Just a matter of time guys....

 

wow, that pic says a lot

 

You won't see a PDK in a Cup Car anytime soon. The Hor sequential gearbox currently used in the RSR is what will be used as standard in the Cup starting in 2013 is night and day different internally from a PDK. The PDK has way too many moving parts and is too complicated to be a reliable racebox. They are going to put paddleshifters on the 991 Cup Cars, but it still won't be a PDK box in the car.

 

Which brings on an entirely new aspect to the conversation...

 

I was trying to link to another Rennlist thread where the 7MT was explained but it's now gone. I'm not sure what happened to it. I thought it was originally posted by 911Slow. I'll keep looking, but in the meantime, here's the gist of it from Car and Driver. The NEW 7MT gearbox is a PDK, just altered to allow manual mechanical shifting of the gearbox.
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...-pdk-tech-dept

 

I meant to say a full sequential as indeed the street PDK would not be sufficient in a race car.

No more auto blipper and qurky stuff etc...

 

Hard to believe that Porsche, for all of its recent softening in an attempt to be all things to all drivers, would completely ditch the stick in the GT series cars.

But the mere possibility that they might makes my intention to keep my '3 long-term all the more firm.

 

Well pdk shifts fast up or down like in an instant with perfect rev matches. Speed Merchants raced and DE a pdk car without any issues I've heard of. Maybe the future Porsche race car tranny will be some sort of automated sequential clutch with less moving parts and maybe it won't be called pdk. However pdk on the track seems to work very well.

 

And this is exactly the deciding factor for me... Reliability!!! who gives a toss about laptimes etc... I can't get to within 3-5 sec of my instructors' time and the limiting factor is ability, not the box... Everyone has an opinion on preference and involvement etc... Probably 80%+ of cars here are sold as autos. I moved from auto about 10 years ago... Why? Reliability and cost.... I got sick of shelling out $5k every 80k km because my Honda's box wasn't up to the task... Not abuse, not revving to 5k rpms and dropping into drive, just putting the foot down and driving it like a sports car. My Nissan on the other hand got a synchro refresh for $2k at 150k kms and all good since....

And as for these modern day DSGs, well they would cost an absolute fken fortune to repair or replace and considering GT cars are track oriented, they are going to see heaps more wear and strain then your average boulevard cruiser... Ultimately the benefit of the manual in my opinion in a car prone to wear is cost of repairs.... A new set of synchros, seals and bearings and you're good for another 150k km unless you've done something really stupid.....

 

Mike,
You have read my commentary on PDKs over the last few years and know how I feel about them for a racecar. That said, after Tecce tossed me the keys to the BGB shop Cayman R with PDK and told me to go flog on it for an hour I personally can't imagine much better for a DE vehicle. At least on one level one of the unwashed masses has been converted and baptised.

However, the thing to keep in mind with the sequential gearboxes as used in the Cups, whether it be the Holinger one currently used or the RSR Hor gearbox that's the heir apparent, is that they don't use the clutch on them a whole lot. While the clutch is present, they aren't used on the upshift and not all drivers use them on the downshift. Hell, we just finished the 24 Hours of Daytona two weeks ago with a leak in the hydraulics for our clutch and ran the last 5 hours of the race with no clutch.

We were only able to do that because the sequential gearboxes in the race cars are dog boxes with no synchros. PDKs have synchros, even though the next gear is getting synchronized while you are still in the previous gear. But that part is really kind of academic. The underlying point I am trying to make here is that we all hold that third pedal up on some sort of pedestal, but the reality is that for as long as their have been dog boxes, with or without sequential shifting mechanisms, there has been clutchless shifting being used, at least partly, in racecars. It may only be on the upshift in most instances, but the clutch is no longer something that I revere so much as tolerate.

 

My thread is (hopefully temporarily) unavailable.
But yes the new 7s manual transmission is based on the Porsche Doppelkupplung(PDK).

Type is G91/00 and it has seven forward gears and one reverse.
Shifting is performed via two cable mechanisms one used for selection and the other for shifting.

The shifting follows an 'H' shift pattern but since the manual transmission is based on the PDK the gears are not positioned in an opposed arrangement so, a completely new internal gearshift mechanism had to be developed converting the shift pattern to a typical H. The mechanism is called (MECOSA) "MEchanically COnverted Shift Actuator" ..

 

I can't help but wonder what all this "converting" will do to the direct feel/action compared to the old 6 speed.
I love the direct feel of the 6 speed in my GT3.

 

anyone driven a 7sp man 991 yet ... I imagine that will be the same feel etc

not that I care, 997.2 is the last real GT3 ...

 

I hope your wrong, I have a deposit on a 991 GT3 manual.

It seems that whenever Porsche updates their models there are those that say it's all over and low and behold the new model is better than the last. I'm sure this will be the same.

 

its bound to be "better"; but I still personally don't think of it as a real GT3 ... those have Mezger (GT-1 derived) blocks, GT2 Evo based G50 transmissions etc ... and don't look like an Aston Martin collided into the back of a Panamera, which in turn slammed into the back of a Cayman!

its like Champagne, if its not produced in the region, then its just sparkling wine!