So are you guys finding the manual gives you time rowing the gears outside the track? I’m wondering how much fun there truly is to be had with a manual that keeps you in second outside racing speeds.

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Lol wut

 

2nd gear takes you to over 80mph at redline right? 1st at 50mph? So; not a whole lot of up down shifting even if you say road speeds go up to 110 for overtaking unless you’re doing twisties that take you below and above 50 continuously.

So the question becomes about the actual engagement of the manual off the track, vs the theoretical fun of rowing the gears

clearer?

 

It is fun. Very fun.

And the car sounds nice as well in case that comes up after the hearing “issue”.

 

My '04 GT 3 would get to approx 80 in 2nd, 105 in 3rd IIRC. On the street it was happy in 4th at 40 mph. I could cruise pleasantly at 50 in 5th or 6th.

Just because you can take 2nd up to 80 doesn't mean you must drive that way.

These are dual-use cars mostly.

 

You routinely run your cars up to redline in first and second on the street?

 

No ; all my fast cars have been dual clutch, although I learned on and drove manual, it was a sub 100bhp commuter sbox.

I’m weighing going back to manual, hence the question

Clearly, optimal performance driving would be to allow the aids to handle shifts, rev match, etc. But I’m not optimising for optimal performance. As a weekend car I’m thinking through whether the manual gear cadence is going to be additive for fun factor or if I’ll just be living in a small number of low gears for acceleration without license threatening speeds

I think the dual use comment is probably right; the second use is the track, and if I’m thinking more of fun times getting places in the weekend I might be better off with a lower performance envelope car.

 

My current 2015 Cayman GTS is PDK. Every one of my "fun" cars previously were all manual. I wanted to try PDK having heard so many good things about it. For maximum shifting speed, PDK is superior for sure, but for a better sensory experience, you can not beat a manual. My Spyder is being configured to be a maximum sensory experience ride, hence a manual gearbox suits this build better. If I wanted the fastest track weapon, I would be looking a GT3 with PDK.

 

Can concur. Having a lot of fun rowing gears on backroads in my Spyder.

 

I run shorter 2-5 gears and a 8100rpm redline on my 981 GT4. The gears are a huge improvement IMO, more fun, more driveable on the street, this is the way there car should have come. The 981 GT4 gears were long with a 7800rpm redline, feel even longer when you add 200 more rpm to the 718. The problem is not just the length of the gears, its the gear spacing. 1 is long, 2 is way long so there's a huge gap in the 1-2 shift, gears 5-6 are stupid close. A shorter closer set of gears down low gives you a lot more options and in gear performance. The PDK gears are ideal. Look at the ratios, they aren't just slightly different because of the 7th gear, the low gears are much shorter and tightly spaced with generally more even spacing across the stack vs. the manual where 1-3 are spaced disproportionately long vs gears 4-6 which are much closer. If I could get the pdk ratios in the manual I would have. My 2nd gear runs out now in the low 70s instead of high 80s, not pdk but still a massive improvement.

 

The "tall gearing issue" really is overstated on these cars. This is even moreso with the 718's better torque curve and higher redline. The gearing is optimised for high speed racetracks such as the Nordschleife. It is extremely enjoyable in other scenarios, such as commuting in traffic, canyon carving, DE days, etc. It is not optimised for drag racing, small racetracks, autocross, etc. but still extremely enjoyable in these scenarios unless the driver's enjoyment derives less from the driving and more from the timesheet.

 

I agree, I also realized gearing is none-issue after driving 718 Spyder for a week, including street, mountain, highway. I guess this long 2nd gearing preception or compliant since 981 era was due to the desire for more horsepower/torque.

 

There seems to be this fixation with redline speeds in each gear. Granted the gears are longish but what is 2nd at 70 going to do for you that 2nd at 80 isn’t. You’re still never going to hit the rev limiter in 3rd or 4th in most driving conditions.

The benefits to long gearing as i see it is that you have a little more flexibility as when to shift and there is a less likelihood of overreving the engine on the street. The downside to long gearing is that acceleration is less than optimal. But the ethos of these cars isn’t really about absolute numbers. Regardless of the gear ratios, a sport PDK will always be faster.

I think almost all of us would prefer shorter gears but as an issue it is far overblown afaic. And, for those of us that love an MT, PDK isn’t a real alternative.

 

sorry, meant gearing, not hearing ;-)

 

+1 on this...