You are talking about crippled US models and US power figures here. The REAL (read: European) C3.2 always had 231 BHP. Regardless of transmission, 915 or G50.

 

From '84 thru '86 that's true but from '87 on there was also a cat version(M298) of the 930/25 for FRG, Austria, Switz,, Sweden and Australia that used the same 21hp 3.2 930/25 as US, there was also a 207 hp 930/25 w/ detuned DME for Australia

There were 2 different 231hp versions of the 3.2
930/20 was the original non cat RoW version
930/26 in MY86 was also 231hp for Switz, Swd, and Australia

for 97 the /26 was Sweden only

 

Yes yes, there were other crippled versions as well. Nothing to do with transmission change from 915 to G50.

 

So Mr. Suckho - the 6% difference in HP relegates the US version as a cripple? And the 6% variation constitutes the difference between "Real" and what? Fake? Fake 911's for the US?

Perhaps just a little bit of exaggeration there....

 

There was a reason for those variations with less power. The reason was not to compensate gear boxes. Original 231 bhp was always there since -84.

Same kind of variations existed for SC before, but then always with 915 box.

 

I have owned a 915 transmission 1985 911 for nearly 39 years and 127,000 miles, and a 911 SC with the 915 for another 5 years, and I never , ever, wished that I had a different transmission. They just felt so natural, and never an issue.

But I did read the articles praising the G50, and I did get a chance to drive a then relatively new 1987 911 with the G 50, and I didn’t think the hype over the G50 was warranted. If anything, I thought that particular G50 had a “clunk” when shifting. It was good that I compared the G50 to my 915 myself rather than rely on someone else’s opinion. I am also curious as to whether all of the articles sprang from a single article, or whether numerous people came to the same conclusion independently.

I personally have a different comparison, to wit, a 2011 997.2 with what I assume is an even more modern six speed manual transmission than the G50, and I believe that the 997 six speed is about as perfect as a manual transmission can get, but I don’t have any let down from a driving happiness perspective when I switch over to my 1985 911; I may have a very slightly longer pause between shifts in the older car, but it’s second nature.

Thinking about all the miles, and what has to be millions of gear shifts, it is amazing just how robust and reliable the 915 has been.

Mike

 

The 915 box looks like it has shorter gearing, particularlywith the Euro cars. The chart is from Tony Corlett's definitive book on the 3.2s.
He also said the 3.2 915 transmission had an transmission oil cooler to cope with the increased power over the SC. He says, "...the problems associated with cooling oil in the tpe 915 gearbox effectively caused its demise." The G50 did not need an oil cooler.

 

I agree with Mike as I have the exact same pair of 911s. I never think of the difference when I switch cars. Both reward you in different ways.

The 915 experience is unique. There is nothing like the feeling I get when I do the 2-3 or 4-5 shift just right and it feels like a sequential gearbox. To get that feeling you have to have just the right amount of push and shove on the lever. Hard to do everytime but when I get it exactly right I smile.

 

The reason for variation in power output was solely due to emissions regs that required specific tuning and and cats to satisfy, the main culprits here are cats in the exhaust and cr
/20 &/2 have 10.3 & no cat, /21 & /25 have 9.5 w/ cat
Here's a survey of the transmissions used in Carrera 3.2, the US variants definitely have the edge as in performance gearing

 

I'm a PCA national HPDE instructor, and this weekend I was fortunate to drive student cars with 915 and G50 gearboxes back-to-back. I think both felt about the same. Both were far tighter and more precise than the 901 gearboxes in my '67 and '69.

 

Agreed. Emissions, regulation, and availability of quality fuel.

Not wanting to argue, just asking.. based on what numbers on this table you see US variants having definitely edge over ROW?

 

So what might the HP be for the 10.3 no cat Euro motor that gets a cat (and nothing else changed) put on in the US? Must be below 231 but where?

 

for performance higher in lower gears and lower in higher gears is generally preferred, you can look at either ratios or speed in gears
here's the survey w/ SC/RS added for comparison, all normalized to same tire and rpm

 

I guess they wanted to compensate the drop in torque and power and keep the responsivity on decent level by lowering ratios for top gears? SC/RS use-case is so different, power as well, so goals were different there as well.

That RPM on next gear is actually interesting number.. though 6800 RPM is pretty high reference number.

 

The surveys were normalized to show only differences in trans gearing, In practice tires and engine characteristics make a big difference in actual performance
for instance when I put a modified 993 engine in my '76 Carrera the stock 915/44 w/ 245/45 x16 tires was way to low for street use, I tried 275/40 x17 tires but wasn't too happy w/ that so went to 255/40x 17 and a 915/67, that is a very sweet combination, the gearing ( at least thru 5) is similar to my g50/30 RSR trans in my 993RS powered 993 w/ 285/30 x18 tires,but again actual performance is way different between the 2, the '76 being way better for street use and the 993 way better on a track