Need help or a really good shrink!
01-16-2016, 02:43 PM
#16
Rennlist Member
Had a turbo and loved the performance. Love my GTS, and like the exhaust sound better.
01-16-2016, 02:49 PM
#17
Burning Brakes
01-17-2016, 11:07 AM
#18
I had an order for a GTS 4 MT and changed it to a TT. After a year, still not loving the PDK. I bought a '16 BGTS MT and may never sell it. The TT will be gone at some point for sure.
01-17-2016, 11:45 AM
#19
01-17-2016, 12:23 PM
#20
Rennlist Member
Well it's been over 10 hours. What did you get?
01-17-2016, 03:21 PM
#21
Rennlist Member
Okay, I guess it's time for most of you guys to know what lies ahead, that being "old and feeble and having coordination slip." First, my qualifications: I will be 70 in a very short time, during the very first "baby-boomer" month. My body is probably more significantly damaged than the average male's, mostly due to a nice year-long vacation in Vietnam. But, even so, I reckon that most of the physical frailties/inabilities are more age related.
1. Like most of us here on Rennlist, I have adored manual transmissions my entire driving life, and found automatics to remove all the joy from driving. For the most part, I still feel the same way.
2. I live and drive in the greater Boston area, where the traffic, as in almost all metropolitan areas on the planet, is increasing yearly. The increases are sufficient to be painfully obvious to everyone.
3. While the unavoidable heavy traffic is always frustrating, driving a MT car moves into the realm of being a bit painful. By this I mean that my left leg and back start to hurt, whereby I have to scrunch around, which means that my right leg gets into the act as well. But, so far at least, the worst part is that I hate what the incessant stop and go driving is doing to my clutch, no matter how careful I am. All of this together, especially when it can go on for as much as two hours, takes the fun away from driving the MT.
4. Where was I? Oh yes, I need to talk about the dreaded automatic transmission. And even worse, those damn torque converters. There is no need for me to describe these I'm sure. The new automatics (and by this I mean the transmissions that I believe retain the use of torque converters) are far better. You can even use the shift paddles to play with them. Then, of course, we get to the DCT, DSG and finally the PDK. I have never driven a new Ferrari or McLaren, so I cannot comment on those gearboxes. But, Porsche's PDK is about as good as anything I could imagine. The only real negatives have been that non-991GT3 drivers cannot get PDK+ and up until the 991.2 the gearshift up/down direction is wrong.
5. Anticipating that it could very well be my final Porsche purchase, I chose PDK for my ’15 GTS coupe. What influenced my decision is as follows:
a. I’m old, getting feeble, and both will likely get worse. Certainly not better.
b. Traffic continues to get worse, so unless I limit use of the GTS to planned low-density traffic drives, I’m going to be dealing with the MT/traffic issues.
c. I still have two other cars I can drive with MT- a ’96 993 and a ’91 BMW e30.
d. I have never tried a rev-matching MT, but why would they take away one of the greatest pleasures we spent so much time learning, and continuing to perfect as we use the skill every single time we drive? The e30 is set up very well for heel & toe, the 993 requires a Rennline pedal (don’t you guys find it hard to believe Porsche built it that way, even limited by floor-hinged pedals?).
e. As long as I’m not dangerous to others or myself (here is an immediate concern about getting old, feeble and less coordinated) I’d like to continue driving at the circuits within driving distance. I should be able to keep improving incrementally until everything falls off the cliff. I could care less about my lap times; it’s more about having fewer things to do quickly and simultaneously, and not having a so-called “money shift.” Here, I have discovered the one benefit of getting old and… I no longer have to profess prodigious driving talent. Not that I ever had any. My ego is further destroyed each time I attempt to get up from a kneeling position without holding onto something substantial. What’s worse, I have to remember to continue to hold on as I get up or I may very well topple over. Getting a “grip” has new meaning.
6. Getting old is what looks back at you from the mirror. I’m really okay with this. But, the feeble and lack of coordination aspects are very troublesome. Try to look at some of the other activities/sports you enjoy. I’m talking about doing, not watching. Let’s think of a few: tennis, squash, skiing, running, basketball, golf. I’m not even going to think about soccer, football or rugby. I can acknowledge that each of us went through youth and young adulthood with differing levels of athletic skill, speed and coordination. The drop-off of all of these is usually very gradual. However, at some point, you are all going to realize that the s..t has hit the fan. Try a quick sprint sometime, in private of course, so that nobody can see how ridiculous you look. Unfortunately, I seem to have graduated from looking silly doing this to simply having wind-milling motion result in no forward progress. I have no ego left at the track, but crossing a street seems to be a different matter.
7. If you’ve managed to read this far you may have noticed I have said nothing about… wait a minute… mental capacity, cognition, or the lack thereof. Forgetful are we? Names, words that won’t come to mind, what day of the week is it? I sort of retired. It was so much fun for a while. But I ended up having to buy a watch that showed the day of the week and the date. So far I have not lost the month. And, I went back to work, sort of part-time. I bet a lot of you guys are trying to make enough money so that you can retire and play with our toys. I commend you. And, good luck with that. Whatever makes you think that when you are the type of human being who works very hard his whole working life you can easily switch gears (sorry) and suddenly do whatever you damn well please, whenever you want to do it? Personally, I don’t think your odds are very good. I have no shrink skills, but let’s take a look: Structure, whoever imposes it. Constructive activities/accomplishment. What you do matters, to others as well as you. A place to go every day. People to interact with. And I know that commuting and people you may have to work with can be good reasons to want to be away from work. And, if you do try to go back to working some, there are problems that crop up, such as being older and more feeble, and losing coordination and that razor-sharp mental acuity. Hobbies help, certainly. Especially the Porsche hobby. Well, that last one is more of an obsession. Thinking about having to give up driving a Porsche, or any car at all, does not bear thinking about. I am thankful every day that I loving driving and that I am fortunate enough to be able to drive a Porsche. I guess I should be glad that not everyone feels the same way we do, or the fights over these wonderful cars would be brutal.
8. Getting and being old does have a few benefits of course. I can flirt with younger women without having the cops called. They humor me… the women that is. And I suppose the cops are a little taken aback when I occasionally get stopped for driving too quickly. But the best thing is that I will be long gone when nobody will be able to drive the way we do now. Most of the rest of the world does not have this in their blood. They see cars more as lethal weapons and pollution devices, probably particularly in the hands of people who love to actually drive them. And if I recall correctly, Bridgehampton is now some kind of residential development. All of that could be taken away. Don’t ever let them do that to you. There unfortunately is such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. We may be a very small group of passionate enthusiasts who disagree about nearly everything- even MT vs. PDK. I’m trying to focus on what’s important: Drive my 911 until either it dies or I do. A simple but worthy goal, and as each of you gets older, an increasingly important and satisfying one. Owning and driving any 911 has to be one of the very best things in life. I do not regret a single minute. Drive on!
1. Like most of us here on Rennlist, I have adored manual transmissions my entire driving life, and found automatics to remove all the joy from driving. For the most part, I still feel the same way.
2. I live and drive in the greater Boston area, where the traffic, as in almost all metropolitan areas on the planet, is increasing yearly. The increases are sufficient to be painfully obvious to everyone.
3. While the unavoidable heavy traffic is always frustrating, driving a MT car moves into the realm of being a bit painful. By this I mean that my left leg and back start to hurt, whereby I have to scrunch around, which means that my right leg gets into the act as well. But, so far at least, the worst part is that I hate what the incessant stop and go driving is doing to my clutch, no matter how careful I am. All of this together, especially when it can go on for as much as two hours, takes the fun away from driving the MT.
4. Where was I? Oh yes, I need to talk about the dreaded automatic transmission. And even worse, those damn torque converters. There is no need for me to describe these I'm sure. The new automatics (and by this I mean the transmissions that I believe retain the use of torque converters) are far better. You can even use the shift paddles to play with them. Then, of course, we get to the DCT, DSG and finally the PDK. I have never driven a new Ferrari or McLaren, so I cannot comment on those gearboxes. But, Porsche's PDK is about as good as anything I could imagine. The only real negatives have been that non-991GT3 drivers cannot get PDK+ and up until the 991.2 the gearshift up/down direction is wrong.
5. Anticipating that it could very well be my final Porsche purchase, I chose PDK for my ’15 GTS coupe. What influenced my decision is as follows:
a. I’m old, getting feeble, and both will likely get worse. Certainly not better.
b. Traffic continues to get worse, so unless I limit use of the GTS to planned low-density traffic drives, I’m going to be dealing with the MT/traffic issues.
c. I still have two other cars I can drive with MT- a ’96 993 and a ’91 BMW e30.
d. I have never tried a rev-matching MT, but why would they take away one of the greatest pleasures we spent so much time learning, and continuing to perfect as we use the skill every single time we drive? The e30 is set up very well for heel & toe, the 993 requires a Rennline pedal (don’t you guys find it hard to believe Porsche built it that way, even limited by floor-hinged pedals?).
e. As long as I’m not dangerous to others or myself (here is an immediate concern about getting old, feeble and less coordinated) I’d like to continue driving at the circuits within driving distance. I should be able to keep improving incrementally until everything falls off the cliff. I could care less about my lap times; it’s more about having fewer things to do quickly and simultaneously, and not having a so-called “money shift.” Here, I have discovered the one benefit of getting old and… I no longer have to profess prodigious driving talent. Not that I ever had any. My ego is further destroyed each time I attempt to get up from a kneeling position without holding onto something substantial. What’s worse, I have to remember to continue to hold on as I get up or I may very well topple over. Getting a “grip” has new meaning.
6. Getting old is what looks back at you from the mirror. I’m really okay with this. But, the feeble and lack of coordination aspects are very troublesome. Try to look at some of the other activities/sports you enjoy. I’m talking about doing, not watching. Let’s think of a few: tennis, squash, skiing, running, basketball, golf. I’m not even going to think about soccer, football or rugby. I can acknowledge that each of us went through youth and young adulthood with differing levels of athletic skill, speed and coordination. The drop-off of all of these is usually very gradual. However, at some point, you are all going to realize that the s..t has hit the fan. Try a quick sprint sometime, in private of course, so that nobody can see how ridiculous you look. Unfortunately, I seem to have graduated from looking silly doing this to simply having wind-milling motion result in no forward progress. I have no ego left at the track, but crossing a street seems to be a different matter.
7. If you’ve managed to read this far you may have noticed I have said nothing about… wait a minute… mental capacity, cognition, or the lack thereof. Forgetful are we? Names, words that won’t come to mind, what day of the week is it? I sort of retired. It was so much fun for a while. But I ended up having to buy a watch that showed the day of the week and the date. So far I have not lost the month. And, I went back to work, sort of part-time. I bet a lot of you guys are trying to make enough money so that you can retire and play with our toys. I commend you. And, good luck with that. Whatever makes you think that when you are the type of human being who works very hard his whole working life you can easily switch gears (sorry) and suddenly do whatever you damn well please, whenever you want to do it? Personally, I don’t think your odds are very good. I have no shrink skills, but let’s take a look: Structure, whoever imposes it. Constructive activities/accomplishment. What you do matters, to others as well as you. A place to go every day. People to interact with. And I know that commuting and people you may have to work with can be good reasons to want to be away from work. And, if you do try to go back to working some, there are problems that crop up, such as being older and more feeble, and losing coordination and that razor-sharp mental acuity. Hobbies help, certainly. Especially the Porsche hobby. Well, that last one is more of an obsession. Thinking about having to give up driving a Porsche, or any car at all, does not bear thinking about. I am thankful every day that I loving driving and that I am fortunate enough to be able to drive a Porsche. I guess I should be glad that not everyone feels the same way we do, or the fights over these wonderful cars would be brutal.
8. Getting and being old does have a few benefits of course. I can flirt with younger women without having the cops called. They humor me… the women that is. And I suppose the cops are a little taken aback when I occasionally get stopped for driving too quickly. But the best thing is that I will be long gone when nobody will be able to drive the way we do now. Most of the rest of the world does not have this in their blood. They see cars more as lethal weapons and pollution devices, probably particularly in the hands of people who love to actually drive them. And if I recall correctly, Bridgehampton is now some kind of residential development. All of that could be taken away. Don’t ever let them do that to you. There unfortunately is such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. We may be a very small group of passionate enthusiasts who disagree about nearly everything- even MT vs. PDK. I’m trying to focus on what’s important: Drive my 911 until either it dies or I do. A simple but worthy goal, and as each of you gets older, an increasingly important and satisfying one. Owning and driving any 911 has to be one of the very best things in life. I do not regret a single minute. Drive on!
01-17-2016, 03:34 PM
#22
Okay, I guess it's time for most of you guys to know what lies ahead, that being "old and feeble and having coordination slip." First, my qualifications: I will be 70 in a very short time, during the very first "baby-boomer" month. My body is probably more significantly damaged than the average male's, mostly due to a nice year-long vacation in Vietnam. But, even so, I reckon that most of the physical frailties/inabilities are more age related.
1. Like most of us here on Rennlist, I have adored manual transmissions my entire driving life, and found automatics to remove all the joy from driving. For the most part, I still feel the same way.
2. I live and drive in the greater Boston area, where the traffic, as in almost all metropolitan areas on the planet, is increasing yearly. The increases are sufficient to be painfully obvious to everyone.
3. While the unavoidable heavy traffic is always frustrating, driving a MT car moves into the realm of being a bit painful. By this I mean that my left leg and back start to hurt, whereby I have to scrunch around, which means that my right leg gets into the act as well. But, so far at least, the worst part is that I hate what the incessant stop and go driving is doing to my clutch, no matter how careful I am. All of this together, especially when it can go on for as much as two hours, takes the fun away from driving the MT.
4. Where was I? Oh yes, I need to talk about the dreaded automatic transmission. And even worse, those damn torque converters. There is no need for me to describe these I'm sure. The new automatics (and by this I mean the transmissions that I believe retain the use of torque converters) are far better. You can even use the shift paddles to play with them. Then, of course, we get to the DCT, DSG and finally the PDK. I have never driven a new Ferrari or McLaren, so I cannot comment on those gearboxes. But, Porsche's PDK is about as good as anything I could imagine. The only real negatives have been that non-991GT3 drivers cannot get PDK+ and up until the 991.2 the gearshift up/down direction is wrong.
5. Anticipating that it could very well be my final Porsche purchase, I chose PDK for my ’15 GTS coupe. What influenced my decision is as follows:
a. I’m old, getting feeble, and both will likely get worse. Certainly not better.
b. Traffic continues to get worse, so unless I limit use of the GTS to planned low-density traffic drives, I’m going to be dealing with the MT/traffic issues.
c. I still have two other cars I can drive with MT- a ’96 993 and a ’91 BMW e30.
d. I have never tried a rev-matching MT, but why would they take away one of the greatest pleasures we spent so much time learning, and continuing to perfect as we use the skill every single time we drive? The e30 is set up very well for heel & toe, the 993 requires a Rennline pedal (don’t you guys find it hard to believe Porsche built it that way, even limited by floor-hinged pedals?).
e. As long as I’m not dangerous to others or myself (here is an immediate concern about getting old, feeble and less coordinated) I’d like to continue driving at the circuits within driving distance. I should be able to keep improving incrementally until everything falls off the cliff. I could care less about my lap times; it’s more about having fewer things to do quickly and simultaneously, and not having a so-called “money shift.” Here, I have discovered the one benefit of getting old and… I no longer have to profess prodigious driving talent. Not that I ever had any. My ego is further destroyed each time I attempt to get up from a kneeling position without holding onto something substantial. What’s worse, I have to remember to continue to hold on as I get up or I may very well topple over. Getting a “grip” has new meaning.
6. Getting old is what looks back at you from the mirror. I’m really okay with this. But, the feeble and lack of coordination aspects are very troublesome. Try to look at some of the other activities/sports you enjoy. I’m talking about doing, not watching. Let’s think of a few: tennis, squash, skiing, running, basketball, golf. I’m not even going to think about soccer, football or rugby. I can acknowledge that each of us went through youth and young adulthood with differing levels of athletic skill, speed and coordination. The drop-off of all of these is usually very gradual. However, at some point, you are all going to realize that the s..t has hit the fan. Try a quick sprint sometime, in private of course, so that nobody can see how ridiculous you look. Unfortunately, I seem to have graduated from looking silly doing this to simply having wind-milling motion result in no forward progress. I have no ego left at the track, but crossing a street seems to be a different matter.
7. If you’ve managed to read this far you may have noticed I have said nothing about… wait a minute… mental capacity, cognition, or the lack thereof. Forgetful are we? Names, words that won’t come to mind, what day of the week is it? I sort of retired. It was so much fun for a while. But I ended up having to buy a watch that showed the day of the week and the date. So far I have not lost the month. And, I went back to work, sort of part-time. I bet a lot of you guys are trying to make enough money so that you can retire and play with our toys. I commend you. And, good luck with that. Whatever makes you think that when you are the type of human being who works very hard his whole working life you can easily switch gears (sorry) and suddenly do whatever you damn well please, whenever you want to do it? Personally, I don’t think your odds are very good. I have no shrink skills, but let’s take a look: Structure, whoever imposes it. Constructive activities/accomplishment. What you do matters, to others as well as you. A place to go every day. People to interact with. And I know that commuting and people you may have to work with can be good reasons to want to be away from work. And, if you do try to go back to working some, there are problems that crop up, such as being older and more feeble, and losing coordination and that razor-sharp mental acuity. Hobbies help, certainly. Especially the Porsche hobby. Well, that last one is more of an obsession. Thinking about having to give up driving a Porsche, or any car at all, does not bear thinking about. I am thankful every day that I loving driving and that I am fortunate enough to be able to drive a Porsche. I guess I should be glad that not everyone feels the same way we do, or the fights over these wonderful cars would be brutal.
8. Getting and being old does have a few benefits of course. I can flirt with younger women without having the cops called. They humor me… the women that is. And I suppose the cops are a little taken aback when I occasionally get stopped for driving too quickly. But the best thing is that I will be long gone when nobody will be able to drive the way we do now. Most of the rest of the world does not have this in their blood. They see cars more as lethal weapons and pollution devices, probably particularly in the hands of people who love to actually drive them. And if I recall correctly, Bridgehampton is now some kind of residential development. All of that could be taken away. Don’t ever let them do that to you. There unfortunately is such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. We may be a very small group of passionate enthusiasts who disagree about nearly everything- even MT vs. PDK. I’m trying to focus on what’s important: Drive my 911 until either it dies or I do. A simple but worthy goal, and as each of you gets older, an increasingly important and satisfying one. Owning and driving any 911 has to be one of the very best things in life. I do not regret a single minute. Drive on!
1. Like most of us here on Rennlist, I have adored manual transmissions my entire driving life, and found automatics to remove all the joy from driving. For the most part, I still feel the same way.
2. I live and drive in the greater Boston area, where the traffic, as in almost all metropolitan areas on the planet, is increasing yearly. The increases are sufficient to be painfully obvious to everyone.
3. While the unavoidable heavy traffic is always frustrating, driving a MT car moves into the realm of being a bit painful. By this I mean that my left leg and back start to hurt, whereby I have to scrunch around, which means that my right leg gets into the act as well. But, so far at least, the worst part is that I hate what the incessant stop and go driving is doing to my clutch, no matter how careful I am. All of this together, especially when it can go on for as much as two hours, takes the fun away from driving the MT.
4. Where was I? Oh yes, I need to talk about the dreaded automatic transmission. And even worse, those damn torque converters. There is no need for me to describe these I'm sure. The new automatics (and by this I mean the transmissions that I believe retain the use of torque converters) are far better. You can even use the shift paddles to play with them. Then, of course, we get to the DCT, DSG and finally the PDK. I have never driven a new Ferrari or McLaren, so I cannot comment on those gearboxes. But, Porsche's PDK is about as good as anything I could imagine. The only real negatives have been that non-991GT3 drivers cannot get PDK+ and up until the 991.2 the gearshift up/down direction is wrong.
5. Anticipating that it could very well be my final Porsche purchase, I chose PDK for my ’15 GTS coupe. What influenced my decision is as follows:
a. I’m old, getting feeble, and both will likely get worse. Certainly not better.
b. Traffic continues to get worse, so unless I limit use of the GTS to planned low-density traffic drives, I’m going to be dealing with the MT/traffic issues.
c. I still have two other cars I can drive with MT- a ’96 993 and a ’91 BMW e30.
d. I have never tried a rev-matching MT, but why would they take away one of the greatest pleasures we spent so much time learning, and continuing to perfect as we use the skill every single time we drive? The e30 is set up very well for heel & toe, the 993 requires a Rennline pedal (don’t you guys find it hard to believe Porsche built it that way, even limited by floor-hinged pedals?).
e. As long as I’m not dangerous to others or myself (here is an immediate concern about getting old, feeble and less coordinated) I’d like to continue driving at the circuits within driving distance. I should be able to keep improving incrementally until everything falls off the cliff. I could care less about my lap times; it’s more about having fewer things to do quickly and simultaneously, and not having a so-called “money shift.” Here, I have discovered the one benefit of getting old and… I no longer have to profess prodigious driving talent. Not that I ever had any. My ego is further destroyed each time I attempt to get up from a kneeling position without holding onto something substantial. What’s worse, I have to remember to continue to hold on as I get up or I may very well topple over. Getting a “grip” has new meaning.
6. Getting old is what looks back at you from the mirror. I’m really okay with this. But, the feeble and lack of coordination aspects are very troublesome. Try to look at some of the other activities/sports you enjoy. I’m talking about doing, not watching. Let’s think of a few: tennis, squash, skiing, running, basketball, golf. I’m not even going to think about soccer, football or rugby. I can acknowledge that each of us went through youth and young adulthood with differing levels of athletic skill, speed and coordination. The drop-off of all of these is usually very gradual. However, at some point, you are all going to realize that the s..t has hit the fan. Try a quick sprint sometime, in private of course, so that nobody can see how ridiculous you look. Unfortunately, I seem to have graduated from looking silly doing this to simply having wind-milling motion result in no forward progress. I have no ego left at the track, but crossing a street seems to be a different matter.
7. If you’ve managed to read this far you may have noticed I have said nothing about… wait a minute… mental capacity, cognition, or the lack thereof. Forgetful are we? Names, words that won’t come to mind, what day of the week is it? I sort of retired. It was so much fun for a while. But I ended up having to buy a watch that showed the day of the week and the date. So far I have not lost the month. And, I went back to work, sort of part-time. I bet a lot of you guys are trying to make enough money so that you can retire and play with our toys. I commend you. And, good luck with that. Whatever makes you think that when you are the type of human being who works very hard his whole working life you can easily switch gears (sorry) and suddenly do whatever you damn well please, whenever you want to do it? Personally, I don’t think your odds are very good. I have no shrink skills, but let’s take a look: Structure, whoever imposes it. Constructive activities/accomplishment. What you do matters, to others as well as you. A place to go every day. People to interact with. And I know that commuting and people you may have to work with can be good reasons to want to be away from work. And, if you do try to go back to working some, there are problems that crop up, such as being older and more feeble, and losing coordination and that razor-sharp mental acuity. Hobbies help, certainly. Especially the Porsche hobby. Well, that last one is more of an obsession. Thinking about having to give up driving a Porsche, or any car at all, does not bear thinking about. I am thankful every day that I loving driving and that I am fortunate enough to be able to drive a Porsche. I guess I should be glad that not everyone feels the same way we do, or the fights over these wonderful cars would be brutal.
8. Getting and being old does have a few benefits of course. I can flirt with younger women without having the cops called. They humor me… the women that is. And I suppose the cops are a little taken aback when I occasionally get stopped for driving too quickly. But the best thing is that I will be long gone when nobody will be able to drive the way we do now. Most of the rest of the world does not have this in their blood. They see cars more as lethal weapons and pollution devices, probably particularly in the hands of people who love to actually drive them. And if I recall correctly, Bridgehampton is now some kind of residential development. All of that could be taken away. Don’t ever let them do that to you. There unfortunately is such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. We may be a very small group of passionate enthusiasts who disagree about nearly everything- even MT vs. PDK. I’m trying to focus on what’s important: Drive my 911 until either it dies or I do. A simple but worthy goal, and as each of you gets older, an increasingly important and satisfying one. Owning and driving any 911 has to be one of the very best things in life. I do not regret a single minute. Drive on!
Nice op-ed. Good read.
01-17-2016, 05:40 PM
#24
I don't know why people get so opinionated about it. For me Porsche MT vs. PDK is like Blondes vs. Redheads (or Brunettes). I'd had both and love em both. I'm not sure which my next will be, or if it matters.
01-17-2016, 05:56 PM
#25
Burning Brakes
Okay, I guess it's time for most of you guys to know what lies ahead, that being "old and feeble and having coordination slip." First, my qualifications: I will be 70 in a very short time, during the very first "baby-boomer" month. My body is probably more significantly damaged than the average male's, mostly due to a nice year-long vacation in Vietnam. But, even so, I reckon that most of the physical frailties/inabilities are more age related. 1. Like most of us here on Rennlist, I have adored manual transmissions my entire driving life, and found automatics to remove all the joy from driving. For the most part, I still feel the same way. 2. I live and drive in the greater Boston area, where the traffic, as in almost all metropolitan areas on the planet, is increasing yearly. The increases are sufficient to be painfully obvious to everyone. 3. While the unavoidable heavy traffic is always frustrating, driving a MT car moves into the realm of being a bit painful. By this I mean that my left leg and back start to hurt, whereby I have to scrunch around, which means that my right leg gets into the act as well. But, so far at least, the worst part is that I hate what the incessant stop and go driving is doing to my clutch, no matter how careful I am. All of this together, especially when it can go on for as much as two hours, takes the fun away from driving the MT. 4. Where was I? Oh yes, I need to talk about the dreaded automatic transmission. And even worse, those damn torque converters. There is no need for me to describe these I'm sure. The new automatics (and by this I mean the transmissions that I believe retain the use of torque converters) are far better. You can even use the shift paddles to play with them. Then, of course, we get to the DCT, DSG and finally the PDK. I have never driven a new Ferrari or McLaren, so I cannot comment on those gearboxes. But, Porsche's PDK is about as good as anything I could imagine. The only real negatives have been that non-991GT3 drivers cannot get PDK+ and up until the 991.2 the gearshift up/down direction is wrong. 5. Anticipating that it could very well be my final Porsche purchase, I chose PDK for my ’15 GTS coupe. What influenced my decision is as follows: a. I’m old, getting feeble, and both will likely get worse. Certainly not better. b. Traffic continues to get worse, so unless I limit use of the GTS to planned low-density traffic drives, I’m going to be dealing with the MT/traffic issues. c. I still have two other cars I can drive with MT- a ’96 993 and a ’91 BMW e30. d. I have never tried a rev-matching MT, but why would they take away one of the greatest pleasures we spent so much time learning, and continuing to perfect as we use the skill every single time we drive? The e30 is set up very well for heel & toe, the 993 requires a Rennline pedal (don’t you guys find it hard to believe Porsche built it that way, even limited by floor-hinged pedals?). e. As long as I’m not dangerous to others or myself (here is an immediate concern about getting old, feeble and less coordinated) I’d like to continue driving at the circuits within driving distance. I should be able to keep improving incrementally until everything falls off the cliff. I could care less about my lap times; it’s more about having fewer things to do quickly and simultaneously, and not having a so-called “money shift.” Here, I have discovered the one benefit of getting old and… I no longer have to profess prodigious driving talent. Not that I ever had any. My ego is further destroyed each time I attempt to get up from a kneeling position without holding onto something substantial. What’s worse, I have to remember to continue to hold on as I get up or I may very well topple over. Getting a “grip” has new meaning. 6. Getting old is what looks back at you from the mirror. I’m really okay with this. But, the feeble and lack of coordination aspects are very troublesome. Try to look at some of the other activities/sports you enjoy. I’m talking about doing, not watching. Let’s think of a few: tennis, squash, skiing, running, basketball, golf. I’m not even going to think about soccer, football or rugby. I can acknowledge that each of us went through youth and young adulthood with differing levels of athletic skill, speed and coordination. The drop-off of all of these is usually very gradual. However, at some point, you are all going to realize that the s..t has hit the fan. Try a quick sprint sometime, in private of course, so that nobody can see how ridiculous you look. Unfortunately, I seem to have graduated from looking silly doing this to simply having wind-milling motion result in no forward progress. I have no ego left at the track, but crossing a street seems to be a different matter. 7. If you’ve managed to read this far you may have noticed I have said nothing about… wait a minute… mental capacity, cognition, or the lack thereof. Forgetful are we? Names, words that won’t come to mind, what day of the week is it? I sort of retired. It was so much fun for a while. But I ended up having to buy a watch that showed the day of the week and the date. So far I have not lost the month. And, I went back to work, sort of part-time. I bet a lot of you guys are trying to make enough money so that you can retire and play with our toys. I commend you. And, good luck with that. Whatever makes you think that when you are the type of human being who works very hard his whole working life you can easily switch gears (sorry) and suddenly do whatever you damn well please, whenever you want to do it? Personally, I don’t think your odds are very good. I have no shrink skills, but let’s take a look: Structure, whoever imposes it. Constructive activities/accomplishment. What you do matters, to others as well as you. A place to go every day. People to interact with. And I know that commuting and people you may have to work with can be good reasons to want to be away from work. And, if you do try to go back to working some, there are problems that crop up, such as being older and more feeble, and losing coordination and that razor-sharp mental acuity. Hobbies help, certainly. Especially the Porsche hobby. Well, that last one is more of an obsession. Thinking about having to give up driving a Porsche, or any car at all, does not bear thinking about. I am thankful every day that I loving driving and that I am fortunate enough to be able to drive a Porsche. I guess I should be glad that not everyone feels the same way we do, or the fights over these wonderful cars would be brutal. 8. Getting and being old does have a few benefits of course. I can flirt with younger women without having the cops called. They humor me… the women that is. And I suppose the cops are a little taken aback when I occasionally get stopped for driving too quickly. But the best thing is that I will be long gone when nobody will be able to drive the way we do now. Most of the rest of the world does not have this in their blood. They see cars more as lethal weapons and pollution devices, probably particularly in the hands of people who love to actually drive them. And if I recall correctly, Bridgehampton is now some kind of residential development. All of that could be taken away. Don’t ever let them do that to you. There unfortunately is such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. We may be a very small group of passionate enthusiasts who disagree about nearly everything- even MT vs. PDK. I’m trying to focus on what’s important: Drive my 911 until either it dies or I do. A simple but worthy goal, and as each of you gets older, an increasingly important and satisfying one. Owning and driving any 911 has to be one of the very best things in life. I do not regret a single minute. Drive on!
