Despite the technological advancements of automatic transmissions, many still prefer the good old manual transmission, especially in performance cars. Fortunately, there are still a handful of performance cars in the Philippines equipped with a manual transmission.

5 Manual Performance Cars in the Philippines:

• Toyota GR Yaris
• Mazda Miata
• Honda Civic Type R (FK8)
  
• Toyota GR86 / Subaru BRZ
  
• Ford Mustang GT

Toyota GR Yaris

Despite its size, it’s hard not to notice the GR Yaris even from afar. It’s very aggressive and sporty looking, which is backed by astounding performance on and off the track. 

The car is propelled by a 1.6-liter three-cylinder engine that kicks out 257 hp and 265 lb-ft of torque, mated to a six-speed manual transmission that spins all four wheels. And with the car weighing just a little over 1,200 kg, it does 0-100 kph in just 5.5 seconds.

Mazda Miata

Just like the Toyota GR Yaris, the Mazda Miata is a testament that good things come in small packages. Ever since its production in 1989, the Miata is adored by many around the world for its simple recipe: compact, lightweight, and rear-wheel drive.

The 2022 Mazda Miata has a 181-hp 2.0-liter inline-4 making 151 lb-ft of torque and it goes from 0-60 mph in just under 6.0 seconds. Also new for 2022 is a feature called Kinematic Posture Control, which is brake-based torque vectoring,

Honda Civic Type R (FK8)

Unlike the pedestrian versions of Civic, the current-gen Type R can be easily spotted on the road with its Vortex generators, full LED headlights, aluminum hood with a scoop intake, and 20-inch Berlina black alloy wheels.

Under the hood is a 2.0-liter VTEC Turbo engine putting out 306hp (at 6,500 rpm) paired with a 6-speed manual transmission with rev-matching. According to rumors, this model might be the last Type R with a manual tranny as the new one will come equipped with a DCT.

Toyota GR86 / Subaru BRZ

The twins share pretty much every component. However, according to Subaru, the GR86 was built to “drift” while the BRZ was built to “grip”. 

Subaru has already announced the arrival of the new model this year. Thankfully, the local variant will be more powerful than its counterparts in Japan and the United States. To be exact, local variants of the BRZ will have  237 PS at 7,000 pm, while the models in North America only have 231 PS and models in Japan have only 235 PS. 

Ford Mustang GT

Among the list, the Ford Mustang is the most iconic without a doubt. Fortunately, this muscle car has always been available with both an automatic and a manual transmission. Perhaps, it’s because an old-school muscle car person would always say “manual trans or go home.”

Manual transmission is available in the Premium GT variant which packs a powerful 5.0 V8 engine with 466PS and 569Nm.