rglbegl

So the people who like manual are archaic fools and drama kings?
And the Auto lovers are elitists on the cutting edge of technology?

Am I getting it right?

MarcusG

If the 991 GT3 offered a manual I would have waited for it.

That being said, a guy who I work with who has owned and 996 GT3 and now drives a Panamera would only consider a 997.2 GT3. He may just try to get his hands on a 911 50 in a MT because of it.

I'm not going to lie though. I didn't want to leave this car in the garage and I sit in quite a bit of traffic so the PDK is quite nice.

Like Kosmo and Douglass said about my blonde or brunette comment.... why can't you love both? I do.

rpilot

+1


If you had read any of my other posts, you will realize I have NEVER insinuated that the involvement or any other adjective that you want to choose that sums up the thrill of driving a MT, is an invalid one. To the contrary, I have admitted I do like it myself and I still own a MT car. The point I have tried to make is...

A) MT is not the ONLY way to experience the thrill of driving.

B) PDK in its current incarnation and similar competing transmissions from other manufacturers have crossed the performance threshold in being superior for any competitive activity.

C) PDK is superior as a daily driver for a majority of owners if you do not have access to open roads.

D) Putting a transmission like a PDK makes sense (performance and business wise) into a car like a turbo.

E) The demographic who insist that A) is wrong and buy (and I mean buy new from Porsche) a Turbo is a very small one indeed to make a lot of business sense / case for a manual.

----

And with that I am probably done talking about these topics, but I am certainly done wasting my time responding to you.

mrstep

Kind of a funny first post and follow-up after commenting on the other thread about the lack of civility. "...I am certainly done wasting my time responding to you.". Lol.

A) True, but for time NOT on a track, of which probably 99% is not driven at 9/10-ths (at least not if you're planning on keeping your license), it's still more entertaining. Not for stop and go.

B) Right, if you're on a track, you're busy either way, and it's easier to be competitive if you take shifting out of the equation.

C) Yes, though a sedan is fine for sitting in traffic too.

D) Jein. See E.

E) Certainly, it's hard to argue the business side. PDK makes it much easier for people who often never learned MT (in the US, in any case) to drive the cars, and that's going to lead to more sales. And since that's what companies are after (particularly once they're all absorbed into a few car-conglomerates with shared parts and cross-marketing carefully selling the same platforms across brands - sounds a bit like the Big 3), there is no chance they're NOT going to push automatics.

The real questions is whether it would make sense on something like the Turbo to have a manual option. If we're talking about going from a 3.1 to a 3.5-ish sec 0-60 as the "penalty", it doesn't really seem that terrible, particularly for the non-track-targeted Turbo. For a GT3 that will presumably be tracked (?), even as a MT lover I'd say PDK is going to be more competitive, so it doesn't kill me that it's not offered there.

See, we don't need a thread about a MT vs. PDK thread, we can just have 2 threads going at once!

terbiumactivated

In another thread a guy stopped just short of calling me an idiot for having a Spyder with PDK, essentially saying it ruins the spirit of the car. At 28, a car ran a stop sign and made a left turn into the path of my SECA 750. The collision broke my spine in four spots. All these years later, these injuries have compromised my left leg. I didn't think I'd like PDK, just figured like skiing, scuba, golf and bowling driving sports cars was over too. Then I drove a 911 with PDK and was not only happy with the technology, I felt it delivered just as much fun as my MT car. In fact after owning it now and considering what MT is like during a highway crawl event, I actually think I prefer the PDK. I totally understand you MT passionate guys, I didn't own a automatic, my company car was the first one, so I get why you like em, I was one of you but I have to tell you PDK IMO is pretty sweet.

Noah Fect

Has anyone pointed out that the only reason we need to shift gears in the first place is because of an unfortunate and unresolvable problem in the physics behind the internal combustion engine, and that this fact implies strongly that the best transmission is one that most closely approximates not having a transmission at all?

No?

Well, here goes.

tangram

Porsche can build as many PDKs as they want as long as they still offer a MT to those who prefer it!

I'm in the camp that believes that only offering a PDK in the new GT3 and Turbo was a rare but major misstep on the part of Porsche senior management. Porsche has an opportunity to differentiate itself from other luxury sport car manufacturers by continuing to offer a manual option. But, it looks like they are headed down the path of others which is a real shame. I certainly hope they don't make the same mistake with the 991 and go completely PDK. Crikey, given the number of 911 variants on offer, surely it isn't that big a deal to continue offering a manual option for the the lineup.

rpilot

That is on the money. Well said.

I did point out something similar for a Tesla earlier in the parallel thread too.

rpilot

My statement was directed only to that one person and comments about lack of civility in the parallel thread were directed to him also. I agree however, I should have been more civil myself.

In item E of my previous post, I was implying the turbo, I missed the word earlier. It has been corrected.