Aston Martin teases the Vantage AMR with a manual gearbox

We are nigh on the debut of

Aston Martin’s Vantage

AMR with a manual gearbox. The English carmaker teased the three-pedal

sports car

today,

Autocar

reporting we should see the genuine article sometime in the next week. We still have no idea what kind of transmission this will be — six- or seven-speed, and if a seven-speed, will it employ the motorsports-inspired dogleg setup? What we know is that this is first appearance of the hand-shaker transmission in the lineup since 2017, when

Aston Martin

made just 14 examples of the

V12 Vantage V600

.

We also know a lot of work went into it. When going public last year with the fact that the manual gearbox would return, Aston Martin explained the height of the challenge involved. The

Mercedes-AMG

4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 sitting in the

Vantage’s

engine bay has never been paired with a manual gearbox, so Aston Martin has to create the software and driveline hardware from scratch to make it work. The resulting gearbox will come tuned to make drivers earn their thrills.

Chief engineer Matt Becker said

, “It reminds you that you have to know how to drive.”

As a product of the Aston Martin Racing subdivision, and with so much work involved already, the car will surely get other tweaks. The most recent AMR-designated Aston Martins, the

DB 11 AMR

and

Rapide AMR

, featured more power, hardcore chassis setups, and a kit of menacing, carbon fiber aero addenda. They also came with substantial price increases, and the

Vantage

AMR shouldn’t disappoint there, either.