- The newly revealed Porsche Mission S mid-engine supercar platform is engineered to support a traditional manual gearbox alongside automated PDK options.
- Porsche leadership confirmed that offering a manual transmission in the production model will ultimately depend on market demand and buyer feedback.
- The retro-inspired Mission S concept features traditional driver-focused elements, like a physical key, signaling a commitment to mechanical engagement.
The Porsche Mission S concept car that was recently revealed is meant to point the way towards the automaker’s future—one where a new flagship supercar above the 911 pushes the brand upmarket while strengthening ties to the company’s past. And that future, it seems, could include an old-fashioned row-your-own transmission.
During remarks at the launch event in New York City, Porsche CEO Dr. Michael Leiters stressed that the new supercar has a flexible platform that’s compatible with multiple powertrains, and he specifically said that it could be powered by either pure internal-combustion engines or hybrid ones. More interestingly, it can also accept either manual or PDK-style automatic transmissions.
“Customer demand will define what we build on this platform,” he told one of our colleagues at Road & Track.
Leiters ought to be trusted; not only is he the big man in charge at Zuffenhausen, but he also played no small role in the Mission S’s creation. As he told the assembled media at the debut, six months ago, he personally went to the recently appointed head of design Tobias Sühlmann and said the brand needed a new mid-engined supercar with a new design language.
The result? The Mission S. “This is a car that screams I want to drive it. That screams Porsche,” Sühlmann said.
As for whatever might be powering the Mission S that was unveiled, Leiters and Sühlmann weren’t talking. While many automotive design concepts are powered by little more than golf-cart motors to move it across a stage, when the CEO started up the Mission S and drove it on stage, it came to life with a distinctive sound that was an awful lot like a boxer engine—but perhaps one with more cylinders than we’re used to from such a layout.
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Will Sabel Courtney is a contributing editor at Road & Track. A 12-year veteran of journalism, he formerly worked at Gear Patrol, The Drive, and RIDES Magazine, and contributed to the New York Daily News and Jalopnik, among other outlets. You can often find him test-driving new cars in New York City, cursing the slow-moving traffic surrounding him.