Joe@Fabspeed

I have owned 20 manual cars over the years and driven many Ferrari f1 trans cars and the newest PDK cars are great all the time street or track. You can not go wrong with PDK if you are tracking or racing th car you are at a major disadvantage with manual no matter how well you can heel and toe

Enjoy both

I'm sticking with PDK on my next Porsche newer style cars. When I need a manual fix I have a 930, 360' , 993rscs, 993 cab , and gallardo 6spd

All the new hyper cars are PDK mclaren, all Ferraris, adventador, 991gt3 it's only going to get worse

Porsche is discontinuing manuals

FullThrottle64

That would be a really good reason to buy a manual - resale value.

LexVan

Because YOU want one. Don't worry about the next guy. There's an a$$ for every seat.

FullThrottle64

It depends on how long you intend to own the car. If you intend to hold it for 4-5 years or more, don't worry about resale value - time will do more than option content. If you're going to let it go in 2-3 years or less, resale is probably something you should think about; it seems that the options (PDK, Sport Chrono, PCCB, leather, etc.) depreciate faster than the base car value does.

Add to that the fact that if Porsche DOES eliminate manuals, the last year or two of those 6MTs will be highly sought-after - I'd bet they would command a premium above a PDK-equipped car, simply because everyone who wants to have a manual will be trying to get their final buy in.

mikymu

Thanks for the feedback. Sequential gear shift be it peddle or stick is and will always be faster than manual that's why all the race car now days use some form of sequential. PDK definitely has it's value for fuel economy and easy of driving but it's missing something ...

If I would be buy a Cayman/boxster for myself it will be a PDK - for it's efficiency but not for fun factor

90% of driver on street will never notice the difference between manual and PDK unless you drive illegal speed. PDK's true potential is fully realized on the track - few 1/10 second shaved each turn and couple seconds shaved every 5-6 laps. For just purpose of fun on street I will stay with manual. Like you said, may be we should get the last manual Porsche offer before gear change and driving get relegated to silicon chips to extract every last possible digital efficiency

David A

Is it true that if the PDK ECU detects too much heat it will lower the shifting RPM? PDK or manual, make sure you have an LSD.

fast1

After driving manual sports cars for decades the transition to an automatic will be a challenge for me. Of course if I were still in competitive racing, PDK would be a no brainer. On the street however, where 1\10s of a second aren't critical, other considerations may prevail.

I was very fortunate to get a Cayman with PDK as a loaner about a year ago. For the first 15 minutes, I was enthralled by the PDK technology. After 30 minutes however, I began to get bored. So if I took a relatively short test drive in a Porsche with PDK, it would certainly have been on my order list. Maybe it's something that I would eventually grow to love, but for now I will be faithful to the manual as long as it's an option.

BGB Motorsports

This is not necessarily true and I'm only chiming in because I happened to be bored and can't sleep. If you put a cooler on the PDK, you can even endurance race it without the ECU getting angry at you. I drove a customer's car myself at Sebring in July for 2 hours straight as part of a 3 hour NASA enduro. Like you, I was a skeptic as to the PDK's reliability in an endurance format but Porsche really has delivered a very robust package with the PDK. It just needs more cooling when it's in the Cayman because of how everything sits in the engine bay, if you endurance race it at the club level for longer than 40 minutes.

I can't remember the original poster's name but I saw a Honda Challenge car in his avatar and I want to drive it!!!! I don't think we have ever met. I'm not here to convince you to buy a Cayman and let us turn it into anything. I clicked on the link since it was a PDK discussion but started day-dreaming so to speak, about the days of Honda Challenge in So Cal 10 years ago. Take care.

mikymu

Very good feedback John. I am OP and my name is Mike

Yes, I have a 07 H2 Honda challenge civic and it is a blast to drive! These civic engine are build well and I redline almost every gear change and run without dry sump. Talking about fun, this car match BSR speed as shown below and brings a smile to your face on the track.

I test drove the Cayman S to see what PDK and 6 speed feel like in these new platform. The glaring deficit is power. If it has 50 extra hp it will be a blast regardless of tranny selection

little chase with mooty's BSR



my civic sandwich between sharks

Joe@Fabspeed

I have spoken to several high up Porsche ag and usa employees. The manual trans is certainly going away and very soon. Get em while you can. The Tiptronic and sports matic were lousy but these new PDK trans are truly great.

Maybe I'm old at 53 but shifting isn't that much fun or engaging anymore since the Ferrari F1 trans is so very good as are the newest PDK transmissions. If I'm racing I'm watching the line better and not having to worry about heel n toe matching revs and etc. I can shift as well as anyone. The general public is weak on manual transmissions even if they drive a manual.

The old Porsche pre G50 transmissions were terrible and some of the water cooled manuals were not that great either. I had 4 GT2 RS cars in the shop over the last several months and these are hard to shift and balky. Porsche insiders say they are sick of rebuilding GT3 and other manual transmissions from Porsche de racers and street guys that bang shifts, grind gears and mechanically over rev engines from missed shifts and demand porsche warranty work. You guys on this forum are GungHo and intelligent can u imagine what some jersey shore type leasee in a GT3 does to the manual trans ?

Can you imagine how many people bust up manual transmissions and blame it on the transmission because they don't care can't shift match revs and have the red mist on the street and race track.

Porsche sells I think over 80% PDK and therefore a single reliable unbreakable idiot proof transmission is the best choice for their business goals and objectives. We may not agree on manual versus enhanced f1 style manual matics but reality is approaching.

One reason I had not bought F1 trans on lambo and Ferrari cars is because they charged up to 10k more and I wanted to save money and was a manual die hard. I also new Tiptronic was beat and when I ordered a 2009 Porsche 997.2 Porsche wanted several thousand for PDK and I did not trust Porsche telling me PDK was great. I assumed it was an enhanced Tiptronic .

Get em while you can the writing is on the wall Porsche is phasing out manuals.

Get your self an old 930 4 speed it's a way back machine!

ricster

Joe is right unfortunately. 5 years or less I hear and it will be all PDK cars. Cafe standards a d magazine numbers are also to blame and that younger folks never learned stick.

PDK= boring but faster
Manual= fun and more engaging.

terbiumactivated

I'm sure someone in history made the same complaints about power steering and power brakes, gee they're taking all my fun and road feel.....

FullThrottle64

Dragstrip = PDK wins
Road course = PDK wins
Backroad toy = Manual wins
Automotive jewelry = PDK wins
Barstool racing / magazine specs - PDK wins

The question is what percentage of Porsche buyers buy their cars for weekend jaunts in the twisties. 5%? 25%?

Also, if it's really not financially viable for Porsche to continue to offer a manual, why are they still selling it for less than the price of PDK?

Dr.Bill

Because they are not stupid. By charging more for PDK, they make 80% of people buying a Porsche pay even more for it. That way they can make the base MSRP look more reasonable to the masses.

FullThrottle64

Perhaps, but that's an awfully expensive marketing project. They don't need to artificially inflate the PDK option price if it is truly what more people want, so the only benefit would be from the perception of a lower MSRP. That seems stretched to me......

In contrast, if they put the price at PDK level and gave people a "no-cost" choice between the PDK and 6/7MT, wouldn't margins actually be higher? Is the whole point to artifically ascribe higher value to PDK?