![[POLL] How Much Would You Pay to Check the Box if GM Brought a Manual Option to the C9 Corvette?](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2026/10/101726_6.jpg)
Sometimes the title says it all, but with recent developments, it’s worth exploring this question a little further.
After several decades dedicated to improving performance, sports and super cars have reached a point where they need literal thrusters to get quicker, and all-out speed has lost a lot of its luster. Market trends over the last half-decade and nearly all the reveals at Monterey Car Week point to one thing; manual transmissions are the hottest thing in motoring.
After sampling the break-neck pace of the last batch of hyper EVs, enthusiasts seem to have had a change of heart, an epiphany, if you will. It wasn’t all-out speed that drew them to sports cars in the first place, it was something more intimate; a feeling, a connection with the road and the machine they were piloting through the landscape.
Photo Credit: Porsche USA
That’s all well and good for boutique shops like Gordon Murray’s that are out there piecing together multi-million-dollar creations for the 1%, but, according to Executive Chief Engineer Tony Roma, for mainstream outfits like General Motors, resurrecting the clutch pedal isn’t so cut and dry. Bringing it back would have to make business sense to his bosses and their shareholders.
On the off chance that a manual makes an encore appearance in a future Corvette order guide, it’ll likely do so as a paid option – gone are the days of the “standard” stick shift transmission. So, driving enthusiasts, what would you give to swap out the quick shifting DCT in your C8 for the pleasure and sense of accomplishment that only a manual can provide?
The C8-compatible faux gated manual revealed by Rezvani over the summer has a $25,000 price tag. Seems a bit steep for a conversion that’s only pretending to be a manual, no? But what if it was a real-deal mechanical stick installed on the Bowling Green line? If that were an option, would you be willing to drop the equivalent of a clean LS2 C6, a showroom-worthy ’78 Pace Car, a radiant 50th Anniversary Coupe from my WS6 specialist friends, or a 32-Valve living legend to upgrade your build? What about $10,000? $5k? $1-2,000? Think about the maximum amount you’d cough up to get a third pedal in your new Corvette and then vote below. This is going to be a good one!
Related:
[PODCAST] Tony Roma was on The Drivecast and He Talks C8, C9, Manuals, Z06X, and More
[VIDEO] The Mockshift Lets You Row Your Own Gears in Your C8 Corvette While Keeping Your Factory DCT
After Monterey Car Week, GM Better Have a Manual Transmission in Store for the C9 Corvette
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Porsche is getting almost $20k extra for a 6-speed manual in the 2027 Carrera S.
Ferrari and Porsche have created a manual simulator. The pedal and shifter are, essentially, joysticks. Instead of wheel mounted paddles, you get a pedal and a shifter, but it is the same transmission with an electronic converter that moves through the gears just like a manual would, but the trans is still a dual clutch unit.
Really? Guess that might satisfy the needs of certain folks – like engine sounds simulators in EVs.