Back in May 2017, I wrote a feature for this site on the last performance manuals you could buy here in Australia. I made the cut-off a fairly arbitrary 250kW and this was what I came up with.

It wonu2019t have escaped your attention that quite a few of those cars are no longer available. Weu2019ve lost the Holdens and HSVs, and you can no longer buy an Aston Martin Vantage with three pedals and a stick.
Ford Mustang
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The Focus RS has passed on and, until late 2020 at least, you can’t get a manual gearbox with a Porsche 911. Jaguar has phased the manual out for the facelift F Type and BMW is even moving towards making its manual models the cost-plus option over the base price of the standard autos/dual-clutchers.

And that got me thinking. Even more sobering is the list of rear-drive manual V8s. You can now get a Mustang or a Camaro. That’s it (and variants thereof).

While there’s something slightly heart-warming about Ford and GM being the last holdouts of this particular genre, it’s an exclusively American segment now.

Ford Mustang badge
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Gone are the days of BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Aston Martin also offering us this template for a raw and charismatic driver’s car.

Yep, times change but have they really changed that much?

Chevrolet Camaro engine
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Hit up the comments and let us know how you feel about the demise of this once-vibrant slice of the market.