96redLT4

I read with some interest the long thread below of the 991 'losing' the manual transmission option, started by someone who interestingly never rejoined the discussion. I am surprised how many PDK fans no longer argue that it is a manual transmission without a clutch pedal. Is this because most people just let the car shift automatically? Nothing bad about this of course, as the car seems to do a better job, especially in sport plus than most humans could.
Jim

rglbegl

Hammer911

These threads are a cross between déjà vu and a bad car wreck

gota911

rpilot

Now we have a thread about a thread? ...Awesome !!

FullThrottle64

I'm betting on at least ten pages of debate over the debatethread.

GSIRM3

Could someone explain what a PDK is ?

rpilot

It's an acronym (Porsche Drama Kings) for a select group of people (usually men) who are united in their desire for the absolute and utter hate of Porsche's Dual clutch automated manual transmission.

They throw a tantrum whenever they hear of the onward march of technology and cannot stand the fact that some Porsche models are only available with said transmissions, regardless if they can or want to own one.

Note: This group is different than the manual transmission connoisseurs who like them for their own sake.

FullThrottle64

PDK is the acronym for Porsche's dual-clutch automated transmission. It's not the same sort of automatic as you probably grew up with - there is no torque converter, so the feel is a lot more like a true manual. What is different is that there are two separate layshafts and gear stacks, with two separate clutches - one for each gear stack. When one gear is in use, the other stack has the nest likely gear pre-selected, so the "shift" only consists of letting one clutch out and engaging the other - really, really fast. The clutches are computer-controlled, so that you never get both engaged at the same time (which would destroy the gearbox). It would be virtually impossible for a human to control both clutches, so even in "manual" shifting mode, the transmission's processor is running the show, with the driver using wheel-mounted paddles to tell it when to shift up or down.

For some people, it is the devil incarnate, and is part of a conspiracy to eliminate full control of their cars. For others, it is the latest street embodiment of pure F1-derived high-performance technology, allowing much faster shifting and less time spent in neutral.

socalsteve

Automated manual sure sounds like an oxymoron to me...

Just sayin'

Steve

MarcusG

Automated Manual. //

Yea, I want to know what the Germans would feel about all of this? lol

I told my wife it's an automated manual so she cant drive it since she can't drive stick. I wondering how long I will get away with it and what kind of hell I'm in for when she realizes it has a little "D" above the gear shift lever.

96redLT4

My wife said the same thing when I was looking at a ttS-' oh that means I can drive it too' Hmmm. And my soon to be driving teenage daughter?
J

chuck911

I've explained many times that PDK is a manual gearbox with electronically controlled shifting. Quite a mouthful, which might explain why people give up and surrender to "automatic". But by saying "automatic" people unwittingly evoke the long history of hydraulic automatic transmissions and all the awful connotations it conjures up. This especially gets a lot of the most hard core dyed in the wool drivers upset, because they know automatics are anathema to driving. Which they are. This sadly results in the group that by all rights ought to be most appreciative of PDK instead yielding up some of its most die hard critics. A lot of which goes back to the misuse of language.

In plain point of fact it is much more accurate to say that PDK represents to the fullest extent yet the perfection of the manual transmission.

rpilot

True...

Chuck, in all fairness socalsteve does have a point on the terminology. But you are on the right track also...

IMO, PDK should be defined an automatic transmission because it does shift automatically. The fact that it's internals are like a manual (ie: no torque converter and the hydraulic stuff) but then again there are two clutches instead of one also.

Technically, in the classic sense PDK or DCT acronyms used by other companies are fully self descriptive in themselves. They are neither the traditional auto nor the traditional manual. In their advertising they may, or we may call them automated manual to better describe what they are, but that does not mean that it is a perfect way to describe it. And to the non-technical / non-enthusiast buying public, a traditional auto, a cvt or a dct-type box is all an automatic, irrespective of the gentleman above whose wife has not yet caught on.

chuck911

Yes, I see. Its not an automated manual, its an automated gearbox. But it can be controlled manually too. So its not that either. Its... PDK!