My experience is based on the last 14,000 miles of so. I could be wrong of course.

My theory is that if you put your foot to the floor in any automatic driving mode, it overrides any setting anyway, making all those "driving modes" look like marketing jargon.

Imagine being in a situation where you are in a 911, you give it full throttle, and the car responds by only giving you 90% of what it is capable of. I think that is pretty unlikely for a number of safety and design reasons.

As far as "getting the car ready" for overtaking, you dont have to twiddle around with "drive modes".

If you lightly press the throttle whilst preparing to overtake, the car will respond by changing down gear or three cogs and alter the shift point in preparation for you giving it the beans - no matter what driving mode you are in.

Therefore, I don't really see the point is in the drive modes. They are a pretty nasty invention that seems to have sprung up over the last 10 years in a few makes of cars.

That probably explains why when I have asked the direct question "what do the drive modes do?" no one wants to answer me.

That is because I think the drive modes only make a difference to the engine under partial throttle openings.

The damper settings might get tweaked a bit, but it is so stiff anyway I cant tell on the public road.

Give the 992 full throttle and it gives you back 100%, overriding everything.

Fine by me.

 

I think what politeP said is true. Stabbing the throttle pedal in normal automatic mode gives you all the passing power . The sport modes are what they are , give you the sportier feel in day to day driving If desired with higher rpm shifts and automatic opening of sport exhaust And in sport plus dampers are stiffened by default to give you even more connection to road especially with spasm Suspension

sport chrono , sport modes for exhaust and suspension Gives few more options to suit the drivers mood .

 

Fleet mpg matters. I wonder to what extent drive modes enable manufacturers to game that by having higher mpg modes even if they don’t really get used.

 

Also understand that engine mapping is different is regular, sport and Sports plus. One reviewer commented on their being (mainly in the base) a delay in reacting to inputs in regular mode which was eliminated in teh Sports and sports plus modes. I know in my boxster these was a clear difference to the car in regular vs sports mode and truthfully regular mode was most unimpressive

 

True; the early PDK 997's were slugs without sport mode. But they got good mileage.

 

Yeah, I think alot of drive modes (not just for Porsche) involve throttle mapping and engine mapping, especially when it comes to shift points.

For example, in a GT3, in Sport+ the PDK-S will not shift until closer to redline, whereas in regular Sport it'll just shift closer to 4k to maximize fuel economy.

 

The service tech at my Porsche dealer stated that overboost is a part of the Sports response, among other things

 

I think there may be some foreshadowing here. I was watching Doug DeMuros new video on the p1 gtr (goals) and he brought up McLarens IPAS button. It is for over boost for the hybrid power train (mainly the electric portion). This leads me to believe Porsche is following in McLarens footsteps and will further integrate this with their hybrid. Could be wrong but it makes a lot of sense to me. So for in the short time, yes it probably does some, but the end game in my eyes is for the hybrid.

 

That said, the full electric Taycan doesn't have a Sport Response button, so Porsche might have a different design philosophy compared to McLaren.

 

I was wondering why I didn't have this button on my Drive Mode controller (2022 C4s).
And there's the answer--because I have a manual transmission car.

Thanks @aggie57 .

M

 

You don’t need it in an electric car as you get almost instant increase in engine power when you ask for it. Not so with an ICE engine.

While the shifts with the PDK are quick, revving the engine is still a relatively slow process. Rev the engine at a standstill and you hear how it gradually spools. You don’t want that. For example when racing you don’t want to put it in neutral and drop the RPM as you slow into a corner and then have to start revving the engine as you exit the corner. Instead you want to keep the engine at close to redline at all times. Yes, the PDK will shift quickly up and down while you stay close to redline, but you don’t want to drop the RPM to near idle and have to rev from there. That takes time and has nothing to do with the transmission.

So pressing the button will rev the engine and put you in the right gear. Not available in manual as you do that manually. Not available in the Taycan as electric engines spool almost instantaneously.

 

Fellas, it’s right on Porsche’s website. It DOES give you additional boost, for a limited amount of time, hence the countdown.

 

While I think this topic has been beaten to death…multiple times…a link to prove your assertion would be nice?

 

Has it? And yet you still want proof. Here is a link to prove my assertion. Be sure to scroll down.

https://www.porschenewportbeach.com/...ving-modes.htm

 

A very liberal interpretation of "want a little boost" IMHO.