Until 2020, the Chevrolet Corvette always offered a manual transmission—and in some variants, only offered a manual transmission. That ended with the introduction of the eighth-generation car, which is only offered with an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transaxle, the Tremec TR-9080 DCT. And a fine transaxle it is, hardwired directly to the shift paddles for ultimate responsiveness, but it nonetheless lacks the tactile involvement of a manual transmission. A solution is in store from none other than Tremec itself: a six-speed manual transaxle with similar dimensions to the TR-9080 and the same mounting points. Can you say, "manual-swapped C8 Z06"?
There are still some details to be sorted out, like cost, release date, and solving the other conundrums of a manual swap (namely, convincing the car to forget its phantom-limb automatic transmission), but the new Tremec transaxle solves the biggest problem. We'd expect outright performance to suffer—six human-shifted ratios versus eight robo-rowed ones, and a mechanical limited-slip differential instead of the Vette's trick electronically controlled diff—but who cares? Corvettes have performance to spare. What they don't have are clutch pedals and a righteous six-speed stick between the seats. Speaking of which, where is that gonna go? Never mind, someone will figure it out.
You must be logged in to post a comment.