ADias

Of course not. It's strictly a personal decision.

Up to now there was a clear performance advantage of the 6-speed manual vs the torque-converter-based tiptronic. Today, w/ the PDK, the manual has no performance advantage, quite the opposite. Therefore, the issue is purely preferential choice - do you need a clutch pedal or not?

Minok

The software only limits some things, I suspect.

It will let you land anywhere you choose.

What the Airbus software probably does not allow is for you to try and point the jumbo jet straight up into space, whereas the Boeing solution probably still allows you to try and do so.

Similarly, the Airbus software may limit banking and rudder settings that might rip the tail off, whereas with the Boeing solution that lets pilots due what they want, they may well could maneuver the plane through turns that should snap the tail off. (actual events not withstanding)

lgascoig

Here is what ultimately got me. As an unskilled driver who doesn't plan on spending a lot of time on the track; which is going to make me drive faster? I went with the PDK.

After getting it, I missed using the clutch pedal in my daily driving and wished I had it. So yes, I did regret buying PDK but not enough that I feel like I made a mistake.

mjsporsche

It is a personal choice. I too am conflicted but IF my driving includes significant stop and go traffic, the attractiveness of PDK increases. I do enjoy the immediate satisfaction when I achieve smooth clutch engagement from a standing start, when my shifts are fluid and smooth and power applied at the right time and right place. It feels so good. When I am good, I am really good!

todd.

No big regrets. I even like the push in / push out buttons on both sides of steering wheel, as I can drive with only one hand on the wheel, like I would with the 6 speed. Had I come from a Ferrari I might be used to paddles, but coming from Porsche it's all new, and a little similar to the Tiptroinic I had on my Turbo & C4, but so much better. The Tiptronic always worried me since the up/down could be accidentally touched and engaged. Whereas, the PDK buttons are pretty secure.

I will admit that I do prefer a manual gear box. There is no replacing that driver/auto connection that one gets from a stick. However, when you add in some significant traffic that relationship becomes a pain. The technology is changing, it's better, faster, and I guess we need to start getting used to it.

aggie57

35 years driving. Always manual until 1996. DD auto from then until 2008. Weekender always stayed manual.

Back to manual in 2008 for DD. HHHHHEEEEEEEEHHHHHHEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! Now I'm driving again!!!!

Oh - daily commute = 15-30 mins city traffic. Stop start all the way. Average speed somewhere south of 20km/h.

Bottom line: Eventually that two pedal system becomes boring. Left leg is there to be used. What else is it going to do?

OCBen

Took a PDK S for a test drive the last time I was at the dealership. The first thing I was impressed with was the torque output of the new 3.8 - felt like a 'Vette - and that had nothing to do with the PDK tranny. The advantage of having the shift levers on the steering wheel is that you can maintain full grip on the wheel and just use your thumbs to shift, as opposed to extending your fingers to reach a paddle and not having a full grip on the wheel. Never underestimate the intelligence of Porsche engineers.

If I were to get it, I would get it without sports chrono. I'm not a track guy and I would never track what is to me a luxury sportscar. For track junkies looking to shave a few seconds off their lap times, yeah, I can see them getting this fancy tranny and the sports chrono option.

All my p-cars have always been weekender cars. I've always had a daily driver for work commutes. I've never had to rely on just one car when there was a Porsche in the garage. So when the weekend rolls around, I unplug the battery maintainer and roll up the car cover and go out and have some fun. And that means manually banging through the gears. That to me is fun.

todd.

OCBen, I have it without Sport Chrono Plus, and you might want to reconsider getting it. Even though I cannot stand the Chrono Gauge sitting on the dash, the damn ugliest thing Porsche ever did to the 911, the modified RPM range might be useful in standard sport + mode. Without it the car is annoyingly conservative, 6th gear at 30 MPH, it's ridiculous. I wouldn't use Sport ++ much at all, but I would use Sport + often just to get a pulse out of my 911. Of course I could switch to M and do whatever I want, but that's the huge downfall to the PDK. Since it doesn't force me to get involved in shifting I find that I keep it in A most of the time, and manipulate the gas pedal to downshift. Unfortunately, I am back to the ultra conservative no fun curve too quick.
Ahh, OC my old/other home, CDM. Damn I miss that weather, teaching diving at Little Corona, those perfect roads, the beautiful girls, oh hell it's paradise.

OCBen

The sales rep was telling me about being able to set the shift points at 6500 rpm with Sports Chrono. But who wants to do that for street driving? So that must be the plus plus setting you're speaking of. I take it that for the plus setting the shifts occur at around 4000 rpm or so? And without it, they occur at around 2k?

That's clearly a software driven function then. Too bad Porsche didn't design the PDK tranny setup to allow user programming. It would be great if it came with three user settings that you could program via the touchscreen PCM. You could set the first setting at, say, 2.5k; the second setting at 4.5; and the third setting at the top limit, which could be the 6500 rpm setting. You'd at least have something else fun to play with.

Since it is software driven, I'm sure some bright computer engineer can come up with a hack for user programming of the shift points.

Yeah, it's too bad Porsche didn't design it that way. Another reason not to get PDK, is what I see.

jfr0317

The shift algorithms available for the PDK with the Sport Chrono Package are considerably more sophisticated than the salesman indicated. I would suggest checking out the Porsche 2009 997 Technical Information document for a good write-up of how the shift patterns vary in the different modes and under different driving conditions. The Tech Info document is available for contributing members to download at Renntech.org.

mdrums

OCBen, if you want to truely unlock the performance of PDK get the car with the Sport Chrono PLUS option.

Le Chef

Ben, I'm no fan of the "wii" shifter, but without S/C it is truly a mush box. Without it it drives like a Buick.

OCBen

I'm not getting PDK at all.

And I'm not getting a new car either.

And why would the performance of a PDK car be locked up, unavailable to anyone who shells out the $4k for it - as if that wasn't enough already for an automatic - unless they also shell out a little more for the stopwatch on the dash?

It sounds like Porsche has a huge warehouse full of these stopwatches that they've been trying to unload for the past 4 yrs and they haven't yet put a dent in the stockpile, so they're forcing everyone who buys a PDK - damnit - to also buy one of their fine watches, or else they'll make the car run like a POS.

jfr0317

I wasn't aware that Buick had a model with 385 hp, a dual clutch (as opposed to torque converter) gearbox with a highly adaptive shift map, and zero to sixty in 4.3 seconds. Maybe that's coming with some of the government rescue funding.

jumper5836

I agree with that, let my next car be totally user set. This is not beyond our technology. I want to set the diff, I want to set the gear ratios and I need to set the awd and awe sensors and I want to pogram what rpm the car shifts at and be able to select the program that I've saved and it will run when I feel like it.
Unfortunately I think Subaru will come out with something like I want before any German car manufacturer does.