They should have a GT4 review up soon too, but first up is the Spyder:

 

I would say it's pretty honest. Looking forward to a PDK review at some point. Does anyone know when the first PDK cars are expected to hit Europe?

 

15 min about why the gearing sucks was pretty lame to be honest. Expected more from them but i think they just werent into the package. The beard guy is gonna like the gt4 more because hes a hooligan. Lol

 

I would say their comments about the gearing “ruining the experience” are hyperbolic. The exhaust flaps open at 3700 RPM (not 4000) above first gear, which equates to 63 km/h in second gear. I’m usually above that speed on back roads (where the posted speed limit is typically 80 km/h). Typically I’m around 85-90 km/h (5000-5300 RPM in second) which is right in the power band. Second gear tops out at 136 km/h which is a little quicker than the quickest I ever go on back roads, and great for highway merging and passing. On back roads, I’m usually switching between second for going in and out of corners, and third for lowering the RPM while cruising down straights.

Would it be nice to have a gear in between first and second (say topping out at 110 km/h) or a slightly taller first gear? I’d say yes, for 50 km/h corners where first is too short to make sense downshifting, and second is still out of its power band. However, this doesn’t even remotely “ruin the experience” in my opinion. Corners that need to be taken below 60 km/h are fairly rare in Ontario (where I and the reviewers are) anyway.

 

Well, that does it... I'm taking their advice to cancel my Spyder order and getting 3 or 4 Miatas and a Plymouth Prowler.

 

Funny how the gearing is too tall in the Spyder since they can't get to 8,000 RPM to stay below the speed limit but at 9,000 RPM in a GT3/Speedster, it's ok to go over the speed limit?

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

Or the 992 turbo s... 0-jail in 2 sec

 

I hope Porsche never changes the gearing in these cars, it's the big flaw that keeps me from being interested in them. If they came out with a GTS 4.0 with the EXACT same 6MT gearing as my base 987.2 (110kph at 7400 RPM in 2nd) I'd be pulling funds from every available crevice to get one.

I don't understand their "they can't do it, the gears won't fit" argument. Did they actually build a new midship 6MT gearbox after the MA1 powered 987 cars? The 3.4 engine was an exact carry over from the 987.2 to the 981 so I doubt they built a new gear box for that. Did they make a new gearbox for the 718? If so can't they just put the old 987.2/981 box back into production?

 

I believe gear ratios are same in the 987. Definitely same as 981

 

That's because it's made up IMO. It would outperform the 911 with shorter ratios and they can't let that happen.

 

991.2 6MT GT3 hits 82 mph at redline in 2nd. These dudes had no issue wringing it out through multiple gears for that car

 

987.2 and 981 base models had shorter gearing to match the less torquey 2.9/2.7L motors. The second gear was 8% shorter for the same engine RPM. On the other hand, the 4.0L engine has 50% more torque, so the 4.0L cars pull a lot harder at the same speed in the same gear despite somewhat taller gearing.

I actually like the long second for highway merging and passing. If second gear topped out at 124 km/h instead of 136 km/h, I’d consider it worse because it would just be a little too short to be an ideal passing gear, and third would be too long for that.

Nevertheless, my ideal gearing would have the following top speeds (km/h) in each gear: 70, 110, 150, 200, 260, 330

 

I totally agree and they even show a clip of a previous drive. It’s all just designed to get views on YouTube (ironically, I watched it): they even specifically address the fact they get paid for views and this is their job. As oppose to a well funded, independent, articulate and technical review.. nothing to see here. The age of professional photojournalism is no longer. If you follow the financial incentives, you will understand behavior more often than not.

 

Oh, I thought this was going to be a review about a car that had straight pipes. Bummer. Had to cut the video short, too boring.