ADias

Hill-assist may be one of the 'tech' nuisances on the 997.2. The 991 has electric e-brake, electric steering assist with drive intervention capability, and so on.

AlexKeyWest

This was called "hill holder" on my 1959 Studebaker. Worked great

Wayne Smith

Studebaker used a rolling ball in the master cylinder to block the flow returning from the brakes if the clutch was depressed. It did work great and was amazingly simple.

hoppah

I've hit the dealer pretty hard on it today and am basically demanding they find a way to shut it off. After reading the other responses in here I'm certainly not looking forward to doing any maneuvering in neutral on a slope and having this POS "feature" keep me from doing so. I'm hoping it's something they can do with programming, like these VW owners are discussing in this post:

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/wiki/hi...h-vcds-mk6-vw/

H.

ADias

What if... you are on a hill stopped waiting for a green light and hold the car with the e-brake, having released the foot brake. if you do this for longer than 2sec hill-stop assist should be released and the takeoff should go on without its intervention. Same on backing off in whatever direction.

kcheves

Never going to happen.

Ben Z

I had no idea the thing can't be disabled! Thank god there are zero hills around here or I would never buy one. This is not some newfangled idea btw, "Hill Holder" was a feature offered in the Hudson cars back around 1950. From what I hear, people loathed it then.

I suppose though it's essential on the 991 because there is no handbrake to use on a really steep incline. Looks like Porsche is doing all it can to make manual transmissions as inconvenient as possible so less people will jump ship when they decide to only offer automatics. Tain't gonna work on me though. No stick no Porsche.

hoppah

I agree completely - I am completely uninterested in any car with an automatic. I'm fine with others wanting them, and yes, I've heard all the arguments about how superior they are. I just don't want one. I like to shift and manipulate the clutch just like I like to brake and manipulate the steering. I won't be buying any cars that drive themselves, either.

I can, in a stick with which I am familiar, take off on any hill of any steepness without slip and without letting the car roll even a single inch, and without use of a handbrake. This type of nannying is annoying at best, and at worst, will certainly degrade the life of the clutch, besides making particular maneuvers very difficult, such as low speed maneuvering on slopes into and out of garages, parallel parking spots, etc.

I love to write letters and intend to be a big pain in the *** over it.

H.

SJP3003

With a PDK type tranny you're damned if you do and damned if you don't have a hill holder. When Maserati first introduced the Coupe Cambiocorsa they did not think of standing starts on an incline. Living in Miami it was not an issue until I drove to Tallahassee which has modest hills. I quickly learned to pull the paddles into neutral and apply the hand brake when I stopped on an incline. That was the easy part. Taking off required releasing the hand brake as you tapped a paddle into first and accelerated, but since you couldn't control clutch engagement directly inevitably it tended to be a jerky start. After two model years Maserati added the hill holder feature to F1 tranny equipped cars.

997_rich

Ok.... I have a .1 car so it doesn't matter for me. But you may be able to disable the feature by zip-tying the clutch switched into a depressed position. The computer may believe your foot is off the clutch and never engage the hill assist.

scroll down here to "mike in CA" comments:

http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic...erlock-switch/

this may cause other issues though.

hoppah

That will be worth experimenting on if all else fails. Thank you.

H.

ADias

Drive-off assistant video here:

Busta Rib

Reviving an old thread. The Drive-off Assistant (aka hill assist) was a pleasant surprise and feature to me when it first engaged after purchasing my car. I wasn't aware manual 997s had this functionality until now. I actually like it and it works pretty well. Based on my experience, it will hold the car for about 1 second. I take my time to actuate the accelerator while releasing the clutch and haven't had any issues with clutch slip. I'm not sure how it works on a steep hill yet. According to the manual, it only engages on grades of 5%+. Out of curiosity, is this baked into every .2 or just specific years and models? Also, has anyone successfully disabled this feature?

street rod

My 09 C2 manual has it so I assume all of the year models after that have it. Mine also seems to work well and I have never had an issue with it. I really don't need it because I grew up driving manual cars since i was 16 and know how to deal with a steep hill start but that being said it would probably be nice for someone new to stick or not used to steep terrain.

Butzi 997

My 2012 occasionally gives me a warning of Drive-Off failure. But only on level roads / When I stop on a steep hill, I think it's always worked. I don't need it, but it only annoyed me the first time it engaged and I stalled the car because I didn't know it had the feature.

I complained to a friend once about the awkward window switch placement on the driver door and he told me "everything's ergonomic after 15,000 miles."