I will keep buying three pedal cars until they are no longer offered.

 

I have had many Porsches, all manuals. Except my 991S which is PDK. It is great in traffic and ready to play when you are. My turbo will be PDK.

 

They will have to pry your cold dead left foot off the clutch pedal?

 

When the clutch pedal is outlawed only outlaws will have the clutch pedal.
Transmissions don't accelerate cars, gasoline accelerates cars.
I went by three auto parts stores last night, every one of them was cleaned out of manual clutches.
Not one shift **** left on the shelf.
Even the chrome skull with glowing ruby eyes.... all gone.

 

I went from a manual 987 to a PDK 991S. Yes, there is either a racer in that gearbox or Porsche puts a magic wand in each PDK. I am always amazed when I am hammering down a twisty road how that trans can predict what is best-amazing. In daily driving, the gear changes are so smooth that I don't feel them, but hear them due to the engine note through the PSE.

 

Patents exist for immobile console stalks with ***** that use pressure sensitivity to effect transmission actions, provide haptic feedback, allow seletion of modes via prssure sensitive areas (think might mouse), and send information to dash and heads up display (and no doubt to warrenty and insurance officials). Paddles? An entire generation knows the whole word has always been controlled with thumbs. They will have to pry their cold dead thumbs from the shift ****.

Porsche will of course offer an extra cost option to change modes (or perhaps toggle rev matching) with a lever activated by the left foot for the traditionalist. And an Exclusive one that actually pushes into the floor, with a simluated overpressure spring, for the purest.

 

I went through this as well.
I ended up going manual.

The PDK is really nice, it honestly makes me feel like the 991 S has 450HP, its that good.

But in the end, it just was not involved enough for me, and I love the interaction of the manual. I do track the car often, so the PDK would be a bonus for those days, but 90% of the time, its my DD and that is more important to me.

The thing that also drive me nuts about PDK is how Porsche configures the manual shift on the shifter itself, pushing forward should be shifting down not up.

 

Anybody remember when all the cars had a choke ****? You want to try and get the car to start on a cold day, you pull the choke ****. Every car was different, and the same car required a different degree of choke **** pull depending on weather conditions, how warm or cold the engine was, how many times you just tried to get it to start, and how long or roughly it just almost started to idle before it died again. I was kind of young back then but I don't recall my dad or any of his friends speaking fondly of how "involved" this made them feel.

Had the chance one time to watch a guy start up and rev a Bentley, unrestored, and the very car that had once won, (or placed, or something like that) at LeMans. Pretty sure the cockpit included a lever that allowed the driver to adjust the spark advance. Cruising down the straight at LeMans, reaching over to tweak the spark advance. Now all I can think of is how stupid I was not to think to ask the owner if those guys lamented the passing of the manual ignition advance.

Before that there were carbide headlights. Mix up your carbide, add water, light, enjoy illumination for several feet ahead!

Hand crank starters. Now those were the days!

Someday some guy will be saying the same about the clutch pedal. For now I just want to know, how much longer until they get the chrome skull with glowing ruby eye shift ***** back in stock! If you're gonna drive an anachronism, well at least do it in anachronistic style!

 

For some reason, I can't compare the pleasure of choke *****, manual spark advance, and hand cranking an engine to driving a car with a manual transmission.

 

I vaguely recall how I thought the automatic choke on my 66 VW 1300 - really just a wound spring that closed the throttle as the engined warmed it a little-was a step backward. It sometimes got out of adjustment and had to be tinkered with in the engine compartment. The manual pull/push lever on the dash of cars before that worked right every time. They were clearly softening the car for the expanding market. Oops did I day that?

 

I had to do the rear wheel manual shifting Porsche experience at some point in life. Just home from another drive this morning with the top down and almost getting the hang of letting the clutch out while going around a corner from a dead stop and having everything sync as it should perfectly, revving first up into 5500 or 6000 rpms and then sliding into second gear with exactly the right revs, feeling the "golf swing click" of a perfect engagement with the clutch...it's fun. The PDK on my last Porsche was fun, too. It's all fun. Heck, I'm having fun driving my Porsche automobile and I hope you guys are, too. :-) That's all I got.

 

Like I said up there ^^^^^^^ every one of you is correct!

 

Many good points, most of which we've talked about in other threads on this subject, but everyone is playing nice (so far; this subject has gotten really contentious in the past) so it's enjoyable to read through the responses.

Almost everyone agrees that PDK is technologically superior and faster than a MT, but the knock is that it's allegedly not as much "fun" or "involving". With due respect, and realizing this is completely subjective, I disagree. After 40 years of driving MT's in every type of car I've ever owned including all of my sports cars, I took a leap of faith when I bought my '09 Carrera S with PDK. 4 years later, I have absolutely no regrets. The car is as much or more fun and involving as any car I've ever owned. You can drive in manual mode and pick your shift points exactly as with a MT, or use the Auto sport modes when appropriate. I agree with draxa's earlier post that there was a short transition period where some of my MT reflexes were looking for something to do, and the intuitive feeling you have for which gear you're in has to be recalibrated, but that is long past.

I can do things with PDK that you can't do with a manual, which in itself is entertaining. The car is just stupid fast to respond in every traffic or track situation. In fact, I'd suggest that the PDK over MT performance advantage is greater in part throttle driving than it is in all out acceleration, because you can almost instantly select the gear you want and be on the throttle in the time it would take just to reach for the clutch pedal and gearshift.

I completely understand why people still want MT's and I agree with the other posts that the choice between the two depends on personal preference. I also agree that it's hard to go wrong either way. I just wanted to put in a word that PDK is not just fast and efficient, when you learn to use all of it's capabilities it's also really fun.

 

Mike presents a good point that I guess I hadn't fully considered.

It is not necessarily that one is MORE fun than the other, but they probably provide DIFFERENT kinds of fun.

I, for one, am glad that both are available. I suppose I'm becoming old and stodgy (Age 40), and so I'll stick to my manual!

Kevin

 

+1 to all of the above. My other sports car is a. MGB with od on 3 and 4. I love it. And as they say about MG vehicles: Zero to sixty, definitely!

My wife bought the 991 for me for my 60th birthday (a little early) and as she can't drive a stick I ordered the PDK. Frankly, I don't miss shifting. I have enjoyed the 12,000 miles I've drive so far.