SB

I am really angry at Porsche for ruining the manual transmission by making such a wide gap between 2nd and 3rd gears. They're basically missing a gear between the second and third gears to improve fuel consumption.... and ONLY ON MANUAL transmission car...PDK 2-3 gear spacing is much better! At least on corvette they have second gear lockout for economy (which is an easily defeatable feature with a simple mod as far as I know).
It is not as big of an annoyance during regular driving, but it drives me nuts during spirited driving....
What do you think?

mtbscott

I've never noticed. I think 1-5th are pretty well spaced for 80% of my driving, 6th and 7th for highway speeds.

stevebmd

I do tend to hold second and wind it up to the upper end, but who wouldn't....

SB

I've never had a sports car which had 2500rpm drop between 2nd and 3rd gears at redline. That includes several cars in my past that had 5 gears.

enduro963

Have not noticed it...let me go out...will report back...

certified_prime

That spacing is perfect on the 991 engines, I think. Say you are at 7000rpm in 2nd, and shift to third. It drops you to 4500rpm, which is the start of the torque plateau / power band.

It just means that you need to rev this engine closer to redline more often than not when driving aggressively. Shift too soon, and you drop out of the power band. Reversely, when slowing down, shift as soon as you drop below 4k rpms to get back into the power band.

SB

Do not think in terms of torque (semi's have the most torque, and they're slow). Think about torque at high rpm, which is what HP is. If you look at the dyno chart, you'll see that the engine sweet spot (where HP is near its peak) is from around 6200 to just before the redline. if you shift at 7800, RPM drops to 5700 or so. At 5700, you're giving up about 30HP vs if you were at 6200 (which is where you end up with PDK gear ratios). Porsche has written in literature that third gear in manual has been made taller for improved fuel consumption..... which is a shame. After all, I end up revving the engine higher in 2nd gear because of a wider gap. I want my 997 gear ratios back. BTW, all this improvement in consumption in the city is BS. I'm getting the same 15mpg as i did in my 997.1S. Finally, my last vent is that non-sport engine mode (sport button off) is irritating to me because it tries to smooth out throttle inputs... this is most noticeable when you lift the throttle abruptly and expect engine compression breaking.. instead, ecu deceides to gradually decrease the throttle input for about additional second. I want complete control of the throttle, and that's why sport mode is on all the time.

ds2k1

I love the MT. Best MT I've ever had. But with that said, I'm no expert, and I don't drive at 10/10ths very often. Hell, I don't drive at 8/10ths very often. Other than the weirdness associated with 7th gear (which is covered in another thread...and also easily avoidable), this thing is as snick-snick as they come. Also haven't noticed any issues with the 2-3 shift. No discernible drop in power from my pov.

shizzle

I have to say I really love the MT in this car. I have no problem with the spacing between 2nd and 3rd gears. I've got around 20 track days on this car, and I find that the spacing is bang on, and if you hold the revs up in 2nd gear, 3rd is no problem.

Nicoli35

I love the 2nd-3rd feel

Cogito_Ergo_Zoom

Manual transmission pole? The layshaft?

19_hole

So, coming from a 997.1 and 997.2, I can tell you that the transmission in the 991 is a much better transmission as far as feel goes. For the gear ratios, the first thing I noticed about this car was that I had exatly the same engine RPM in each gear at the same speeds as the 997.2. The only difference is 7th (obviously!) and that is just great for long highway trips.

No complants about the ratios.....

SB

I guess they probably revised gear ratios in 997.2 vs 997.1. Does anyone know if 991 S and non-S gear ratios are the same?

carrerapete

I was reading an automotive magazine today (article comparing the new Jaguar Sports car with Audi and 991S Cab), and the author favored the 991S, but wrote: "It's just a shame that Porsche decided to go with fuel-efficiency gearing in the seven-speed manual transmission."

Mechanic

SB, you have aPM