Carcam

I know it's been discussed a lot before but manually shifting the PDK seems backwards to me (and many others). With my other cars, pulling back did the upshift and with Porsches you need to push forward to upshift. It's something I think that is easy to get used to but still seems counter-intutitve but maybe it's just me since I've head a few M cars. Today I got a Panamera as a loaner and it has the electronic parking brake. It also seems backwards to me. We have 2 other cars with ebrakes and there's nothing to think about; it's just like with the handle on the regular parking brake- to set the brake "pull up" , to release "push down" Very intuitive, just like we've always done in every car forever.

But with the Porsches, to set the parking brake you "push down", to release "pull up". Wtf, how does make sense to anyone? How hard would it have been to make it like everyone else and anyone who has ever drive a car with a mechanical parking brake.

I'm really surprised that you don't have to "pull up" to lower the windows and "push down" to close them. Not a big deal but I'm such a big fan of Porsche engineering, I'm wondering what their thinking was on the ebrake.

roberga

Here is what I found: if you have your hands at 9:3 to upshift all you need to do is squeeze the wheel. The tissue pad at the base of my thumb makes the shift. It works very well. I do have a little experience with the Fiat F-1 and although this is different I like it better.

jakes dad

and I find it very intuitive... Push forward to go faster... pull back to slow down...
Maybe it's because this is the first time I've been exposed to this type of shifting.. again, Ignorance is bliss.

Rushman71

I'm talking with Champion Porsche right now about a fix for the PDK stick portion to swap it to the correct forward to shift down, backwards to shift up, configuration. Anyone saying that isn't correct is just wrong. It's a simple matter of physics in a car capable of braking at over 1G.

Bill_C4S

Ahhh absolutist statements...such a strong basis for logic.

Mike in CA

I normally agree with you Rushman, but geez, 1G isn't much of a deal. Every time you lift a body part you're working against 1G. If one is unable to flick their wrist to shift the gear lever against the g-forces generated by a street car they have bigger problems than we're discussing here. Even in a race car it's not really a big issue otherwise we'd have seen guys driving manual transmissions in the "old days" struggling to move the lever through the shift gate while accelerating or braking. Makes one wonder how they did it, no?

What we're talking about here, in a street car especially, is ergonomic preference and familiarity, not physics.

Rushman71

Sorry, but you guys are just wrong. This isn't a minivan so trying to apply minivan familiarity arguments to a car with this level of capability isn't analogous. It's a car that can brake at over 1G and pulling back while being pushed forward with a force over your own weight (really about 1.4Gs if you calculate the vector) simply isn't correct from a biomechanical interaction standpoint. Same applies accelerating out of tight first gear bends just reversed.

Keep in mind, I am not talking about the wheel buttons. Just the stick.

But if you are telling me that if you were designing a performance car with a sequential stick style shifter that you would design it the way you are defending then you just aren't being intellectually honest.

DrJay

Get the paddles, problem solved...

Mike in CA

I'm not defending anything; I'm simply stating that, physics wise, you're making a mountain out of a molehill. (BTW, who said anything about a minivan?) The physical forces involved are simply insufficient to make a difference. In an F1 car pulling 4G+ on deceleration, maybe, but not in a street car.

I don't know for sure what Porsche's rationale is for designing their shifter this way. My guess is that they wanted to maintain consistency with their past and current (Cayenne) Tiptronic transmissions as well as the Audi/VW DSG gearbox. Also, their standard button shift PDK steering wheel works by pressing either of the two buttons forward to upshift or pulling backwards to downshift, so the stick mimics this. Finally, there is a certain logic to pressing forward to speed up, and pulling backward to slow down and they may have felt this outweighed the inconsequential benefits of synching stick movement with acceleration and deceleration forces.

I'm not saying that you don't have a perfect right to have a preference and that for you, having the stick work the opposite of your expectations, is an annoyance. But to say that it will have a meaningful impact on someones ability to physically operate the car is overstating the case. If you're being intellectually honest then you should be able to see that.

As I mentioned in another thread, if you're smart, you'll leave the PDK lever in auto mode anyway with sport plus engaged, assuming you really want to be quick.

roberga

I guess you have a point however I never bothered much with the shifter off the wheel.

Eric - Plug Guy

Or you could do what thousands of other Porsche owners have done:



Snickety, snick.



Sorry, had to do it.

Rushman71

In street based cars with slow steering racks I drive shuffle hand. It's much more precise than driving crossover and it means you always have maximum leverage at your disposal. Plus, have you seen what happens to someone's crossed arms when the airbag goes off? Saw this happen 3 years ago at Infineon and it wasn't pretty.

Why no proper fixed paddles Porsche? Why on your second try do you still not offer people coming from racing backgrounds at least one proper option out of the two? I don't care which one, just give me one! The thing is, why not make it configurable and give people a choice? Seems like a simple software addition that could be part of the Sport Chrono package to me.

As far as someone asking "why not let the computer do all the work?" That will work just fine driving 10/10ths most of the time, but even then there are instances when it's beneficial to short shift. On the street, choosing your own gear for your mood is always preferable when driving in a sporting manner.

Rushman71

Ankle no workie no more. My heel/toe days are over. Notice the fibula and tibia are screwed together and unfortunately they are going to stay that way.

DrJay

Look, paddles...

Mike in CA

I agree. On the street I use the paddles to shift for myself; when autoxing I leave it in auto sport plus. If you need to override with a short shift an override is always available via paddle or stick.