Porsche 911 Carrera T

Against the tide of paddleshift dominance, Porsche's latest Carrera T proudly waves the manual gearbox flag as part of a more engaging and rewarding 911 experience

- YOUSUF ASHRAF

RIGHT NOW THE CARRERA T IS THE ONLY mainstream 911 you can buy with a manual gearbox, and Porsche clearly wants everyone to know. Before you've even climbed inside you'll notice the Alibaba-special H-pattern decals on the quarter windows, and once you've slid behind the small-diameter, thin-rimmed steering wheel you'll spot a laminated walnut gearknob sitting proudly between the seats, above an ‘MT’ badge on the centre console. There's another H-pattern sticker on the dash in case, for some reason, you needed further confirmation that this is in fact a three-pedal 911.

None of this is as cringeworthy as the S/T’s ‘Icons of Cool’ exterior puddle lights, but it's still a bit try-hard. Ignore the distractions, though, because beneath the tinsel the Carrera T is fundamentally a brilliant, involving sports car - potentially the Goldilocks 911 - and the fact that it's a manual is worthy of celebration.

The Lotus Emira... and that’s it. That’s the list of current 911 rivals available with a stick, with the likes of the BMW M4, AMG GT and Aston Martin Vantage being paddles-only. The selection is shrinking fast, because most sports car manufacturers are finding it harder to justify the extra development time and costs associated with producing amanual option for the narrow niche of customers who want one new (forums are full of people wanting to buy one used, of course). That even extends to more specialised machinery like the new Morgan Supersport, although there are a few survivors further down the food chain, such as the BMW M2, Ford Mustang and Porsche's own 718, all of which are available with three pedals.