- Rumor suggests upcoming 992.2 Turbo will be offered with rear-wheel drive and a manual transmission
- The 911 Turbo switched to AWD in 1995 and has only been available with PDK for a decade
- Porsche did turn the 992 Turbo into the limited-edition, manual, RWD Sport Classic in 2023
Two weeks from now, we’ll know chapter and verse about the new 992.2-generation Porsche 911. But while fans wait excitedly for the official reveal, they’re trying to make sense of various rumors, including one that seems to make no sense at all. It says the next 911 Turbo will be rear-wheel drive and available with a manual gearbox.
The claim, since picked up by Reddit, first appeared on the Rennlist forum. The platform is a second home to plenty of regular Porsche enthusiasts hoping to get a lead on what options might be available for their next car before the order books are open. It’s also populated by a few members that seem to be well-informed and are dishing out those leads. One such member, @silversurfer, says that the next Turbo will come with only two-wheel drive and a stick.
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It sounds like the recipe for a riotously entertaining 911, but while we don’t have any specific intel to counter the claim, it strikes us as an odd move for Porsche. The automaker has spent the last 29 years – since the then-new blown 993 adopted all-wheel drive – building up the Turbo’s reputation as the perfect all-weather, everyday supercar.
And for the past decade, it’s only been available with a PDK paddle-shift ’box – a transmission that really suits the power delivery of the Turbo engine. Is Porsche really going to dismantle that carefully crafted persona?
Consider the drivability: the current Turbo S already makes 631 hp (640 PS), so the next one must be shooting for close to 700 horses (710 PS), and that’s a lot to put through the rear wheels of a regular street car on tires that have to work in all conditions. It’s also a lot for a manual transmission to handle.
When Porsche revealed the 2023 Sport Classic it was only available as a rear-wheel drive manual and it had its engine detuned to 543 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque (down 29 hp/30 PS and 111 lb-ft/150 Nm) to stop the seven-speed gearbox blowing itself to pieces.
And if Porsche did make the Turbo available with rear-wheel drive and a stick, surely that would undermine the lucrative pastime of persuading hyper-wealthy brand fans for paying a fortune for special cars like the Sport Classic, or the GT2, that are the only way of accessing desirable enthusiast features like rear-wheel drive and a manual.
More: Everything We Know About The 2025 Porsche 911 (992.2)
But maybe we’re wrong and the forum gossip is right. Maybe Porsche wants to enhance the Turbo’s credibility as a true enthusiast’s car as it approaches its 50th year of teaching supercars a lesson or two.
Maybe it has more buyers asking for that spec than can be satisfied with a limited run of Sport Classics, and is planning to open up the availability of the configuration in the same way that it turned the limited run 911R into the GT3 Touring.
Or maybe it’s going to make the base Turbo a rear-wheel drive manual and the more powerful Turbo S AWD with PDK to preserve the performance advantage of the all-paw car. Because a manual, two-wheel drive Turbo is likely to be slower than the current AWD PDK car, and that’s going to be a tough one for the marketing department to spin.
Do you think there’s any truth to the rear-wheel drive, manual Turbo rumor, and is it a move you think Porsche should make? Drop a comment below and let us know.
