pcar964

First of all, are you kidding me? What moron does't have the coordination to properly drive a stick shift? If you don't have the coordination to shift gears, you certainly don't belong behind the wheel of 2 tons of steel automobile for Christ's sake! Scary!

Second, Rohrl is an employee of Porsche AG. Whatever publicity quotes you may read, take with a grain of salt. Hurley Haywood was also quoted as saying his "favorite track car would be a Tiptronic Turbo," please don't tell me you believe that too... his personal car is a 6 speed, by the way...

MMD

Pleese correct me if I'm wrong but I thought (for good reasons) that the Tip is the only tranny you can get on a 997TT or 996TT.

pcar964

Not the case, 6 speed is most certainly available on 996TT. I would be very surprised if it wasn't available on the 997TT, even given PAG's moves towards electronics controlling everything.

Coochas

Sorry to be the moron here,...but what are those little white things embedded in the front air dam - please don't tell me they're lights. They appear to be surrounded by duct tape.

ltc

Yes, they are lights.
Yes, they are partially covered by colored racer's tape.

ltc

No I"m not, nor was it my intention. My apologies if it came across as such.

I don't believe I called nor described anyone as a moron.

It is simply my experience, mainly at the track, that the majority of people are able to drive a car equipped with a manual transmission, but very few are able to do it proficiently on the track.
Being able to drive the car, not stall it nor miss a gear/induce a mechanical overrev does not qualify for 'knowing' how to drive a manual transmission.
Drive or be instructed by professional race drivers and, as I said, you will quickly know what I mean.

Yes, he is an employee of PAG. Yes, I take his comments with a grain of salt. Yes, I have compared lap times for manual vs automatic transmission equipped cars, even with the weight penalties.
Yes, I believe that the upcoming R10 LMP1 racer from Audi will have (for lack of a better term) an "automatic" transmission.
No, I have not seen the introduction of a manual transmission into F1 racing.
No, I have not met anyone who can shift faster than a DSG equipped car, or an F1 racing gearbox.

Funny thing about Porsche ownership; it tends to make everyone believe they are a better driver than they truly are.
Personally, I enjoy being completely humbled by proficient martial arts competitors or professional race car drivers during instruction; humility tends to be an admirable quality.

Coochas

Thanks,..and, yuck!

pcar964

ltc, I cringe to think where this country would be if everyone thought the way you do... We'd be speaking either German or Russian right now.

You ENJOY being humbled? Yeah, that's the spirit... that's what made Bruce Lee such a great martial artist, he loved getting his *** kicked. Same goes for Michael Jordan, Henry Kissinger, Gen. Patton, Aryton Senna... they all LOVED being beaten. That's what made them so great.

Yikes. Remind me not to buy stock in whatever company you work for

Coochas

I think this sort of attitude is common but rather narrow minded! I think the sacred paradigm of a manual transmission being faster will no doubt be shattered in the coming years,...and believe me, I hate driving automatics!
Many race cars now utilize automatic transmissions. They can shift gears ridiculously fast such that even Neo in the Matrix could not outshift with a stick. With the engine CPUs getting more and more sophisticated it makes sense that the automatics will only get better and better at 'sensing' appropriate gears.
Frankly, if you want to talk about uncoordinated,...it's how I feel driving some of the newer manumatics (such as in a Z4 I rented for a week) - there's a whole new learning curve just waiting for us out there.

ltc

Trust me, you couldn't afford it

2zeroes

I can't believe they're still using those plastic inserts for the air ducts in the rear quarter panel. No sculpted air ducts like the 993 turbo s. One of the world's most profitable automotive manufacturer and they use plastic inserts on a $100k plus car. I guess if they can get away with it, why not...(ohhh...that's why they are the most profitable car company.)

pcar964

Good one. You don't know what I can afford and what I can't. But I DO know that you enjoy being humiliated. So, do you plan on teaching your son to enjoy being humiliated too? "nice loss son!" "you really showed the other team who's more humble!" haha I still can't believe you said that, I hope for your son's sake you're kidding.

mr997

That back end looks incredible. Any pics of the front?

stuka

I am not the best driver in the world, but I am in the fast group at DE's, and can heel and toe and rev match.

You know how long it took me to figure out how to heel and toe and rev match? About a month of street driving. Coincidentally, that's also the time that it took my wife to learn how to do them as well. So unless we are super geniuses, I would say that it doesn't require that much brain power. Certainly no more than the brain power requires to make the kind of money to be able to write the monthly check on the Turbo.

And don't feed me the BS about Walter Rohrl, he is, after all, working for daddy PAG. Do you think he is going to bite the hands that feed him?

And the tippy magic tronic is not to be confused with the real deal like the BMW SMG or the F car F1 system. It is merely a fancy torque convertor slushbox that most poseurs leave in D.

And it is fitting that this is what PAG thinks of its U.S. buyers. Latte sipping tippy magic tronic driving poseurs.

stuka

Not everything is relative. In the sports car world, torque convertor as a transmission sucks in every sense of the word.

Oh, and the automatics that you are talking about, that aint what's in the Turbo. The tippy magic tronic in the Turbo is merely a fancy torque convertor pile of doggie doodoo that most uncoordinated leave in D while sipping latte with their other hand and posing down the boulevard.

Porsche doesn't currently have any real SMG type system, and a torque convertor is a torque convertor. It sucks.

Sorry if I am not into the everything is relative, everyone is great new age crap. Torque convertor serves only one purpose, it magically transforms the uncoordinated poseurs into sports car "driving" "enthusiasts."