NOTE: This is not a real news story. It was posted on April 1st, 2011 as an April Fool's Day prank for some of my good friends on the Corvette Forum. The completely fictitious story below was linked to from a thread, and I'll leave it up for a bit for your amusement if you missed it.

A poor silly fad? Perhaps, but for years, drivers of high performance vehicles such as the Chevy Corvette have insisted that "real sports cars only have manual transmissions." A new study released today by Taggat University reveals a different story.

"It's really a matter of budget!" claims study coordinator Frank Garnett. "Sure they'll tell you it's for performance and a better driving experience, but our survey of over 1200 owners of high performance sports cars reveals that 83% indicated that selection of manual transmission was based solely on budgetary concerns."

"I wanted the automatic transmission, but opted for the heated seat package for the wife" shared new Corvette Grand Sport owner Maury Glover. "The paddles shifters are just so much cooler than rowing the gears with a stick, just like driving a Forumula 1 racer!"

While the manual vs. automatic transmission debate will continue, the study results indicate that the old adage about performance may not be the whole story.