GrantG

Just wondering if anyone thinks (or knows) that the next PDK for the GT3 models may have 8 forward ratios, like the one officially announced yesterday for the Panamera.2

Would certainly be a good match for a high-strung NA motor. Either 8 performance ratios (my preference) or 7 with a cruising gear?

I'd still choose a manual 6spd, but 8 performance ratios would make the objective performance gap even wider...

Sean in Texas

Would be surprised if they revise the tranny. It's already fantastic.

8-25 spd gearboxes seem to be a luxo barge battle.

GrantG

Where they have the least benefit...

I'm pretty sure the GT3 (if it stays NA) will get 8 or more gears - just not sure when (maybe 992?)

neanicu

Any gear above 6th is unusable in real world conditions. The car's technology has advanced quite a bit while the roads have remained pretty much the same but populated with a lot more traffic. The only reason manufacturers are putting more gears is for fuel economy. I believe Mercedes has 10 gears at the moment.
So personally,I could care less how many gears they are using,I'm not going to buy their automatic heavy boats anyway...

GrantG

The advantage of having more gears is not to make them taller than the current ones, it's to make all the gears lower and closer together. As the performance of the PDK improves (shifting time), it makes it more advantageous to have more gears. It allows the motor to spend more time closer to the peak power rpm.

Saying that anything more than 6th gear is unusable only makes sense if you know the ratio of 6th gear (which should change depending on the number of gears)...

I agree that at some number of gears, it makes manual shifting of the PDK pointless (some think we are already there with 7 gears), so Auto mode even on track would be the norm...

NateOZ

I doubt it, VW is going to push the Panamera engines accross the group, so I imagine they went with 8 speed to keep that the same as well. It's built off VW's MSB architecture, the Panamera V6 engine will be in the new RS4 and RS5, I can't remember where else the V8 is going.

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GrantG

Reminds me of GM in the 80's where you could have a Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, or Cadillac all built on the same platform with same engines...

neanicu

Do you not think pdk shifts fast enough? I think the next big thing is no transmission at all. Regera doesn't have one...

GrantG

An NA 911 motor is never going to have enough torque to go without a gearbox (Regera has big torque help from electric motors). Something like an efficient CVT would be optimal from a performance perspective (keeps motor at peak hp the whole time). As PDK gets more ratios, it will approximate a CVT.

I'm just talking about max performance (only downside to more gears is weight gain). For my own car, I'll still take manual (but I also love the idea of something like Aston-Martin's dog-leg 7 spd manual for the GT3)...

neanicu

I actually had a conversation with a couple of friends recently. They use cars to go from A to B. They've asked me why I spend so much on cars? The short version : I told them I find tremendous pleasure in driving a sports car from A to nowhere and then back to A. The track is also lots of fun. I also told them I do not find the same pleasure driving any car from A to nowhere and then back to A. I only find pleasure doing that in a sports car that gives me as much control as possible and makes me a better driver.
So,if such a car will not be produced anymore and the older ones won't be allowed on the road,I will certainly become an A to B driver and want the most advanced mean of transportation possible,a self driving one would be best...
Rant over.

neanicu

The GT cars will go either Turbo or NA/electric soon.
The CVT(constant variable transmission) is a terrible transmission! I don't know if you've driven one,they are the worst,completely lifeless. I know Porsche will never make a car with a transmission that feels like the CVT of these days,so we're safe there...

GrantG

I certainly don't want one, but they are the best on paper (laptimes). Unless the efficiency is too low (frictional losses) compared to PDK.

tqevo

Has anyone here even used 7th gear on the track?

GrantG

I would guess so at Nurburgring Nordschleife... SportAuto say 278 kph max speed there (about 173 mph). Or maybe 6th gear is tall enough to go that fast...

But if your point is why do we need 8 gears if we rarely get to 7th: Then my answer is that 8th gear would be the same ratio as the current 7th gear. It's just that you could fit 8 ratios in the same range where 7 are currently used (the other 7 gears could be lower and closer together in ratio), so revs would drop less on upshift and the car would pull harder in each gear. It would be faster 0-60, 1/4 mile, and laptimes even if they don't increase power or anything else. It would feel to the driver as though the motor had a significant torque increase (particularly in 2nd and 3rd gears where the current rev drops are the largest).

batmanm3

Agree...if you project the number of gears up, it comes closer and closer to a CVT...and as mentioned already, CVT are no fun...

The appeal of a high rpm NA motor lies in the ability of the driver to rev it through the powerband and the wonderful exotic noises that accompanies it.

Not as efficient as a CVT or a single geared electric motor but infinitely more entertaining