Had a 99 996 6 speed that did about 10 DE days a year. Wrote it off in June and am looking for the next car. Seen some really good 99-01's but they have been tips. Wondering how the tip owners have found the auto transmission on the track. Is there lag? Rev matching on downshifts etc.

 

Hey Mike! Looking forward to seeing you back at the track!

 

Big differences in mk1 and mk2 996 tips. Former is a less sophisticated zf unit with like a dozen program maps. Latter is from Mercedes Benz built to handle their AMG cars, with 250 maps and much faster shifts - not PDK but faster than most novices on MT.

I use mine (mk2 996) on the track and it reads my mind.

 

I've been very happy with the tiptronic on my '04 986S on the track; the ability to seamlessly upshift and downshift without any time penalties is just so supremely useful. Very smooth, very intuitive, even in "D"; frees me up to concentrate more on other aspects, like line, weight transfer, and staying out of the gravel. It don't think it's the large disadvantage it appears to be on paper. The specific advantage may be track dependent, but it's lead to extremely fast times for me and several time trial trophies.

 

I'm new at this (tracking), but ran mine at a few track events, and very pleased. Like sjfehr says, allows me to focus more on learning lines, braking points, etc. And, like roadsession says, get an MK2, due to the greatly increased number of programs. Realize that you can always manually shift (using the buttons), even in D mode. The "automatic" shifting in D mode only resumes if there have been mo manual inputs for 8 seconds. Obviously, during a track event there are no 8 second periods with no shift inputs, so it doesn't much matter if you are in D or M mode.

Any lack of performance times during my runs was due to my driving errors, certainly not due to the transmission.

 

Mike ucr - here's someone with significant 996 mk1 tip experience on the track with an honest review http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/Drivi..._at_track_days

 

You do not want an early Tip 996. Especially for track use.

 

Thanks Derek,
I'm amazed at how much I miss the car and getting out to Mosport. Have come close on a few cars but something ugly turned up on inspection or they got sold just as I was about to pull the plug.

I even thought about broadening my search to La Belle Province! Hope you had a great season.

Mike

 

The tip seems to have better trackability than I thought. What year did the MK2 start?

 

Mike: 2002, when the headlights changed.

 

And, most importantly, cupholders!

 

Yep! I absolutely LOVE being able to sip a Mocha Latte Frappe whilst on the track! Nothing beats the feeling of passing someone when you know they are wishing that they, too, had something to dip a biscotti in. Demoralizes them completely.

 

Later MK1 models had cup holders too so this isn't true. What you do get from a convenience perspective on MK2 is the glove box that wasn't available on mk1 models.

 

01 with no cup holder. I thought it was the early 99s that had them and then they disappeared?

While the MkII gained the glove box, didn't it lose the flip top door pockets? Those things have a ton more space than the glove box does.

 

No you got it backwards, most of the later ones had the cup holders unless the owner didn't want them or swapped them out for something else. My '01 had them when I bought it.

MK2 still has the flip top pockets on the doors.