The past decade or so has been, shall we say, eventful for Porsche fans. If you’re not among the elite few jockeying for prime 911 allocations, you may find it difficult to get your hands on a proper enthusiast-spec Porsche. If you’re like us, you were heartened by Porsche’s seemingly last-second decision to sustain production of a manual variant of the Carrera S in the 992.2, but of course, there’s a catch. Well, more like 8,550 of them, really.
Previously, the manual was a no-cost option without any mandatory add-ons. This time around, the manual package adds $8,550 to the price of a Carrera S coupe, bringing it to $167,100 before any other options. Now, you get more than just the stick-shift for your $8,550 clams; the bundle also includes the titanium exhaust, rear-axle steering, and the nifty-if-impractical centerlock wheels. That’s a lot of value for your money, PCNA CEO Timo Resch argues.
“The Carrera S always has been the enthusiast kind of choice of the car for the people that think, ‘maybe I’ll forgo an all-wheel drive version, I’ll go for a real wheel driven version.’ And that is kind of what are the options that are most likely such a customer would actually pick,” Resch told a group of journalists during a Monterey Car Week Q&A. “And that’s where you end up with stuff like rear axle steering.”
“You have to look at the entire package of things that you get,” Resch said. “For example, the centerlock wheels, you don’t even get them on the Carrera S.”
And of course, Porsche is facing the economic realities of keeping the manual viable. As much as Porsche may have wanted to pursue a lower entry price for enthusiasts, at the end of the day, the premium approach won out. According to Resch, there could well be more where that came from.
“I think we have not seen the very end of this development,” Resch said. “I think there are a lot of interesting changes in the world of manual transmissions. And what we do with the Carrera S, with the manual transition package, I think is the most authentic one.”
And love it or hate it, at least it happened at all. Back when the 992.2 was first planned out, a manual wasn’t part of the brief. But after seeing customer reactions to manual gearbox availability online, Porsche decided it was worth keeping the manual on the menu.
“And I think that’s the really cool thing about Porsche as a company,” Resch said. “They really want to listen to the consumer and to the market. And so if we, the United States being the biggest market for Porsche, if we raise our voice, we’re like, ‘We really want to have this.’ They are open to listen and they work with us to come up with a solution for that.”
Granted, it doesn’t always come together immediately.
“Yes, that sometimes takes a bit of time because over here, all of that has to come together as a package and has to be tested, has to be approved,” Resch said. “And that takes a little bit more than one year. But at the beginning phase of the 992 generation, it was not planned.”
Count your lucky stars, I suppose.
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