Photo Credit: Porsche

If you want to see what a blue-collar Corvette will be capable of in 5-10 years, just look at what the Europeans are charging $500,000+ for today. This quazi-rule of thumb has been particularly true over the last two decades; just six years after Ferrari’s follow-up to the F40 and F50 was so good they christened it with the name of the company’s founder, a Corvette wearing the exact same set of ceramic brakes was accelerating, gripping, and, yes, stopping, with almost identical ferocity – for one sixth the price.

As progress in performance cars has marched on at a breakneck pace, we now live in a world where there’s a $210,000 Corvette that hews so closely to the hallowed million-dollar Porsche 918 Spyder (plus an extra 363 horsepower), that the pair were the subject of an outstanding Road&Track piece last week (subscription, unfortunately, required).

Photo Credit: Gordon Murray Special Vehicles

Based on what we just witnessed coming out of the automotive festival for the 1% known as Monterey Car Week, simply piling on more speed might no longer cut it when the C9 Corvette arrives in Chevrolet showrooms. You see, through pure electrification, production cars recently got faster than many previously imagined possible… and failed to sell. While driving around ungodly fast but aloof EVs with nothing to listen to except their own thoughts and insecurities, the wealthy quickly realized that maybe the ability to go fast isn’t what had drawn them to supercars all these years. Perhaps the allure was something more visceral, more involved, and intangible.

Mirroring the broader cultural trends driving the boom in classic physical media: digital fatigue, algorithm overdose, subscription exhaustion, and a desire to just do something real, high-end car makers are dealing with a flood of demand for analog sporting machines, and, as of Monterey 2026, they’re finally answering the bell. With values of his most famous creation up to almost $30-million, Gordon Murray’s newish eponymous small-batch maker unveiled the manual-only S1, which is like a carbon copy of the F1, only better, because its modern V12 spins to a stratospheric 12,100 RPM. While the F1’s designer was unveiling his own car, its makers at McLaren had something up their own sleeves.

Photo Credit: McLaren

It’s called the McL 6GT, and as Aaron Robinson pointed out, it represents something completely new for the usually forward-looking British go-fast firm; a nostalgia play. In a departure from the company’s usual present-day design language, the 6GT gets its looks from the company’s first road-going vehicle from the 1960s, a passion project of founder Bruce McLaren. The new one will likely feature the ubiquitous 4.0L twin-turbo V8 and Woking’s first manual transmission since the F1 went out of production in the late ‘90s.

While both of those Car Week headliners are seven-figure limited-run examples, it’s the Corvette’s mortal enemy that should really have GM’s attention. When Porsche launched the current-generation 911, it put the manual transmission on the back burner. Of the 24+ variants that the 992.2 has spawned, a third pedal has only ever been offered in the ($148,000) “T” version of the base, 388 horsepower Carrera and the 502-horse GT3 ($235,800 if you can get one at MSRP) enthusiast special, or as Car and Driver so elegantly put it, manual intenders were limited to either “Ribeye or a Ham Sandwich.”

Photo Credit: Porsche

Well, Porsche has now expanded its stick-shift menu to include a cheeseburger in the form of the Carrera S with a new MT package. On top of the regular rear-wheel-drive Carrera S more potent 473 HP twin-snail 3.0L flat-six, MT cars will have a lowered sport suspension, standard centerlock wheels, four-wheel steering, and the Sport Chrono package, and some questionable stickers and badges included along with the pièce de résistance: a six-speed manual shifter finished in genuine walnut.

Much like what’s been happening in Corvette circles since the clutch pedal was sidelined in 2020, the MT came about because of intense demand in the North American market – which will be the exclusive home of the new shift-your-own Carrera S, even domestic German customers need not apply. The Carrera S starts at $156,200 and opting to throw the PDK automatic out in favor of an old school experience will cost an additional $13,250, for a total of $169,450. You might be thinking “you can get a whole lot of Corvette for that kind of coin,” and you’d be right, but hopefully General Motors is taking note that a starving customer base is willing to pay more than 8% over MSRP for what used to be that standard transmission. Sounds like a win for the fanbase, and an even bigger one for management. These marketplace developments and the man behind the manual-transmission Cadillac that is widely considered the best car GM makes being at the helm has us feeling quite bullish on the prospect of a stick-shifted C9. We just hope we don’t have to wait a decade to see it come to fruition.

Related:
[VIDEO] Rezvani Is Bringing this $25,000 Gated Manual to the C8 Corvette Platform
[VIDEO] Ferrari’s New By-Wire Manual Transmission Shows GM the Path Forward
[VIDEO] TREMEC’s Aftermarket Chief is Asked if a Manual C8 Corvette is Happening

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