigger and more rigid) body helps reduce combined fuel consumption by up to 15 per cent — to 9.2 litres per 100km in the 3.4-litre Carrera Cabriolet and 9.7L/100km in the 3.8-litre Carrera S Cabriolet.

Despite incorporating the same 3.444:1 final drive ratio as before and much taller sixth and seventh gear ratios — both of which are over-driven — both models are now quicker and faster than before, sprinting to 100km/h in five seconds and a 286km/h top speed (4.7 seconds and 301km/h for the S).

As in the slightly lighter coupe — which is two-tenths quicker and 0.2L/100km more efficient — top speed is achieved in sixth rather than the highway-only seventh gear, which can only be selected after first choosing either fifth or sixth gear.

However, in what could prove a decisive factor for many buyers, PDK versions of both cars are quicker, faster and more fuel-efficient.

The 911 Carrera Cabriolet PDK sprints to 100km/h two-tenths quicker in 4.8 seconds (and a further 0.2 seconds quicker in 4.6 seconds when using the optional Sport Chrono package’s tyre-squealing launch control system) while returning just 8.4L/100km — some 0.8L/100km less.

The 911 Carrera S Cabriolet, meantime, sprints to 100km/h in just 4.5 seconds — or a rapid 4.3 seconds with launch control — while consuming 8.9L/100km, making it up to 0.4 seconds quicker to 100km/h and 0.8L/100km less thirsty than the manual.

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