The Death of America’s greatest six-speed manual transmission

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Every great American sports car of the last 20 years has shared one thing in common. And now, without anyone noticing, that thing is finally going away. It’s the end of an era, and time to say a proper goodbye to the Tremec TR-6060 manual transmission.

Starting in 2007 with the Shelby Mustang GT500, the Tremec TR-6060 six-speed gearbox has found its way into a pantheon of iconic cars: the Dodge Viper, Dodge Challenger, Chevy Camaro, Chevy Corvette, and now the Cadillac CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwings. Its solid heft and direct engagement defined the driving experience. But the Cadillacs are the final two, and once they end production this year, that’s it. The age of American six-speed cars is over.

And really, how the TR-6060 took over the American market is an incredible story. It actually goes back to the late 1980s, when a company called Borg Warner developed a new six-speed manual for the first Dodge Viper called the T56. It was a smash hit, and the transmission soon made its way into the Corvette and Camaro as GM reinvented those cars in the 1990s.

Around that time, Borg Warner sold its transmission business to Tremec, who at that point had been mainly making heavy-duty truck transmissions for Ford. Tremec realized the potential of the T56 and kept cranking it out, and by the early 2000s it was the six-speed of choice the Ford Mustang, the Ram SRT-10, and even the Aston Martin DB7 Vantage.

As cars were getting more and more powerful, Tremec saw it needed to upgrade its kit. So it re-engineered the T56 to make it stronger and sharper, and launched the TR-6060 in 2007. And from there, it became the default choice in the 2010s as the only American six-speed transmission able to keep up with the times.

Tremec isn’t the only six-speed option, of course. You’ve got ZF, Getrag, Aisin, and others. But the Tremec won out in American because it feels exactly how you expect a modern muscle car to feel and gave all of those cars a distinct cultural identity. It was reliable, satisfying, and all in all, an incredible engineering achievement.

Now? It’s truly the end. Aside from stick-shift sports cars disappearing in general, power levels have finally risen past what the TR-6060 can handle. The Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing’s 668 hp/659 lb-ft of torque is pretty close to the ceiling.

But even if we have to say goodbye to new cars rolling out of the factory with this old-school six-speed, there are a couple bright spots on the horizon. One, Tremec will continue to make them for the aftermarket to keep your manual-swap dreams alive. And two, even after GM ditched the manual in the mid-engine Corvette because it couldn’t find a transaxle strong enough to take it, Tremec is almost done building a new six-speed manual designed specifically for mid-engine cars that can bolt right into the C8. Now, we just need GM to give it the green light.

0:00 It's over
0:40 In the Blackwing
1:49 Roots of the TR-6060
4:53 Tremec builds the future
7:54 The golden years
10:14 Cultural identity
11:40 Why the TR-6060 is going away

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