Now You Can Get a PDK in Your Air-Cooled Porsche

Smart or Sacrilege?

For most, the mere idea of driving an air-cooled Porsche with anything other than a manual transmission is pure sacrilege. After all, these are cars that were designed to be driving machines, and everyone knows that a proper sports car makes the driver shift their own gears, right? Regardless, the automatic transmission has begun taking over that space, largely due to advances in technology that enable them to shift faster than any human can - and Porsche's PDK dual-clutch gearbox is among the best of the best. Now, those that want to install a PDK in their air-cooled Porsche can do so easily, thanks to a company called KCPerformance.

Photos: KCPerformance

Dare to be Different

Porsche 911 restomods are a dime a dozen these days, but it goes without saying that pretty much all of them are equipped with a manual transmission. However, KCPerformance wanted to do something a bit different, so it proceeded to take a 993-generation 911 and figure out how to replace its original gearbox with a more modern PDK. 

Photos: KCPerformance

Making It Work

To make this task even more difficult, KC decided to leave the original air-cooled flat-six in place, rather than replace it with a more modern engine that would mate easily to the PDK. Luckily, the company has been building restomods for many years now, and has quite a bit of knowledge in regard to making modern electronics work on these older engines. 

Photos: KCPerformance

Big Downside

While some obviously won't like the idea of an automatic air-cooled Porsche in general, KC notes that for customers who want to extract more power from that particular engine, manuals are at a bit of a disadvantage. In fact, the company has some customers that don't drive their restomods much at all due simply to the presence of a manual. 

Photos: KCPerformance

Complicated Process

Adding a PDK to the mix solves all of those problems, making older 911s easier to drive in traffic and capable of holding up to higher levels of power, to boot. Of course, actually making this combination work takes quite a bit of effort, as KC must create its own custom adapter plate to marry the engine and transmission together, and that's just the start. 

Photos: KCPerformance

Other Goodies

From there, the company adds a new flywheel with a built-in crank position sensor, an E90 BMW 3-Series clutch pedal, and various other parts to make them work together. However, it also upgrades the old flat-six with an electronic ignition and modern fuel injection, plus an aftermarket ECU with custom mapping. 

Photos: KCPerformance

Pricey Swap

Ultimately, it took a whopping 1,500 hours to figure out how to mate a PDK to an air-cooled flat-six and make them work like they would from the factory. Now, KCPerformance is offering this service to interested customers - and it obviously won't take that long to complete - though it isn't cheap, with a price tag of around €50,000, or $54k USD.

Photos: KCPerformance

>>Join the conversation about PDK swapping air-cooled Porsches right here at Rennlist.com.

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