Porsche debuted a new 911 GT3 at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show that is available only with an automatic transmission. We all saw it coming, and this isn’t going to be another “Save the Manuals” gripe.

Actually, yes, it is.

So let’s just get my standard issue disclaimer out of the way: I get it. The GT3 is a track-attack machine, and at the same time, it needs to attract a broader audience if it wants to justify its existence.

If the automatic helps it clock faster lap times while at the same time making it easier to drive to the supermarket, why not go automatic?

At the very least, whoever finds an automatic transmission to be “as engaging” must have been given enough codeine-and-Ambien cocktails to have lost sensation in all of his or her limbs, heart and brain.

“But… but… manual transmissions aren’t as easy to drive!” Boo hoo! It’s a sports car -- it’s supposed to be challenging. You’re supposed to feel a sense of, “Hey, I did it!” when you get your downshift just right, just like you do when you nail the apex of a tough corner.

“But… but… it’s faster with an automatic transmission!” Were you looking for that extra tenth of a second on the way home from CVS? And fine, the GT3 may well be the ultimate track car, but its duties are primarily on the road. And its purpose? To bring a smile to your face. Race cars are about shaving nanoseconds off lap times, but sports cars are about fun.

Manufacturers of these specialty cars are, as of late, overly obsessed with lap times – with one lap time in particular, actually – and it’s turned into a sort of pissing contest that’s served to dictate the progression of technology. But has it served, necessarily, to make these cars any more fun to drive?

I swear I have more fun in my brother’s 1987 Honda Civic Si than I do in some of the mega sports cars I drive for work. Because with the capability of modern cars, it’s just not safe to test the limits and simulate a time trial on public roads.

I don’t mean to pick on the GT3, which is clearly an awesome car that will be incredible to drive. Porsche will tell you that the new GT3 is no less thrilling than its forebears, and the specs speak for themselves. It has 475 horsepower, revs to 9000 rpm, and shifts in less than 1/100th of a second. It’s a different kind of thrilling.  

Slowly but surely, we’re diluting the recipe for big, dumb grins in the name of efficiency – and technology for technology's sake. And before we know it, cars just aren’t going to be any fun anymore, just a superfast, superefficient means of getting around. If there’s any car that should throw all that nonsense out the window and make me feel like a hooligan, it’s the 911 GT3. The GT3 is clearly a weekend car anyway, so who cares about broadening the buyer base and making it more livable on a daily basis?

The old GT3 was perfect with a manual transmission. For people who want to tear up the road without thinking, there's the 911 Turbo. Give me a GT3 with a stick shift for the thrill factor. I know it’s hard to market grins per mile, Porsche, but stick to your guns and give us a manual. What percentage of buyers are going to notice that it’s a few seconds slower than advertised on a 13-mile road course that they’ll never visit?

James Tate cut his teeth in the business as a race-team crew member before moving to the editorial side as senior editor of Sport Compact Car, and his work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Automobile, Motor Trend and European Car. When not writing, Tate is usually fantasizing about a vintage Porsche 911.