certified_prime

I'm looking at ordering my C2 soon, and have decided on the PDK transmission over the manual so that it is a car for both my wife and I. The diehard manual fan in me has a couple questions however:

In regular Sport mode with the shifter in the Manual gate side, what RPM can I take it up to before the car automatically shifts to the higher gear? I would like to be able to rev up near the red line at times like I can in a normal manual. Is the computer pretty intrusive even in Sport mode, or do I need to get Sport Chrono package to really drive like a manual?

ADias

In M mode you are responsible for upshifting 100% of the time. If you do not upshift, you will be hitting the rev limiter. The PDK will not upshift for you.

In the other rev direction... when the car slows down, if you do not downshift by yourself before hitting the stall rev (around 1k RPM), the PDK will downshift for you.

When downshifting you can only do so as long as the downshift would not exceed the rev limit.

PDK in M mode is a manual sequential transmission.

Detroit Shooter

I would go for the Sport Chrono. The shifts are much firmer even in manual. It is very aggressive in auto and launch control is awesome

chuck911

PDK will automatically up and downshift even in Manual. The difference is that the shift point in the other modes is determined by throttle. Suddenly floor it in any of the Auto modes and it will downshift appropriate to your throttle and mode. Stay on throttle and upshift point will depend on how much throttle and which mode. Floor it in Manual and it will not upshift until redline. Forget you're in Manual and brake to a stop, it will still seamlessly downshift all the way to full stop neutral. Doing this in Sport it will downshift at higher revs, you will hear the throttle blips and feel engine braking. In Manual it just stays in each gear until revs drop very low, then downshifts so smooth and quiet you will have to look at the numbers on the dash to know it happened! So overall keeps you in the gear you select while preventing you from doing any harm.

certified_prime

Awesome. That is exactly what I was hoping for. I don't need the lighting fast shifts of the Sport Crono, nor the launch control. All I need is a manual control of the shifts.

Mike in CA

Unless there has been a change in PDK in the 991 this is not exactly how PDK works, at least in the 997. As Tony (ADias) stated earlier, in manual mode PDK will stay in a given gear right up to the rev limiter. If you don't execute a shift manually, it won't upshift at all.

The exception, (and this may be what you are referring to) is what Porsche calls in their tech info on the PDK "panic shifting". If you floor the accelerator in a taller gear at lower revs in manual mode, PDK will kickdown to a lower gear and will also upshift at redline. As long as you keep your foot in it, PDK will continue to upshift in successive gears at redline. Once you back off it will revert to full manual mode and manual upshifts will once again be required.

I've only had this "panic shifting" occur a few times, and I drive in manual mode almost exclusively. As long as you are in the proper gear to begin with when you hit the accelerator the kickdown and auto shifting at redline never happens, and as Tony also said, PDK acts just like a sequential manual (in a 997.2). I'd be interested to know if Porsche has truly changed this in the 991.

ADias

Same behavior. Only difference is N can be called for by pulling simultaneously both buttons/paddles.