Next-gen Porsche 911 GT3 will come with a manual gearbox; new 911 GT2 and Cayman GT4 a possibility

Fans of the manual gearbox, rejoice! According to Andreas Preuninger, head of Porsche’s GT programme, the next-generation Porsche 911 GT3 will be offered with a six-speed manual gearbox from the recently launched 911 R.

Unfortunately, the GT3 RS will remain a PDK only. However, naturally-aspirated engines will continue to feature on the cars “for the foreseeable future,” with the exception of the next GT2, Preuninger said in an interview with Autocar UK.

On the mention of the GT2, Preuninger stated that there was a possibility for such a model to be made based on the 991 generation 911. The last GT2 was based on the 997 generation 911, where a RS version was also made. Preuninger said, “the GT2 plays a different role with GTs. It has to be the ultimate beast, not a widow maker but a car you have to respect and is not too compliant.”

During the interview, the new 718 Cayman was also mentioned, where Preuninger said that there will be a new Cayman GT4, which will employ a six-cylinder engine instead of the base car’s four-pot mills.

Porsche is looking to offer more ‘purist’ models in the future should the 911 R become a success. The idea behind the limited-number model came from a manual development car made for the 911 GT3 that was used for comparison testing with a PDK-equipped GT3 prototype, the latter of which was eventually chosen for production.

“We had a GT3 manual test car left and we all loved it,” said Preuninger. “The manual still had many positive sides. So we took the spoiler off the test car, added some lightweight stuff, some stripes and a classic interior.

At this point, I took it to the chairman. He liked it, but we had no engineering capacity so only started work 13 months ago. That’s a short time, so I insisted on all the decision making and a long, long leash from the board,” he added.

GALLERY: Porsche 911 R