Manual Gearboxes Are Back! Aston Martin Valour vs Porsche 911 S/T

EVs and ever-stricter emissions regulations mean the manual gearbox is becoming rarer – and yet there is also a bit of a renaissance occurring. The £ GMA is only available with a manual gearbox, the £ Pagani Utopia can be had with two or three pedals (with most owners opting for the latter) and at the other end of the scale, Toyota is testing a manual gearbox for electric vehicles. In-between (though still very much at the expensive end of the scale) we have these two: the £1m Aston Martin Valour and the £231k Porsche 911 S/T. The Valour pairs a manual gearbox with Aston’s twin-turbo V12 for the first time, and those mechanicals are clothed in retro-inspired carbonfibre bodywork. Just 110 will be made, at £1m-plus each. As for the Porsche, you can look at it either as a 911 GT3 RS with a manual gearbox and without that wing, or as a GT3 Touring with the wick turned up. Either way, it marries an epic engine that revs to 9,000rpm, with a manual ‘box and lightweight clutch. There’s still life in the ol’ stick shift then! And so, we sent the Aston and Porsche to some rather nice roads, together with Editor-in-Chief Jack Rix and Deputy Editor Ollie Kew, for a little celebration… Subscribe to Top Gear for more videos: WATCH MORE TOP GEAR: First Looks:   First Drives: American Tuned ft. Rob Dahm: LISTEN to the Top Gear Magazine Podcast: Sign up for our newsletter: MORE ABOUT TOP GEAR: Welcome to the official home of Top Gear on YouTube. Here you’ll find all the best clips from your favourite episodes, whether that’s Ken Block drifting London in the Hoonicorn, Chris Harris in the latest Porsche 911 GT3 or classic Top Gear clips from Clarkson, Hammond and May. You’ll also find the latest performance car reviews from the crew, our brand new series American Tuned with Rob Dahm and the fastest power laps from our in house performance benchmark: The Stig. This is a commercial channel from BBC Studios. Service & Feedback