Californians with $162,450 to spare and a hankerin’ for 3-pedal speed, rejoice! The 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 and 911 GT3 Touring are now available with a manual transmission in your state, just a week after Porsche said they wouldn’t be.
To recap: The 911 GT3 and GT3 Touring are the quickest editions of Porsche’s iconic 911 sports car. The former features a huge, brash rear wing and giant air vents. The latter has a more restrained look but the same price and performance figures. Think of them as Superman and Clark Kent. Both were introduced in all 50 states with a dual-clutch PDK automatic transmission. But they were sold in only 49 with a 6-speed manual. The stick, Porsche said, didn’t comply with a California noise regulation.
But that regulation was tied to an out-of-date standard. SAE International, the professional organization behind many of the auto industry’s testing standards, updated its noise testing standard in 2020. But the California Highway Patrol had not adopted the new test. And, while the GT3 models could pass the new test, manual-equipped GT3s failed the old one.
An emailed statement from Porsche doesn’t explain what changed. It says only that the company “thanks California DMV and California Highway (Patrol) for their responsiveness and helping quickly identify an appropriate regulatory path forward. The 911 GT3 arrives in the U.S. in the fall and will join 16 other model variants in the Porsche range that can be specified with three pedals.”
Lest you worry that buying a GT3 will deafen your neighbors, we would point out that both the old and new testing procedures involve measuring the noise level while redlining the engine in third gear. We trust that you wouldn’t do that to your neighbors, anyway.
