The Corvette Is The Muscle Car Fans Of The Manual Absolutely Love

Say what you will about the Chevrolet Corvette, you can't deny that the car is designed for enthusiasts. For one thing it's pretty damn cheap with a base MSRP of $55,400. It also comes with a V8 engine and a manual transmission. Speaking of that manual box, the folks over at theNational Corvette Museumhave received the final production totals for the 2016 Corvette. Of the 40,689 Corvettes made, a whopping 31,440 packed an eight-speed automatic. But that means the rest, 23%, were manuals.

This news is either awesome or awful depending on whether you see the glass half full or half empty. We're going to go with the former on both counts. Of course 23% isn't a very high number when you're talking 40,689 cars. Only 9,249 2016 Corvettes came off the line with manual transmission. The most popular human-shifted model was the Z06 Coupe with 3,556 units sold. To us the fact that over a third of the manual Corvettes went to Z06 buyers is great news. That means a good chunk of enthusiasts aren't afraid to row their own gears when behind the wheel of a track-focused V8 beast sending 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels.