Fans of the manual gearbox will grimace at the above picture. It depicts an accident that occurred on the German autobahn yesterday afternoon. Seven Porsche Cayman GT4’s were damaged when their transporter was hit from behind by another truck. The accident caused long delays on the A1 autobahn around the Kamen area of Dortmund and three injuries.

The accident happened when the driver of the car transporter was forced to brake for a queue of traffic. A dutch lorry following closely behind failed to spot the slowing car transporter and ploughed into the back. In trying to avoid the accident, a car in the adjacent lane, swerved into another car, blocking the entire autobahn.

The drivers of all three cars were admitted to hospital for treatment of their injuries. The police have valued the damage at more than 1 million euros. The road remained blocked until 9 pm as the recovery works required a crane.

The Porsche Cayman GT4 has proved to be an extremely successful product for Porsche. It revitalised interest in the manual gearbox and provided a potent version of the new Cayman. It features a 3.8-litre flat six with 380 bhp and 310 lb-ft of torque. There will be 7 disappointed customers this week.

Thanks to Carsten for the tip.