With the new Porsche 911 GT3 out of the bag and the online configurator alive and kicking, Porsche is gearing up for customer orders. It will take some time before we know how many new GT3s Porsche managed to push or whether they were configured with a manual or the PDK dual-clutch gearbox.

However, if we look back at how many customers ordered their previous-gen 911 GT3 with a manual, it’s expected that the manual option on the 992 GTE will get the same attention.

Every year we learn about a manual transmission being ditched from X or Y car only to be replaced with an automatic. “The manual transmission is dead” we hear every year from a lot of people. Well, that’s not entirely true. Just like an endangered species, the manual gets to live on in a select few places. Porsches, 911s in particular, are some of those places. And apparently, this survival is also a bet generator.

Porsche’s head of motorsport, Frank-Steffen Walliser, had a chat with Autocar and revealed that it’s not just car journos that love manuals. Some Porsche customers have a knack for these as well. Porsche brought back the manual option for the previous-gen 911 GT3 in 2017 and surprisingly, 30% of all buyers around the world wanted one.

Such wave of popularity surprised Porsche’s head honchos, who, according to Mr. Walliser,

Looking to the future, Porsche expects that the number of 911 GT3s configured with a manual will grow to 40% for the new model, as reported by Carscoops.

And get this: Bloomberg cites Porsche spokesperson, Luke Vandezande, saying that “in the U.S. is a whopping 70%.”

So, yeah, while some carmakers are killing manuals left, right, and center throughout their lineups, Porsche has actually come up with a recipe that offers a sanctuary of sorts for the stick shift. Let’s hope this will last and other sports car manufacturers join the trend.

2022 Porsche 911 GT3 specifications