Riz

Any tests comparing the street car to the race car version with pdk? I am curious as to the gear ratios, final drive and pdk influence on performance. The cars seem to be very close in weight.

GrantG

Have the ratios been published? There are computer programs that will calculate the benefit of the revised ratios, if no hard data exists.

Accel Junky

Curious as well.

Frank 993 C4S

The gear ratios are the same as the base (non-S) Cayman. Plus the 7th gear is electronically locked out.

If you want to see performance difference between PDK and 6 Speed check out the results from the IMSA ROAR. Rick DeMan was the only one in a 6 speed car. All others were PDK. Looked like there wasn't any difference. In PCA Club Racing, PDK cars need to carry a somewhat arbitrary 100 lb weight penalty. Hope this is useful info.

GrantG

Are the non-S pdk gears different from the S?

There is a small difference in the lower gears in the manual between base and S.

Frank 993 C4S

I believe the gear ratios between S and non-S are the same but I believe that the gearboxes must be different as Porsche referred to the Clubsport having the non-S PDK gearbox.

C.J. Ichiban

the street car and the race car are not the same weight at all (probably 150lbs difference even with the huge cage and huge fuel cells) , although they share enough components (rear glass is still glass). you could make the IMSA car a lot lighter by replacing things but remember that we are racing against mustangs and camaros that are already way heavier. Since this was our first test we don't anticipate being allowed to drop weight etc for BoP just yet. The teams all pretty much agree that it makes no sense to require carbon doors (TOO MUCH $$$$) or similarly radical weight savings measures. The car is expensive enough to own, lets go race it and see what happens.

rick's car was slower until the last day when IMSA allowed him to drop 100lbs from his car. before that we were a second or more ahead, and he turned every single lap with the exception of a short stint that the Rum Bum dude drove. the real advantage of the PDK is not the speed of shifts but more so the ability to shift at any point without upsetting the car- you can downshift into the apex of a hairpin and then immediately go back to gas without compromising the car's platform or handling in any way.

the real advantage of rick's car is more the fact that he built it up himself so he knows how it handles, etc etc. The "fresh from the box" situation led some of the other teams to be much slower than my team due to them not being able to figure out the handling and setup changes.

FWIW- one of the other teams did not know how to put the gear selector lever into "sport" and kept driving around in automatic mode. 'hey why is thing downshifting on it's own?" this is a pro team! I was aghast. anyway- porsche did not provide us with an operations manual, setup advice etc. it was all freestyle and that is why rick's car and my team's car were probably the best by the end- we had the experience to make a lot of adjustments that actually paid off.

Crazy Eddie

This info is so enlightening and exciting all at the same time !
Very sad to see that Porsche thinks it's not important to lend some insight here !!
I know, I for one, will be following all of these races, as much as I can.
This is great and we all wish you guys the best
We will all be rooting for all you guys racing the GT4

DrPhil Gandini

+1, x2 Crazy Eddie said it best! Good luck!!

24Chromium

LMAO!

C.J. Ichiban

it's not that porsche isn't helping- it's just that their main focus is obviously on the GTLM program, the GTD program and the GT3 Cup side- the GT4 is a totally brand new thing and they are not really sure what to expect any more than we are.

it's FAST. we love it. will be really interesting to see what developments we can do with the shocks etc.

mooty

"the real advantage of the PDK is not the speed of shifts but more so the ability to shift at any point without upsetting the car- you can downshift into the apex of a hairpin and then immediately go back to gas without compromising the car's platform or handling in any way."

BINGO. i have been saying this since 991GT3.

Spyerx

well, for those of us that can't shift like Leh Keen, the PDK does have a big advantage i shifting speed and keeping the car in the optimal power band. As a maybe above average shifter, I will still NOT shift because by the time I do I'm down shifting again and maybe losing time as a result, PDK makes that a non issue.

hurry up and get bored of these so us minions can pick them up for track days! :-)

mrd_spy

one word

wheels a tyre size ;-)

the race car has smaller wheels/tyre combo thus it has even lower ratios in real terms.

mrd_spy

I see so for numptys with no clue then :-) just makes the things to bloody easy imo and that means dull as ****