Is anyone driving in normal ? Yesterday on a early Sunday drive up hwy 1 from Santa Cruz north , I decided to test “ normal “ at 65 mph . To my surprise rpm s at this speed were 1200 + . I was uncomfortable hearing my motor lugging . I can’t imagine it being good for the motor . 8 th gear , 65 miles per hr , 1200 rpm . Am I missing something. I am assuming that I would be at 95 mph to have get rpm s adequate. . When I was thinking about break in rpm’s under 4000 I thought this might be challenging. I soon found out that going above that would be some exciting driving. I am just under 2000 miles so will be opening up the car when available can’t wait to see what it will do . Pretty sure I will be in sport mode

 

Due to twin turbo the vehicle has lots of torque at relatively low RPM. If the PDK transmission was happy you should be happy. It'll downshift as needed. Not to worry.

 

PDK has always done this, right from the 1st 997’s. Back then you could get a PDK with only normal mode, I remember driving a Cab spec’d that way at the time. It was horrible.

 

Normal mode in the PDK is fine. When you step on it it kicks down and has plenty of power. And if you are driving sedately it can be a good MPG vehicle.

 

It’s not lugging. That’s the advantage of turbochargers. The PDK won’t let you lug anything in auto mode.

 

Someone correct me if I am mistaken, but it's not really lugging the engine if you are simply cruising at a low RPM, or at a high gear, as long as you are not trying to accelerate or pass.

It's only lugging when you try to accelerate with the rev range at (too) low RPM, or at a (too) high gear.

 

Its Porsche programming MPG into the car.

On the surface it seems fine I’m sure.

IMHO when you pair this with modern silver engine bearings and low tension piston rings it never made mechanical sense to have a car with low RPM and low relative oil pressure (at that low RPM) paired with the load of +5th gear. It puts unnecessary load on the engine if you ask me.

Nothings likely going to break as far as i know but I get borderline angry when the Audi’s and Porsches do that.

I use sport mode often to say the least. Low rpm, low oil pressure and high load is not good for bearing wear. Its also not good good for blow-by/crankcase ventilation and direct injection valve coking.

Ok I’m done with the soapbox lol

 

I don't have a 992, but my Macan will cheerfully pull 10 pounds of boost trying to climb a hill at 35 MPH in a residential area, rather than downshift... and that is in Sport+ mode.

The programmers at Porsche, who take orders from politicians and a bus to work, really do not seem to care about stressing the engine with high load at low RPMs.

 

The 3.0 l twin turbo engine produces stump pulling amounts of torque from very low down.

I was amazed when I drove up a well known steep hill at 50 mph and saw the revs drop as the engine dismissed the gradient with ease.

I am also certain that "Normal" mode can be turned to "Sport" mode by your driving style.

The character of the gearbox changes instantly if the car detects G force.

This can be thorough accelerating hard on an open pedal, producing high lateral G force through cornering sharp braking or a combination of these things.

Sometimes I wonder if the car adds on-coming corners from the GPS co-ordinates into the mix as well.

The first time I noticed this was when I completed an unexpectedly a sharp corner with by floor off the pedals and the car changed down for me an held a low gear for 20 seconds.

Over the next 26,000 miles, I have never found the need to press any buttons! The car seems to read my mood.

 

911targa4s is correct. Porsche like all manufacturers have to pay fines if their CAFE numbers are higher than whatever the current govt mandate are. So they set “normal” mode to get the highest possible fuel economy not performance. That’s why cars now default to stop/start on and drive mode in normal every time you start the car. Forces us to push a button or turn a **** to get car into a more comfortable sport car driving mode.

 

thanks for all your thoughts , I guess I will experiment more when its more of a hwy point a to b trip . since new its been more of a back road " sport " drives . not sure I will ever get use to 1200 rpm or the start / stop .

 

I found PDK in normal mode to be unbearable. As others have pointed out, it's a mileage setting. You would do well to pretend it doesn't exist. Sport is "normal". Sport+ is amazing. You'll find that it always keeps the motor at the optimal rev range - the car feels dramatically different in sport+ and a ton of fun.

 

I do not like the feel/response of "normal" mode, so I keep it in "Sport" and when I'm traveling at a steady/higher speed I just click up to a higher gear for better mileage.....

 

My usual driving mode is Normal, very happy with it. If I want more spirited driving I switch to Sport. When diving in the city and traffic it doesn't really matter what mode you are in, you cannot drive faster than what traffic will allow.

 

Totally disagree. When I depress the accelerator pedal, I demand immediate response. Normal is like on a 5s delay. I can't stand it.