Gaspasser19

I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with a C2S with PDK the other day. While I agree with the above posters who stated that it's completely different than a Tip., I also have to add that, from my perspective, it's still an automatic and as such is nothing I'll ever want in my sports car. I was prepared to order one as replacement for my 996 but by the time I turned the keys back in I thought the better of it. My car is so much more fun for the money. I think I'll get a couple more years out of her and pick up a 997.2 with a 6-speed as a CPO in 2010.

lgascoig

Yeah I haven't even messed with the modes yet. I only put 14 miles on it so far. In my WRX I was pretty much always at 4k or more as the turbo really picks up at 4500. The Carrera S seems to have power everywhere as far as I can tell. I'll try sport mode on the freeway this morning.

cello

My dealer had both an S and non S PDK on the track recently. I did not drive the same but know the guys (mechanics who are also instructors, etc) who did pretty well and ran with them part of the time. From my perspective they were very quick esp at turn-in. After the runs, it was funny as they all pretty much said the same thing: It was very fast, very easy, no discernible problems/upsets/wrong headed shifts, etc; But they would all pick the manual (primarily for the reasons everyone is expressing here - involvement). My own take is that it would be more accurate to say that H-Ting is a learned art/skill, somewhat separating the men from the boys, and no one wants to give that up. A main goal is to develop consistency on the track. So, at each corner on each lap your skills are tested - can you do it all correct again, and smoothly, etc. The PDK takes this away partly. It was, however, the general consensus that the PDK would be faster once learned. I think also that since the purer DE track cars guys generally want (ex: GT3, etc) are presently manuals, no one wants to give up the techniques assoc with a manual trans. If the FL GT3 is released with both trannnys it will be interesting to see where this all goes.

lgascoig

I snapped a quick pic of mine and have some additional impressions. Driving relatively fast I'd say that sport/sport+ help the shifting quite a bit and you get the downshift/throttle blip as you slow down which is really cool. Makes it more like a stick in town (except for the aggressive downshift/blip).

MJones

I attended PCNA Ride and Drives in both Northern and Southern CA.

NoCal was a excellent 1mile AutoX course in the Candlestick parking field. A very slippery surface du to the asphalt pebbling...
SoCal was on the infield road course of Cal Speedway where speeds were reaching triple digits.

The PDK is amazing in either Manual or Auto...a learned skill to get the most out of it. A click and it shifts...
Steering wheel controls suck if you are on a tight AutoX course and shuffle steer.
On the track where your hands are at 9 & 3 no problem.

In manual mode and your foot is hard on the gas past the detent, the trans will shift up on it's own.

A great leap forward from the Tip!

Palting

Aaaaaah! Finally! Answers to my questions. Thanks, MJones.

So, no delay from click to shift, whether hard on the gas and upshift or hard on the brake and downshift.

Hmmm. Detent switch downshift on it's own even on manual mode not so good. I usually short shift on slippery surface (wet/cold) corner to decrease the chnaces of breaking traction if I get too aggressive on the gas. It'd be a wake-up slap if it downshifted halfway around a slippery corner. Guess one has to be even smoother on the gas with PDK in that scenario.

Plus, 7 gears and launch mode. I think I'm really leaning towards PDK now.