Porsche just handed manual-transmission fans their best headline in years: the 2027 911 Carrera S can be ordered with a six-speed manual again, a genuine reversal announced directly through Porsche’s own newsroom. It’s a real option, not a trim-level gimmick, priced at $167,100 for the coupe and $181,000 for the cabriolet before delivery fees, and it’s exclusive to North America. Stack that against the rest of the 2027 sports car field, though, and the celebration gets lonelier fast. Chevrolet builds zero manual Corvettes, full stop, according to the car’s own official specifications on chevrolet.com. Mercedes-AMG’s current GT is nine-speed automatic only, per its listing on Mercedes-Benz USA’s own site. Run an actual count of who still sells a clutch pedal in a sports car for 2027 and the list gets short enough to name in full.
Porsche’s Reversal Is Bigger Than One Trim
The Carrera S news is genuinely significant because Porsche didn’t stop at one model. For 2027, the automaker’s own press materials confirm manual availability across the Carrera T, the Carrera S with the new MT Package, the GT3, the GT3 with Touring Package, and the track-focused GT3 S/C, all detailed in Porsche’s newsroom release. That’s five distinct manual 911 configurations in a single lineup, which makes Porsche, by a wide margin, the manufacturer doing the most to keep three pedals alive in a modern sports car. Porsche’s own messaging around the move leaned on that exact idea, framing the return of the Carrera S manual as a direct response to customer demand rather than a nostalgia exercise, and noting deliveries were expected before the end of 2026.
Where the Count Simply Drops to Zero
Two of the most recognizable nameplates in the segment don’t participate in this conversation at all anymore. Chevrolet has never offered a manual in the C8-generation Corvette since the car’s 2020 debut, and the 2027 Z06’s official spec sheet lists an 8-speed dual-clutch as the only transmission, period. Mercedes-AMG tells the same story from the German side: the current AMG GT’s own page on mbusa.com lists only the AMG SPEEDSHIFT nine-speed automatic, with no clutch pedal anywhere on the order form. Neither company frames this as a loss. Both have built their performance case around dual-clutch and torque-converter automatics that shift faster than a human ever could, and by most lap-time metrics, they’re right. But it means two of the biggest names in the segment have fully exited the manual conversation, not scaled it back.
The Narrow Middle Ground
BMW sits in the awkward, more honest middle. The current M2 still ships with a 6-speed manual as its standard gearbox, with an 8-speed automatic listed as the optional upgrade, according to BMW USA’s own configurator page. That’s a real, standard-equipment manual on a proper M car, which puts BMW ahead of Mercedes-AMG and Chevrolet by simply refusing to delete the option. But BMW’s own growth in the lineup is happening on the automatic-only side: the newer M2 with M xDrive, which adds all-wheel drive to the same chassis, is automatic exclusively. The brand isn’t killing the manual outright. It’s just building the model’s future around the version that doesn’t have one.
A Shorter List, Even With Good News in It
Zoom out and the shrinkage isn’t only about who deleted a clutch pedal from an existing car. It’s also about which manual-equipped nameplates simply stopped existing. General Motors ended Camaro production after the 2024 model year, as GM itself announced in its own newsroom, and Stellantis wound down the manual-optional Dodge Challenger the same year, per its own Last Call announcement. Neither car was European, but both were manual-optional sports coupes that no longer count toward any 2027 tally at all, because they don’t exist anymore. Porsche’s Carrera S reversal is real, and it matters. It just isn’t enough on its own to undo years of other manufacturers quietly deciding the clutch pedal wasn’t worth the engineering effort anymore.
The 2027 manual-transmission sports car list isn’t dead, but it’s telling: the brands still building three pedals are doing it as a specific, marketed choice rather than a default, which is exactly the kind of thing that happens right before an option disappears from a spec sheet for good.