Age Demographic Poll: Manual vs PDK
 

Given the trend away from manual and toward PDK type gearboxes, I thought it would be interesting to understand if any correlation might exist regarding age demographic and choice of gearbox. For me, now 55 years young, I grew up driving manuals and continue to enjoy rowing my own both on and off the track (except for my daily drivers). I also very much appreciate the visceral experience of the "ground hook" connectedness that only an old-school p-car can provide, at any speed, which of course includes the manual gearbox.

I'm 40 and grew up in Europe with nothing but manuals, and I have no interest in a manual in today's high performance cars. I'm PDK all the way now and not looking back.

36. Great up driving automatics, but tried a manual in college and haven't looked back. I love the experience driving a manual car. The one thing that keeps me with Porsche is NA engines and manual cars. Once those go, I'll probably switch to a Mac or F car.

I am 43, would never buy a PDK and grew up driving manuals, I truly think many buyers buy because the PDK is faster, easier to drive and more people can drive an automatic. With that said, its a moot point. Look at the cars for sale, 2004 gt3 with 7k, 10k. 2018 flippers, cars that are 10 years old with 4k on them. No one is driving them anyway! might as well come with a CVT and no gear selector, just drive.

oh, reason for saying. I put 65k on my work car each year, prob 5k on my truck (around the home, pull the boat somewhere etc) and I have 4k on my gt3 in 6 months. would be way more if obligations to other things allowed more fun driving time. I am not judging, just making a statement that most of these gt cars are not being driven in the manor they where designed for.

29 - PDK for me with 0 doubt. Too lazy to deal with 6MT in all honesty and like focusing on other aspects of the car to avoid worrying about a money shift (like keeping the rear from stepping out too much and the speedometer) when I'm in the canyons, even if it's just between 3rd and 4th. I find the GT3 to be a car that needs to be respected when pushed so I am as alert as I can be with the throttle/steering/tire pressures etc, it can be deceptive based on how easy the car is to drive on regular roads/slower speeds. Plus I drive my GT3 everywhere including the "legendary" 405 in LA

Didn't grow up with a manual, but I did rent a WRX STI to teach myself over a summer (only MT car I could find) and wow that clutch was very sensitive/tough to find the bite point

Admittedly on my wish list though is a 993 with a manual for just occasional fun driving around town, just need more garage space

Haha right on my man, I noticed that too :cheers:

I will say when I am upshifting at 8999.99999 RPM before the fuel cut off at what feels to be light speed and while making sure I am very aware of what's in front of me on a windy road, I would be soiling myself doing that in a manual lol. TBH I don't know that I would wait until that moment to shift in a manual so I view that as one advantage to PDK among others, but just one man's opinion

I hear you. I would be focusing on the tach to make sure I didn't over-rev the engine. And then the focus shifts to...the shift. Again, totally get why people enjoy it, and kudos to Porsche for putting arguably the best manual ever into the GT3. But there is a very real desire to have a PDK, and those people aren't missing anything. Both provide a different "focus" during driving. With my abilities the PDK GT3 lets me experience most of what it has to offer. In a manual, I would have to settle for a lot less performance, mostly because I lack the manual skills (or desire to learn) to really unlock it with that configuration. Now someone like Grant, he gets a lot more from the manual car than I could extract, because he is way better at it than I am. So his engagement level is much higher in his car than I would have in the same car. But don't confuse that for my car lacking any engagement. At least not to me. It is exactly as engaging as I want it to be. Otherwise we are saying Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari don't build engaging cars, and we know that is not the case.

Different strokes...

Both are good. Different characteristics of course. I voted manual but was a close call. I'm in UK so have never owned an auto. Well, except a 1990s Golf GL that idled a little high so would upshift itself to 45 mph without your foot even on the throttle.

PDKS means you spend more time in the higher rev ranges (which is the main USP of a GT3) and manual gives you more engagement during everyday driving.