We love manual transmissions and we will surely miss them in the electric era. However, we can’t deny the fact that automatic gearboxes have certain advantages and we are not talking only about everyday comfort – more importantly, in the performance segment, the two-pedal cars are usually faster on tracks thanks to their faster gear changes. A skilled and trained driver can do miracles even with a stick shift, though, and this new video is the perfect proof of that statement.
What do we have here? The clip takes us onboard a Porsche 911 GT3 from the 991.2 generation, which is lapping the Nurburgring with an experienced driver behind the wheel. According to comments from the owner of the car, the guy has between 300 and 400 laps at the legendary track but admits that over a two-day event, there’s still “quite a bit of progress between the first lap and the last.”
Let’s start with a little background about the car. The 911 GT3 from the 991.2 generation is the facelifted version of the 991.1, which brought back the option for a manual transmission. Many hardware upgrades were made to the 4.0-liter engine under the hood, which was boosted to 493 horsepower (368 kilowatts) and 339 pound-feet (460 Newton-meters) of torque. The factory performance numbers showed a sprint from a standstill to 60 miles per hour (0-97 kilometers per hour) in 3.8 seconds for cars equipped with a six-speed manual gearbox. The dual-clutch automatic, meanwhile, was quicker at 3.2 seconds.
This particular car rides on a set of used Pirelli Trofeo R tires. The owner of the car says the rubber wasn’t new during the Nurburgring run and the grip wasn’t perfect. In fact, the driver admits the traction with these tires disappears after about two full days of track use but honestly, we can’t see loss of traction during the run.
At the end of the video, you can see the lap time during this run – it is on the car’s center screen, which shows 6:58.5 minutes. This is rather impressive considering this is a three-pedal car but again, the driver does absolutely amazing job with the gear shifter.
