PDK vs 6sp
#121
That last parenthetical bit alone might be the best reason for going with the 6-speed Just kidding. Great write up and congrats on your choice!
#122
Hehe. That bet is really playing with fire! You get your nice new manual and The Wife starts wanting to learn to drive it. Do you know how long a clutch lasts with a non-totally-committed driver behind the wheel? If you make that bet be sure you live where there are lots of hills.
#123
Hehe. That bet is really playing with fire! You get your nice new manual and The Wife starts wanting to learn to drive it. Do you know how long a clutch lasts with a non-totally-committed driver behind the wheel? If you make that bet be sure you live where there are lots of hills.
#124
Ok, listen up buddy, now this is important, keep your mouth shut, see? Don't say ANYTHING! Never speak of this issue again! If her friends find out you may have another attempt to learn on your hands!
#125
Enjoyed your post Gary but I gotta respond to a couple of things.
[...]
Really. I've been driving manuals in traffic for over 40 years, so I think I've had some experience. In true stop and go traffic, where you're creeping 10 feet at a time, and constantly slipping the clutch, in and out for 30 minutes or more, it's an inconvenience. Driving in heavy traffic was never a reason to make me give up a manual, but honestly, it wasn't particularly enjoyable under those circumstances. Also, any decent modern automatic will shift imperceptably in that situation. It's hardly a "pain in the neck" for passengers.
[...]
Really. I've been driving manuals in traffic for over 40 years, so I think I've had some experience. In true stop and go traffic, where you're creeping 10 feet at a time, and constantly slipping the clutch, in and out for 30 minutes or more, it's an inconvenience. Driving in heavy traffic was never a reason to make me give up a manual, but honestly, it wasn't particularly enjoyable under those circumstances. Also, any decent modern automatic will shift imperceptably in that situation. It's hardly a "pain in the neck" for passengers.
I certainly agree that very little is enjoyable about the sit-and-slip level of congestion. I just got stuck in a long one the other day coming back from our dealer. Car fire blocked three lanes of the northbound 405. At my age, with a stroke that has weakened my left leg, I'm sure I'd buy a PDK if I had to drive the 405 every day as I used to. The PDK certainly is a valid sports car transmission, and the fun went out of shifting with a clutch after the first fifteen minutes of doing the one-legged Stairmaster routine. Fortunately, that's a non-existent problem where we live in the high desert, and weakened or not, my leg can survive once-a-year sigalerts. (I hope. Do we have a touching wood icon?)
Now as to normal automatics, I'm less enthusiastic. I've seen some fairly tolerable ones, but the biggest problem I see with them in slow traffic is the transition from slowing on the overrun (at a rousing ten mph) to needing to accelerate again. (To an exciting fifteen mph.) Almost all of the conventional automatics have a slack, a sag if you will, on that transition unless you leave them in manual mode. When they do move into acceleration mode, they accelerate more sharply than I would using a manual transmission. This is a miniature version of the terrible jerk they apply if you try to stay in full automatic mode when cornering. The transition from braking into a corner to accelerating out of it catches almost any full automatic off guard and you jerk the passengers sharply.
This whole issue is not an either/or proposition. Choosing PDK doesn't mean that you don't get any joy from shifting. I get a lot of pleasure out of shifting for myself, and like you, I'm pretty good at it. But I get joy out of many aspects of driving and taken altogether I've found that PDK contributes positively to the experience as a whole.
Gary
#127
I haven't followed this thread much, but basically gotto drive both for some extended period of time and pick the one you enjoyed the most.
PDK is faster, manual is more fun to drive/more engaging... very personal decision.
PDK is faster, manual is more fun to drive/more engaging... very personal decision.
#128
I don't think we disagree, Mike. Not on the important points anyway. Like you, I've spent a lot of my life on freeways. It's been a little over fifty years in my case, but I suspect anything you haven't learned in the first thirty years probably isn't worth learning.
I certainly agree that very little is enjoyable about the sit-and-slip level of congestion. I just got stuck in a long one the other day coming back from our dealer. Car fire blocked three lanes of the northbound 405. At my age, with a stroke that has weakened my left leg, I'm sure I'd buy a PDK if I had to drive the 405 every day as I used to. The PDK certainly is a valid sports car transmission, and the fun went out of shifting with a clutch after the first fifteen minutes of doing the one-legged Stairmaster routine. Fortunately, that's a non-existent problem where we live in the high desert, and weakened or not, my leg can survive once-a-year sigalerts. (I hope. Do we have a touching wood icon?)
Now as to normal automatics, I'm less enthusiastic. I've seen some fairly tolerable ones, but the biggest problem I see with them in slow traffic is the transition from slowing on the overrun (at a rousing ten mph) to needing to accelerate again. (To an exciting fifteen mph.) Almost all of the conventional automatics have a slack, a sag if you will, on that transition unless you leave them in manual mode. When they do move into acceleration mode, they accelerate more sharply than I would using a manual transmission. This is a miniature version of the terrible jerk they apply if you try to stay in full automatic mode when cornering. The transition from braking into a corner to accelerating out of it catches almost any full automatic off guard and you jerk the passengers sharply.
I agree completely with the parts I know about in your reply, Mike, and the favorable reviews of PDK from you and other owners convince me it adds another type of entertainment to Porsches. You make me wish I'd tried one while we were shopping, just to know first hand what it is like.
Gary
I certainly agree that very little is enjoyable about the sit-and-slip level of congestion. I just got stuck in a long one the other day coming back from our dealer. Car fire blocked three lanes of the northbound 405. At my age, with a stroke that has weakened my left leg, I'm sure I'd buy a PDK if I had to drive the 405 every day as I used to. The PDK certainly is a valid sports car transmission, and the fun went out of shifting with a clutch after the first fifteen minutes of doing the one-legged Stairmaster routine. Fortunately, that's a non-existent problem where we live in the high desert, and weakened or not, my leg can survive once-a-year sigalerts. (I hope. Do we have a touching wood icon?)
Now as to normal automatics, I'm less enthusiastic. I've seen some fairly tolerable ones, but the biggest problem I see with them in slow traffic is the transition from slowing on the overrun (at a rousing ten mph) to needing to accelerate again. (To an exciting fifteen mph.) Almost all of the conventional automatics have a slack, a sag if you will, on that transition unless you leave them in manual mode. When they do move into acceleration mode, they accelerate more sharply than I would using a manual transmission. This is a miniature version of the terrible jerk they apply if you try to stay in full automatic mode when cornering. The transition from braking into a corner to accelerating out of it catches almost any full automatic off guard and you jerk the passengers sharply.
I agree completely with the parts I know about in your reply, Mike, and the favorable reviews of PDK from you and other owners convince me it adds another type of entertainment to Porsches. You make me wish I'd tried one while we were shopping, just to know first hand what it is like.
Gary
Sorry for your "stairmaster" experience. Hope it doesn't happen again soon.
#129
I agree about the Audi by the way. Only by reputation in my case, but every report I read agreed with your assessment. So naturally we were planning to look only at manual boxes in the Audi S5 until we gave it up entirely in favor of testing various Porsche models. Old fashioned I suppose. Stubborn as well I suppose.
Gary
#130
So, I have a 6-spd, have driven PDK, and don't want it. For a DD in traffic or for the track where the point is to win, PDK is the way to go. But for those of us for whom our P-car is a toy and who want the old-school sports car experience (albeit with updated creature comforts), the 6-speed rules. To each, their own.
#131
Go with the PDK. I assure you will not have any regrets. You will get used to it quickly and wonder why you even considered a 6 spd. This is the new technology, go with it. FWIW the new Ferrari 458 is not even offered with a 6 spd.
#132
Your left foot is not doing anything. Have you ever heard of muscular atrophy with lack of use?
#133
#134
Do you think? I excuse you for your lack of PDK experience. The left foot is growing muscle pushing the dead pedal, holding you in position in high-g corners, in situations where you would be retracting it from a clutch operated downshift requiring far less force. Trust me!