The Toyota-Powered Mid-Engine Manual That Now Undercuts Every Stick-Shift Porsche
The manual transmission sports car is a dying breed. That’s illustrated more and more with every new sports car that shows up. Barely any of them now have a manual transmission option. Or, if they do, it’s reserved for special enthusiast-focused variants. That’s resulted in a car market oddity showing up. Not only has it changed the landscape in what is now becoming a smaller and smaller niche among new cars, but it’s also helped keep the reputation of an enthusiast brand going.
Porsche Has Always Been A Go-To Brand For People Wanting A Great, Analogue-Feeling Driver’s Car
If there’s any brand that’s kept its desire to create true driving machines going despite it all, it’s Porsche. Porsche still offers raw, old-school, manual transmission Sports Cars in 2026, when so many other automakers are moving away from them. These rawer and more enthusiast-centric models are also often hailed as some of the best you can get anywhere. Older Porsche models and variants like this also tend to become incredibly desirable and valuable on the used market.
The Manual Transmission Versions Of The 718 Cayman & Boxster Are Going Out Of Production
While manual transmission versions of the Porsche 911 are still very much in production, the 718 Boxster and Cayman have become dual-clutch only. That’s become a big problem for anyone who wants a brand-new sports car with a manual transmission. In the past, the 718 had been a great option for this – it had an MSRP of under $65,000 if you went for the cheapest variants. Now, though, the cheapest manual transmission Porsche will set you back well over $100,000. That’s left a huge hole in the sports car market. Or, it would have, if another manufacturer hadn’t been able to claim it for themselves.
The Lotus Emira V6 SE Is A Pure Driver’s Car That Undercuts Every Manual Transmission Porsche On Sale
|
Engine |
Transmission |
Drivetrain |
Power |
Torque |
|
3.5-liter supercharged V6 |
6-speed manual, 6-speed automatic |
Rear-wheel drive |
400 hp |
310 lb-ft |
With the disappearance of the manual transmission versions of the Porsche 718, the Lotus Emira V6 SE has now emerged as the option for anyone who wants a mid-engined sports car designed for pure drivers that won’t break the bank too much. This is one of two powertrain options for the Emira, and the only one that has a manual transmission option. The 4-cylinder variant (powered by a 2-liter turbocharged unit sourced from AMG) is only available with an 8-speed dual-clutch unit (also sourced from AMG).
A brand-new Emira V6 SE starts at around $112,900. That’s quite a bit more than what a manual 718 Cayman could have cost you before it was discontinued. But, that’s still significantly less than the manual transmission options available on the Porsche 911. The 911 Carrera T starts at $140,795, the 911 Carrera S MT starts at $177,500 for the coupe and $191,800 for the cabriolet, and the 911 GT3 starts at $238,150.
A Lotus Emira V6 SE can’t match a regular Porsche 911 at its price level on outright performance. 0-60 mph takes 4.3 seconds in a manual Emira V6 SE, as opposed to 2.7 seconds in a PDK-equipped Porsche 911 Carrera S. But, proper driving enthusiasts are more than happy to take that trade-off in outright speed. The Emira’s slower performance feels rawer and more involving. That’s especially true when you factor in that it’s lighter than a manual Porsche 911 Carrera, at 3,279 pounds as opposed to the Porsche’s 3,326 pounds.
Another thing that the Emira V6 SE has over a Porsche 911 is that its high performance comes from a more down-to-earth source that’s easier to maintain. The powertrain isn’t exotic at all. It’s based on an engine sourced from Toyota and a transmission sourced from Aisin. Both those manufacturers are known for making strong, reliable components, and they’re cheap and easy to replace if things go wrong. That’s something that’s not guaranteed with Porsche, given its high servicing costs and not always guaranteed reliability.
The Manual Transmission Isn’t Dead – It’s Just Been Paywalled
2027 Porsche 911 GT3 S/C Street Style interior details
Many people will try to tell you that the manual transmission is dead. That’s certainly understandable. Fewer and fewer cars offer them these days. But, if what we’ve seen from brands like Porsche and Lotus is anything to go by, it’s far from dead yet. It’s just been placed behind a paywall that only the wealthiest of enthusiasts can really afford to break through. It’s going to become more common now for people who want these awesome manual transmission sports cars to have to wait for them to become widely available on the used market and for the depreciation to fully hit before grabbing one for themselves. That’s if the used values actually go down much at all, as manual transmission sports cars are only going to become more desirable.
Because of this, more niche manufacturers are able to fill in the space that Porsche once occupied. They can offer pure manual driving machines that have serious performance for much less money than a manual Porsche 911. The Lotus Emira V6 SE is one of the most obvious choices, but there is more out there. If you live in Europe, you can buy the monstrous Caterham 620R. Its 2.79 second 0-60 mph time is almost exactly as fast as the PDK-equipped Porsche 911 Carrera S, and it does that with a 310 hp supercharged 2-liter Ford Duratec engine and a 5-speed manual transmission.
Porsche Is Going In A Different Direction For The Next-Generation 718
Porsche making the 718 PDK-only is just the start of taking this car away from being a raw, driver’s choice. Porsche has actually been testing a fully-electric 718 prototype, with the aim of making it a variant of the next generation of the model. It’s also been considering hybrid powertrains for more powerful variants. So, it may not be too long before even the traditional pure ICE format is gone from the 718, and pure driving enthusiasts will have to rule it out entirely.
The Next Evolution Of The Emira Won’t Have A Manual Transmission Option At All
With what Porsche is potentially doing to the 718 in mind, you might at least feel solace that the Emira will stay pure. Unfortunately, it won’t either. That’s according to Lotus’s revised plans, following the scrapping of its idea to build a fully electric sports car in collaboration with Alpine. After 2030, the Emira will be getting a brand-new powertrain. This is being developed by Horse Powertrains, and will be a hybrid setup that uses a brand-new V6 (called the Horse W30) as the ICE component. This will replace both the Toyota V6 and the AMG inline-4. It’ll also only be available with an automatic transmission. It really does seem like if you want a pure manual mid-engined sports car, you’re going to have to move quickly and grab an Emira before the powertrain change happens.
Sources: Caterham, Lotus, Porsche
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