Aston Martin's boss is adamant about keeping the manual gearbox alive for as long as it can.
With more and more cars being offered without the option of a manual transmission, Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer has stated that the culling of the three-pedal approach isn’t something that they want to engage in.
He told Car and Driver: “I’ve already gone on the record saying I want to be the last manufacturer in the world to offer a manual sports car.”
It’s a bold statement, and one that we would personally applaud. In recent memory, cars that were known and famed for their involving drive and analogue interface with its driver - *cough* Porsche 911 GT3 – had gone the auto-only route. Albeit, a very very impressive automatic (Porsche’s PDK, in this case).
Aston Martin has elected to slow its inevitable progression to adopt newer technologies where it can, or to implement it in a way that remains true to their particular way of doing things. One that’s decidedly old school.
There are certain things, images and associations, that will forever be linked to the ‘act’ of driving. It’s an important distinction between driving, and being driven or driving a car.
Top of the heap there is the act of shifting gears on your own, depressing that clutch pedal and slotting the shifter quickly and decisively. It’s an ever rarer joy as cars get newer and people opt to be more detached and, well, lazier.
Aston Martin will be introducing a new generation of V8 Vantage next year, a car that will be first to feature an engine sourced from AMG and the second to use forced-induction. Prior to this - and in a parallel to Aston’s resistance to dropping the manual gearbox – the Aston Martin line-up was composed entirely of atmospherical V8s and V12s.
But times change, and their judgement call to welcome turbocharging to reap the power/torque benefits and boons in fuel consumption and carbon emissions were too substantial to ignore.
While turbocharged engines aren’t as aurally engaging, these days a lot can be done to plug that gap. However, that sort of bridge can’t quite be crossed by an automatic transmission when trying to ape the involvement and satisfaction of a manual.
C’est La Vie.
Moving past the next Vantage, Aston Martin is also looking at a replacement for their rather recent Vanquish, seeing plenty of scope for its twin-turbo V12 engine used in the recently-announced DB11.
During the interview, Palmer also confirmed that the company’s line-up going forward involves a seven-car model range, including the three already mentioned plus the DBX crossover and perhaps even a Lagonda model or an all-new Rapide.
