Yikes, looks like Road & Track are no longer PDK fans. I have been saying this all along.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


The crux of the issue is that there's a fundamental difference between speed-obsessed German engineers and good ol' silly Americans who just love to drive a manual. For the former, there's a point at which the automatic is faster and can be programmed to be more efficient. It then becomes "better." To the rest of us, it merely becomes a better automatic. And while the GT3's PDK is one of the better automatics, there is not, nor will there ever be, an automatic that is as involving as a manual. The 911, like so many other cars, has traded a degree of involvement for speed. We'd happily lose time on the sprint to 60 mph, or a few seconds per lap, if it meant more fun.
Tobias Hutzler But rather than lay all the blame on Preuninger and Germans as a whole, we're partly at fault. There was a time when most enthusiasts seemed to view the dual-clutch automatic as the second coming. After living with those transmissions for a decade, they just feel like automatics.
On that note, allow us to apologize on behalf of an entire industry. We were wrong. We don't care about shaving tenths off acceleration runs. We want to work for our lap times. We're bored to death behind the wheel, and we want to get busy with a shift lever and a clutch pedal.
Perhaps those Germans also can admit they made a mistake.

 

I'd suggest to the driver: If you're bored, you're not going fast enough.

I'd suggest to R&T: If you don't like it, don't buy it. Sales will either plummet, and a manufacturer will have to find other (perhaps older) ways to make money. Or sales will go up, and dinosaurs will become extinct (with fossilized remains becoming collector's editions).

 

Amen.

Makes no sense for a RACE CAR not to have the best GO FAST technologies.

 

Give them some slack, they want to sell magazines.
more controversy, more sales....much fuss about nothing.

I'm sticking with my PDK.

 

I think it has more to do with the fact that enthusiasts are getting pissed these things are becoming so easy to drive. My girlfriend smoked me at the track last year in a GTR, and she's the worst driver ever.

 

Well said jasper!

ChuckJ

 

She smoked you in your 991 C2S? Congratulations, you are a lucky man!

ChuckJ

 

if you really want to have that connected feeling, buy a miata :-)
wonder how they feel about rev-matching technology? half the fun is trying to match the rpms, but a computer is doing that now....

 

I don't criticize Porsche's decision to go PDK only in the GT3. But why would they offer a manual option for the rest of the 991 line up so far?

 

I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of this whole manual/pdk dilemma....both from the manufacturers as well as the consumer....and personally I love both.....each have their place.

BUT....for Porsche in particular, taking into consideration manufacturing cost, is it too expensive for them to offer a PDK in the GT3 for an "extra" charge?.....hell, CCB's are almost 10k....I'd bet there are plenty of guys willing to pay an additional 15k + for a manual option.

What say you?

 

No rev-matching allowed. Anyone can position a stick, just like anyone can move a lever or pull/push a button. Doing several things at once is the challenge. And yes, that's fun on the track; but so is winning.

ChuckJ

 

Believe it or not they said it was a budget decision. They had to go with one or the other. Very interesting!

ChuckJ

 

They could simulate manual shifting on the PDK with a rework of the software and adding a third pedal. A best of both worlds approach.

 

Yep, and a synthesizer for missing a gear!

ChuckJ

 

i'm used to this wild beast^

that said, i think the pdk is the most incredible feeling advancement in cars in my lifetime.