The death of the manual, naturally aspirated sportscar has been called early for many years. In 2013, when McLaren, Porsche, and Ferrari released their “holy trinity” of hypercars, all of which were hybrids, it seemed like the beginning of a new era. Yet, a few brilliant, passionate engineers have kept it going. At the highest end, you have Gordon Murray — the genius behind the F1 — whose new GMA brand has exclusively released small, extremely light cars, powered by naturally aspirated V10 engines. Their second car, the T30, was to have an automatic option, but had to cancel the option after only three customers chose it over the manual.

For under $1 million, the true hero of that classic style of motoring is Andreas Preuninger, head of Porsche’s GT division, tuning up each generation of 911 to turn them into truly mad machines. He has done so without embracing turbos — except for the limited, super-race focused GT2 RS — and without losing the manual transmission. With EU emissions regulations continuing to get stricter, and Porsche pushing the 911 closer to becoming a hybrid, the new 992.2 generation GT3 may be the last generation to keep that spirit. The fact they have rushed it out, so soon after the announcement of the main model, rather than waiting a few years, is not an encouraging sign. It might be Prenuinger’s finest work yet.