[VIDEO] Tony Roma Says No Tremec Manual Transmission is Coming to the Corvette: ‘It’s Not Real’

1. 1/4 of all C7s produced were built with the manual. That’s essentially a world record for any model in the late 2010s. This Holder clown Is a lying shill.

2. I can’t believe Tremec put something on display at SEMA just to fuck with Corvette guys. I think they in fact built the (prototype) transmission, then realized the demand wasn’t going to justify the cost to set up production and scrapped the project. We’ll probably never know the real story.

3. Unfortunately they will not need the M6 to sell cars to us purists. With all the hype, there are plenty of people that will line up with their $5000 for an allocation lottery just to pay ADM and lose it all to depreciation in 3 years.

4. @SOFA,

   At the end of the C7 lifecycle, yes, the take rate was dipping into the teens. Couple that with the DCT siphoning even more would-be manual buyers off–and you have a recipe for < 10% take rate.

   Rowing machine purists are quite rabid and don't like to be confronted with hard truth. And the truth is, the Corvette is no longer the car for you–if you prefer a rowing machine. Personal preferences are fine. Just don't complain that GM won't make the Corvette to suit your own idiom.

   Going backwards on performance, economy, efficiency, smoothness, speed, etc–just to cater to nostalgic purists–is a bad business decision. Corvette is about performance and improving capability–not nostalgia. Always has been. Truth pills are hard to swallow.

5. @IPD
   Take rates of everything, including the actual car itself, always drop in a model’s sunset year. But a manual take rate even in the high teens is colossal for any vehicle. Even your imagined 10% take rate is staggering. Do you even listen to yourself? And no, an automated transmission will never “siphon” off a substantive number of manual buyers.

   You sound like one of these types who is fixated on track performance numbers. And if you track your car, that’s great for you. But you’re in a cohort of <1% of Corvette owners. The rest of us engage exclusively in street driving and daily commuting. A domain where any automated transmission renders a vehicle about as spiritless and boring as your average Camry. So the issue has zero to do with some notion of nostalgia, and everything to do with the daily driving experience, no matter how much you want to convince yourself of your cutesy little insult tropes. Yes, when driving at mostly legal speeds in the street traffic, any manual transmission vehicle is orders of magnitude more engaging and enjoyable for anyone who knows how to drive one.

   You conspicuously ignore the fact that Corvette has also always been about everyman's driving experience and not just competition statistics. But GM's bean counters have clearly made the calculus that the lost revenue from the tens of thousands of lost customers (yes, that's verified) will be outweighed by the supply chain and production financial efficiencies of fitting only one drivetrain. Oddly, both Porsche and BMW–companies far more focused on track stats–have definitively shown this to be a miscalculation, as both have back pedaled in recent years from initially axing their manual offerings. So I will continue to maintain that GM is getting this one wrong, not only from a heritage standpoint, but also as a business case. Unfortunately, GM making poor business decisions is pretty much their story of the last 50 years.

   But you certainly got one thing right–Corvette Is no longer the car for me…and tens of thousands of others. We will happily seek out one of the numerous offerings from other automakers that fit our requirements and lifestyle.

6. @Ronnie
   I hadn’t heard that Tremec had cancelled building the trans altogether, just that Chevy is denying they will offer it as a factory option. I thought Tremec was still going to produce it for custom applications. The engineering and design work for that prototype alone likely exceeds $10 million. If it truly was nothing but a thirst tease, with no real build intent, perhaps it’s time to investigate Tremec’s finances and operations.

7. I want to thank Mr. Tony Roma and Mr. Josh Holder for the “courage” to expel the rumors and getting out in front of this misinformation from Tremec. Thanks, Ray

8. @SOFA

   You sound like a rabid purist. The fact is, Corvette has always been about performance–and it has moved past rowing machines. Translation: Corvette is no longer the car for you–as of the C8 generation.

   GM will still offer manuals in F/R models–I will put money on it. Pitching a temper tantrum like a toddler because their flagship M/R model doesn’t come with one–is immature at best.

   p.s.
   BMW and Porsche can amortize their manual costs over multiple vehicles. GM cannot–if it is for an M/R configuration.

9. @IPD
   Once again, I stand by the financial and business case analysis I outlined, with the stats to support it. All you seem to have in your quiver are insults and ad hominem attacks, which speak volumes about the actual substance of your “argument”. You just don’t get it, or you’re being intentionally obtuse–it isn’t about purism or nostalgia. Nor is it about track times that are meaningless to 99+% of owners. It’s about offering a vehicle that provides maximum driving enjoyment to the majority of its target market. As I pointed out before, the overwhelming majority of Corvette owners only street drive their cars. And no one who can drive a manual thinks it’s more enjoyable to drive an automatic on the street. It’s a shame GM chose to abandon this entire cohort of tens of thousands for some misplaced notion of cost savings. GM is only hurting itself. I have plenty of other available options.

   Lastly, Porsche and BMW aren’t amortizing anything over any economy of scale. Feel free to compare the production numbers of manual M2/M3 and Cayman/911 to those of C8 or even manual C7. Porsche and BMW simply understand that there’s not only a market, but profit to be made from offering manual transmissions in high-end performance vehicles. Consumer choice is always the better free market end game.

10. The bottom line is that the C8 design would need to be compromised to allow incorporating of a transaxle based on existing designs that could be scaled to handle 1000 HP or a bespoke manual transmission would need to be designed from scratch. The cost of development would either need to be amortized across the entire C8 platform or the smaller percentage of manual buyers would need to pony up for all the cost. I bet when it came down putting their money where their mouth is many of the manual “devotees” couldn’t handle it. Thanks, Ray

11. Correct, Ray. SOFA can’t understand that. C8 buyers don’t want to subsidize the cost of a manual for the people who would actually buy one. And developing one for a M/R layout means there is no other platform from which to alternately recoup the cost.

    “Engagement” and “enjoyment” do not make a functional business case on their own.

12. @IPD
    The Transmission exists–it’s already been designed and developed. Tremec literally put it on display at SEMA, before the entire world. Unless you have some insider knowledge that it was a fake mock-up, your development concern is moot.

    Mass producing it certainly won’t cost any more than the DCT, and probably less, as it’s far less complex. So really the only added costs you’re looking at are GM’s costs to design a shifter, linkage, and clutch, and recalibrate the ECU. Then the minimal labor and logistic delta that comes from having 2 drivetrain options in the pipeline, a scenario GM handled with Corvette production just fine for almost 70 years.

    BMW and Porsche reverted to doing exactly this, with far lower production numbers, because they knew the market is there and it will make them more profit than not doing it. It’s a verified stat that there are >20k sidelined Corvette buyers who’d pull the trigger, but for the lack of a third pedal. In the face of all that actual data (not conjecture or supposition), if you still cannot understand the business case that exists, then maybe you are cut-out to work for GM.

13. @SOFA

    Facts don’t matter. Spout off would-be buyers without any source data “verified stat” is complete malarky. Spout off BMW/Porsche as being equivalent–even though the MT’s that they sell in the USA also indicate that there is an overall lack of demand in the USA. Spout off as though GM somehow will be able to sell the C8 in the global market–where the take rates are incredibly low, due to tariffs and bureaucracies pushing the net cost for a STINGRAY to the same range as a 911.

    Cite per-unit costs of an MT as though it makes the R&D costs of it irrelevant. Spout off that Tremec actually has a working unit–when all they’ve done is display a mock-up that has not even been demonstrated in practical use.

    The business case exists for MT. It just wil not happen in the M/R Corvette. And if the MT purists such as yourself spent half as much time researching or buying other alternatives–rather than wishing for the C8 to cater to one’s own, microscopically small pool of like-minded “rowing machine or death” ilk, you’d probably be happier. Or you could just wait for the next F/R performance car from GM (which will undoubtedly have an MT option)–and stop the histrionic hand-wringing.

14. @IPD
    Just stop with the bald faced dishonesty. Do you even read what you write, or do you even care? I’m the only one here who’s put forth facts to make my arguments. Conversely, your points have been based upon nothing but conjecture, imagined figures, name calling, and insults. That you don’t like the facts I’ve put forth is irrelevant. These are the facts, and they are indisputable:

    * The >20k sidelined buyers stat comes from data by several different industry market research firms, including Harris.
    * Porsche and BMW have proven a business case for the manual transmission market in the US, are selling them at production numbers well below Corvette, and still turning a profit.
    * Tremec has made the transmission. They’ve already done the R&D in house and paid for it. It’s a sunk cost. The transmission will cost less to produce than a complex DCT. If you have reason to believe that what they showed to the world as a working model, is actually a fraud, then you have the burden of proof to provide the receipts on that claim.
    * This discussion has always been about the American market. There is no argument to be had over the existence of a substantive manual transmission market in the US for this vehicle. And yet you lie, saying I made some assertion about selling the C8 in the global market.

    This thread began as my admonition of Holder for his patent dishonesty with statistics. I will now thank you for making it clear to the entire internet that you have gone on to join him, as a liar and a troll yourself. Assuming you’re an American, you have the right to believe whatever contrivance you’d like to believe. But the moment someone proves himself in debate to be a dishonest broker–and a nasty mean-spirited one at that–my dialogue with him is finished. You can continue posting bilge Into the ether all your little heart desires, but your conversation with me ends here.

15. @SOFA

    Tell me you’re a leftist shill (via projecting) without telling me. No wait, that would be too much credit. Bot. Definitely a bot. And a poorly written one.

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