sorry man, but that ship has sailed and it ain’t coming back.
edited to add: any anyone who still calls a planetary automatic a “slushbox” needs to get out of the 1960s.
And while we’re at it, fuck seatbelts, airbags, anti-lock brakes, traction control and air conditioning! A true sports car contains nothing but seats and a steering wheel!
I love car threads 
Yes, No, Like, Hate, lather, rinse, repeat…
I like 90% of the new design. Front and side views are most impressive, but the rear looks a little too much like a Camaro for me.
I don’t believe that a car can be considered manual if the driver doesn’t have mechanical control over the operation of the gearbox. Electronically actuated switches don’t qualify IMO.
My biggest complaint about the C7 is still present on the C8 and it’s that horrid rear end. Otherwise Bring It On! And the post upthread about a special edition Zora would be fantastic! The new gen Mustangs are better cars for finally getting rid of the solid axle rear end and this new Corvette is going to be a better Vette for the changes as well.
I think people get hung up on the technology and forget the car it’s in. An automatic Miata is a turd, nobody in their right mind would own one. Heck, if I had to choose between a manual or automatic Corolla as a DD, it wouldn’t even be a question. Manuals can make boring cars fun.
They can also make insane cars hectic. I’m an HPDE instructor, do you know how many brand new students I have in Corvettes for 1LE Camaros who I need to tell to just put it in 4th gear and then never touch the clutch? Most of them. They just cannot cope with trying to brake into a corner from 140mph while downshifting. At the speeds these cars are doing, 3 pedals is an impediment to learning.
I have a buddy who I got started in the hobby with an E92 M3 (against my advice, mind you), 6 speed manual. At some point he sold it and bought a grungier E92 M3 for track duty, but he got the DCT. He’s let me drive both on track. The DCT is 100% of the fun as the manual. As a lifelong manual snob I never thought I’d say that, but when you’ve got 450+ horsepower, rowing your own gears isn’t any more of a novelty than cracking off 4 lightning fast downshifts while hard on the brakes from 130mph like a goddamn F1 driver. I felt like a rockstar and I had a giant smile on my face the whole time.
I would have no problem with a manual C8, but I don’t have any beef with a DCT version either.
I agree, preferring manual might make some real sense with low performance cars but I can’t see it with higher performance ones. Even reasonably legal curvy road driving in my M2, there’s plenty to pay attention and have fun with even leaving the DCT in ‘drive’ (shifts for you) mode. You can use sequential mode (choose gear with paddles) to be more involved but I seldom even do that except in two lane passing when I know much better than the car what I’m about to, particularly up shifting after I pass. I have never wished I’d gotten that car with the true manual even though the DCT is a few $k option. And I drove manuals for a long time. Secondarily my wife would have trouble with a manual (though we have two cars and other is mainly hers) but aside from that, no desire to get a three pedal manual in a car like that. The car is faster with the DCT, and I’m buying it to be a fast car. Starting at nearly 500 hp, the new Corvette is simply not in a range where manual makes sense.
By extension, there’d be no good reason from my POV, trained as engineer in another field but an amateur at best on automotive engineering, for me to second guess BMW adopting (torque converter) automatics on the newest larger M cars (M5 and M8) over DCT. Or calling them ‘sludgeboxes’, which is already ridiculous even as it applies to our F30 328i. The automatic in that car is very nicely matched to the engine.
It makes me think of an Acura NSX.
Nobody is claiming otherwise. But a modern dual-clutch transmission (or even a modern conventional auto) is much faster than any manual. Acceleration was for many years the enthusiast’s objection to automatic gearboxes, but it no longer exists. So now the line is that a manual is “more involving.” Which is bullshit so long as you get to choose the gear.
Personally, I don’t like paddle shifters because they get in the way of the indicator/wiper stalks, and because sequential gearchanges using a stick make me feel like Colin McRae (or the guy from Chase H.Q.). But in any event, I don’t see the point of a manual now.
And I say that as someone who learned to drive on a manual, and who grew up somewhere that you needed to pass your driving test in a manual car to be licensed to drive manuals.
Not to mention a modern DCT gearbox, because it shifts so quickly, can space out the gears less and keep you more in the higher revs to keep up the power.
I can’t imagine my 812 Superfast would be nearly as quick on the track with a manual, nor would I want to drive it with a manual. And yes I have plenty of experience driving old school manual transmissions. The DCTs can be very very good. My car literally shifts in milliseconds.
If you want to drive an actual manual transmission that’s up to you, I want to drive the latest and greatest tech personally. Owning some vintage cars that have a manual might be a good way to scratch the itch for it.
Aside: I couldn’t drive a car named “Superfast” with a straight face. On the other hand, if you gave me a Ferrari I’m pretty sure I’d take it whatever it was called.
“Superveloce” does sound better but I think there’s a trademark issue.
It’s an homage to a 1964 model also called Superfast, but really only about 1% of the people who see it are going to know.
I just took a drive on Shore Road in York Beach Maine yesterday (my second favorite road, absolute favorite is Smugglers Notch Road in Vermont) in the DSG Golf, and I actually felt like I had MORE control than in the manual, having the paddles on the wheel made it easy to stay on power while navigating the technical twisty bits
The manual is still more involving and interactive, but the DSG is no slouch either, and having paddles on the wheel gives me the ability to override the transmission even in D or S mode, it’s manual on demand
Besides, I already have another manual vehicle to scratch my manual urges, a new to me Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic motorcycle, so I don’t feel too sad selling the ‘07 Rabbit to a nice college kid for his first car
He and his mother stopped by, test drove the Rabbit and fell in love with it, she says it’s for him, but after she drove it, I have a sneaking suspicion that she might want to keep it for herself 
It was great seeing the reaction of someone who has never driven the Golf platform before, they all had ear to ear grins, and loved that addictive 5 cylinder growl!
The downward sloping headlights oddly remind me of an older Hyundai Genesis coupe.