A bearded man grieves over the Corvette's last manual-transmission car in front of a white 2019 Chevrolet Corvette in the National Corvette MuseumAt first glance, the eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette doesn't seem to share much with the original beyond its name. Consider: Today's ZR1X, for instance, parks its mighty V8 behind the driver, where it works with a hybrid system to deliver 1,250 horsepower and 0-60 sprint times of 1.89 seconds. And its top speed is expected to match that of the non-hybrid ZR1, at 233 mph. Meanwhile, the 1953 Corvette has a 150-hp Blue Flame Six engine upfront, good for an 11.5-second jaunt to 60 mph and a top speed a few ticks north of 105 mph.But what the two 'Vettes do have in common is the fact they only offer automatic transmissions. The first Corvette with a manual gearbox was the 1955 edition, and the last — so far, anyway — was the 2019 Stingray on display at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.Chevrolet points to a lack of customer interest as the reason for dumping the manual in the C8, noting that the take rate for the row-your-own gearbox slid from about 50% in 2014, the first year of the C7 Corvette, to approximately 20% in its final year, 2019. Now, there could be a number of factors driving that lowered demand, but it no doubt helps that the current crop of high-tech automatic transmissions runs through the gears quicker than a human can. Just keep in mind that driving a stick shift teaches you things you won't learn from autoboxes, no matter how fast they are. The manual C7 museum pieceThe manual transmission shifter in a 2018 Corvette Carbon 65 editionThe Corvette Museum took delivery of that final manually equipped model on November 20, 2019, and what it got was a Stingray 2LT coupé with the optional Z51 suspension package and a traditional exterior finish. That means, like the original 1953 Corvettes, it featured a white exterior over a red cabin. Beneath the hood, the 2019 Stingray had a 6.2-liter LT1 V8 making 460 hp and 465 pound-feet of torque with the Z51 upgrade onboard, and that mill was paired with a seven-speed manual transmission with active rev matching. Interestingly, and providing evidence of the rise of the automatic transmission in the 'Vette, the brochure only mentions a 0-60 time for the optional 8-speed paddle-shifted automatic — 3.7 seconds — and not for the manual.Next, let's move inside. Here, the driver-focused 2LT cockpit enhances the ownership experience with luxe cues like heated/vented leather front seats with power bolsters and lumbar adjustment to help keep you comfortable while pushing the Corvette to its limits — which, for the curious, include the ability to pull more than 1 g on the skid pad with its Z51 suspension. The infotainment package is fresh enough to come with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and an 8-inch touchscreen, although the Stingray's only ADAS features were standard and optional rear and front cameras.Perhaps even more notable was how little money went into making the C7 Corvette a success. GM spent basically nothing to develop the car, relying on a development budget of $270 million for the car. Sure, that's a lot of cash for you and me, but the General invested more than $500 million just to move Chevy Cruze production to the U.S. in 2008. A quick history of Corvette manual transmissionsThe Chevrolet Corvette's first eight generations in chronological order from left to right, parked on asphaltAs mentioned, a three-speed manual transmission first joined the Corvette option list in 1955, at about the same time the car welcomed its first V8. Displacing 265 cubic inches — roughly 4.3 liters — the engine enjoyed a 25% increase in horsepower to 195 ponies. Drivers got some added enjoyment as well, as the new three-speed/V8 power train lopped over two seconds off of its 0-60 runs and pumped up the top speed to 120 mph. Later in the C1's lifecycle, a short run of cars with a four-speed manual transmission was produced.It set the Corvette on the path to even more manually powered muscle, with the C2 Corvette a prime example. Premiering in 1963 with a 250-hp small-block Chevy V8, the car was available with both three- and four-speed manuals in this generation, along with the special Chevy Powerglide automatic transmission. The third-gen Corvette continued with two similar manual transmissions — and a new three-speed Powerglide automatic — and the latter marked the beginning of the end for manual Corvettes. The C3 Corvette was the first in which automatics outsold manuals (not counting C1 Corvettes unavailable with a manual), and the 1982 Collector's Edition didn't offer a DIY setup at all.No Corvette ever had a factory five-speed manual, but later C4s had a six-speed when they arrived in 1989, and in 2014 the C7 added a cog for a manual transmission with seven forward speeds. It's further worth noting you can get a six-speed manual for your C8 from Tremec — you just have to install it yourself. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and add us as a preferred search source on Google.