Wayne Smith

Now that's a great question!!!

And as long as I'm writing here ... I drove my 58 ****** M38A1 as well as Triumphs and several Lotus cars in LA traffic for several years. All manual transmissions. Never thought about an automatic. I will admit I don't see the need for a PDK for commute and city driving, even on San Francisco hills. If you want a manual get that. Meanwhile I'm very pleased with my PDK.

Balr14

That is a great question! It is hard to imagine there would be many takers.

Petza914

I love it - that's an awesome perspective.

Hey, we've got this new transmission that makes you use your left foot that you used to be able to relax, plus you have to take your right hand of the wheel, often at very inopportune times to move this weird lever in various directions, plus if you do it wrong, you could blow up your engine or burn the engagement mechanism up...oh, and by the way, your lap times will be slower. Who's in - the line starts here....

Of course, that's not where we came from so some of us feel like that involvement is part of "driving" a driver's car and a skill worth having and experiencing. Really interesting to think about it from that perspective though.

Lemarp

It is interesting but that argument applies to pretty much anything related to technological advancement.

What if the quartz watch was introduced and the mechanical watch followed 100 years later at far higher prices, lower accuracy and would stop if you don't wind them? What if fossil fuel cars were introduced after the electric car? Self-driving followed by non-self driving cars, etc. etc.

Balr14

I think the ZF8 is basically the same transmission also used in Jaguar and BMW and shares many components and design with the Ford/GM 10 speed. I have driven all flavors and there are lots of programming differences and modes. Pressure on the gas pedal will also influence shift points.

Quadcammer

make sure to spend some time really driving any pdk car you are really interested in buying. I've read and heard so much about pdk being amazing, so I didn't blink when my mother wanted a 997.2 C4s PDK. Pretty pristine low mile car...and the transmission is the biggest POS I've ever felt. Clunky, lurchy, dimwitted in in normal mode, retardedly and unnecessarily violent in sport plus. It is so awful that after driving it several times, I now have zero interest in ever driving it again. It truly ruins what is a good car. Maybe this transmission is broken or whatever (although no fault codes through durametric), but I would never buy a 997 pdk...ever. 991 I drove was better, but still, totally boring to me. May as well have been a camry. Had a manual in my 997TT and while that had its quirks, it was worlds better than this particular 997 pdk.

Doug H

RE: Manual v Auto Mode

I can safely say in 30,000 miles, I have driven my GTS in auto mode for less than 5 minutes in the aggregate. My GTIS is in Sports Plus Manual mode 100% of the time unless I forget to push thr

myltz400

Here: https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...ighlight=targa

This thread might help, I found it very informative. While I don't have the seat time z3mcoupe has, I have driven both variants of the 997 gearboxes many miles. They are both a treat to drive. The only time you will even think of the other transmission is when you see these kinds of threads on forums, especially the catastrophic failure ones!


Edit: I'm really surprised this didn't turn into a PDK hate thread quickly, most here wear the "manual or die" badge.

Ironman88

Definitely interesting comments.

I won't prolong this and derail the original direction of the thread so I'll be brief ... With respect to the comment above - I would agree with it today.

But going forward and as technology further evolves and robotics become more sophisticated and prevalent - I think it's likely that humans will begin to question their purpose and in doing so - will deliberately seek to reach back in some ways, rejecting technological advancements to better assert their relevance and reason for being.

Doug H

A‘int that the truth. The only slight drawback I have is the potential likelihood of catastrophic failure. I have a Fidelity Platinum though just in case of PDK or Bore Scoring issues.

carbonduc27

Keeping this Porsche related, you are correct, it is in the newer Cayenne's as well (and Hellcats). Solid unit and just needs some tuning to get it to perform. Luckily HP Tuners OBD unit can tweak it all (once you find someone that knows what they are doing )!

Cobb is doing the same with the PDK. I read a few reviews but I wonder if any PDK haters have been in the Cobb tuned version? Better?

php

For me, yes PDK is a compromise for sure. For others, no. It just depend on your needs. A lot of my enjoyment is tied to the manual shifting, street or track, as I view it as opportunity to better my driving skills and connection with car. But if lap times and winning are priorities, then I would pick PDK too to give me the advantage. But I don't care about that, it's not my profession. And yes I have driven both, and will pick the manual every time as long as it's available. It's really not a knock on PDK in anyway, I just like the mechanical feeling of shifting myself.

One benefit of going PDK though...will be the availability of cars. Out of all the 911s out there for sale, less than 10% are manual.

solts

From a performance perspective, the manual is the real comprise. You're sacrificing performance for the enjoyment of heel toeing and rowing the gears. Having driven a variety of different p-cars, I've basically concluded that I prefer the manuals on NA engines and PDK for anything with Turbos