CJWessing

I believe the GT3 manual recommends to start the car moving in 2nd...

BogdanR

Sound advice Macster. All of it so far. Thanks!

aviography

Not true, starting during second in snowy/icy/slippery road condition minimizes undesirable tire spins even with winter tires, as I routinely do when the road condition deteriorates in our winters.

In fact, I recall mentioned in an old TV motoring show this is what the UK cops are taught to do under such road conditions with their manual transmission cars.

A former a neighbor with a big pick-up truck also said he never bothered with first gear in this manual transmission equipped truck unless he was hauling heavy stuff.

Note that I don't do this during summer time.

Macster

That is the usual advice to start out in 2nd. Another is to drive in a higher gear than usual to keep the engine down lower on its torque band to avoid wheel spin.

I've driven some in the snow and ice with my cars and never bothered to start in 2nd. My belief is the best traction control device made is the right foot and I can move my cars off in 1st with no problem even in the snow. I'm helped no doubt by the extraordinary feel and smoothness of the Porsche clutch which makes modulating the degree of clutch engagement a real piece of cake.

Pick up truck drivers, and those with "big" pick ups can do anything they please. I really do not care. I certainly would not use they way they drive or use their vehicle as a model for how to drive my Porsches.

It is unnecessary wear and tear on the Porsche clutch to start out in 2nd gear.

BogdanR

I might get a 997 C2 actually (financing pending) … starting in snow with RWD, and driving in it as well might prove trickier, even with good snow tires… If I end up getting one I’ll probably drive my wife’s XC90 on the worst days of the winter…

On my old beater’s manual I always started in first… I intend to treat my Porsche’s tranny with respect and keep it within the boundaries of what it can do, that’s why I started this thread…

Thanks for all the answers so far.

fpena944

I remember borrowing an ex-girlfriend's father's pickup truck to haul some stuff. He told me to always start the truck off in 2nd gear. At that time I used to drive a VW GTi and though he was nuts so of course I didn't listen.

Started in 1st gear and that scared the crap out of me with the torque. I didn't tell him he was right but I did listen to him after that first stoplight.

Dennis C

The original clutch on my C4S lasted for more than 120K miles, and I don't "baby it" by any means. I find it easy to drive in all conditions.

aviography

Which is effectively why starting from stop in 2nd gear in extremely slippery road conditions can help.

Presumably you had appropriate winter tires on, that and the weight transfer to the rear wheels with engine on top of them had to help too, but sometimes certain road conditions require adjusting to different technique.

One such time I encountered last winter was while heading up a road with a slight incline, had snowed, then some melting, froze, and more snow, salter and sander hadn't come out yet, I used 2nd gear to start a couple of times while watching others hopelessly spinning their tires, one former Crown Vic RWD taxi-cab, probably with nearly bald tires, tried to get up this incline for some 15 minutes, he kept coasting backwards so he can get a better run while the rest of the cars were just slowly crawling, he eventually gave up and turned around headed the other way to find an alternate route.

I certainly didn't suggest modeling how a big truck can be driven while driving a Porsche, I don't drive my 996 in the winter, and did not suggest starting in 2nd in a manual transmission Porsche while driving in the summer on dry pavement.

Rather my comment was in response to a previous post: