Sportomatic An Automatic Choice?

“They’re a real talking point,” says Philip Raby, discussing the merits of the Sportomatic transmission. A talking point today as it was when Porsche introduced the Sportomatic in August 1967. The reception from the motoring press wasn’t overly favourable, though. Oddly enough, given the marketplace’s desire for automatic transmissions, it was the US publications that were most critical. Car and Driver derided it as a “funny name, but the transmission is a funny transmission”, noting that the Sportomatic isn’t a conventional automatic transmission insomuch as it doesn’t actually change gears itself.

The reception elsewhere was more favourable. Auto Motor und Sport found it to be advantageous for “shift happy” driving. Autocar praised it while conceding other’s criticisms: “Rarely have we been quite so unanimous in our acceptance of a road test car, and rarely, too, have we disagreed so much with some of our contemporaries.” Even Ferry Porsche would have reservations, saying: “If you make a sports car with an automatic transmission, there’s part of your clientele that says, ‘that’s not a sports car’.”