Customers Asked, Porsche Listened: Why the Carrera S Regained a Manual for 2027
tags:- The 2027 Porsche 911 Carrera S's new manual transmission wasn't part of the company's original plans for the current lineup, Porsche North America CEO Timo Resch told Car and Driver.
- Resch says his team had to convince their German counterparts that there was enough demand to justify the North American-only option.
- The United States actually has a higher take for stick-shift Porsches than most other markets around the world, Resch told C/D.
Porsche is famously pretty damn good at splitting hairs with the 911 lineup. The company is famous—or infamous, depending on who you ask—for making minor tweaks and spinning them off as different variants. That's exactly where the Carrera S comes in, and as of last week, that model can once again be ordered with a manual transmission.
The 473-hp Carrera S is quicker than the 388-hp Carrera and the Carrera T trims, while still being considerably more approachable than the true performance models in the lineup. Speaking with media at The Quail during Monterey Car Week, Porsche North America CEO Timo Resch explained to Car and Driver why this was the right time to bring back the manual transmission for the Carrera S.
"It's a combination of multiple factors," Resch said. "On one side, it's what we see online, what people write about us, and the kind of comments that we receive. But it's also our direct interaction with customers at events. The third main pillar is also our dealers, because obviously our customers have a close relationship with their Porsche centers."
The automaker is constantly collecting that feedback, as well as evaluating its own history, which included a manual version of the Carrera S in the previous generation. Resch said it took gathering all of that evidence from existing customers and dealers to convince Porsche Germany to greenlight the project, which is a North American exclusive.
The United States actually has an outsized percentage of manual 911 buyers, when compared with global markets, Resch told us. "We told [Porsche Germany] that this is something the customers really want, and the Porsche brand has always been about delivering on what customers want. That's the reason we were able to convince them to do this," he said. The executive also told us that in the U.S., roughly 80 percent of customers order their GT3 Touring with a third pedal. That percentage falls to around 50 percent for the regular GT3, though the CEO confirmed that number is still high when compared with the rest of the world.
Resch also explained that there was a bit of an awkward feeling within the company as more trims switched over to the PDK transmission. On one hand, the PDK offers better performance on the track, along with being a more convenient option for drivers. On the other hand, the manual—at least for many enthusiasts—provides a more engaging experience. For Resch, though, “It's about providing choice to our customers."
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Jack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.