I am in agreement with HeavyChevy on this one. Although the company has had the Porsche Doppel Kupplung (PDK) for more than a decade, paddle-based shifters have been clumsy in the cars I have driven at the track.

For sequential shifting, they should use a floor mounted stick like we use in the RSR.

 

And PDK will add more like a hundred pounds to the car's weight.
When asked in Christophorus about the weight penalty with PDK, Walter Rohrl "winced".

Bill

 

I dont trust Porsche and their claimed weights anyways.


We'll see what it weighs on a scale. I bet 3350-3400 lbs assuming they keep everything else the same.

 

they should've put PDK in 997TT first to see how things go...imo;

 

I beleive they tried, but it kept failing.

 

No matter what you have or do, if things come too easily, ultimately, you become bored. That goes for shifting, too. After a while, these easy, fast semi-auto shifts are no longer a marvel.. they're just there, and you realize how uninvolved you are.

That said, I'm sure the objective performance will improve.

I hope manuals don't go the way of the Dodo bird..

 

Save that for when the GT3 gets Attessa, and 3 buttons for traction, stability, and auto pilot.

 

When my second one was done last fall, it was supposedly the new one made by a different vendor from the predecessors. Still leaks Ha Ha

 

PKD weighs 22 lbs less than Tiptronic (and that didn't weigh 100 lbs more than stick, did it?)

 

GTPorsche magazine , May 2008 , page 56 (article on Walter Rohrl) Chris Harris questions Rohrl on PDK

Chris Harris: "is there a weight penalty?"

Walter Rohrl: "39kg {86 LBS.} (slight wince of misfortune). Still quite a lot I think"

CH: "Will you need different springs and damper settings for cars with PDK?"

WR: "Yes"

 

I have a F430 w/F1 Tranny WOW! I feel very involved in the car! I have driven the same car with a 6sp and the car is very fun to drive but does not drive like the F1. I agree Porsche should spec options for both but as with Ferrari you will find most will opt for the PADDLES!

 

doesn't look like paddles for the PDK. pics indicate buttons

 

Buttons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PLEASE NO NOT BUTTONS!

 

They are rocker switches that are pushed from the front (upshift) or pulled from behind (dowshift) with either hand.

 

The PDK box shows up as a 66lb weight gain in the US car specs compared to the manual shift box. Just looking at the photos, it seems the factory could have shaved 10lbs off that penalty just by foregoing the floor shifter P-D-R assembly which looks like junk out of a Lexus to me.

Anyway, is this going to be another endless series of threads like the 997 GT3 sunroof topic?

Personally, I placed a deposit in '07 specifically to experience PDK.

I expect in the GT cars, PDK will be even heavier and hopefully with near-zero overlap time. It seems that Porsche hasn't yet divulged the AWD configuration, so I'm optimistic that both the AWD and GT3 gearbox will be substantially superior to the normal Carrera box.

As to whether I get the subsequent RS with PDK, well, I think the future for track-oriented cars is the way of the flappy-paddle. The Scuderia is exclusively F1 and the Ferrari California has a dual clutch, so the successor to the Scuderia will surely be dual clutch. The "inexorable" march of technology as someone already noted.

I think Porsche drivers might especially dislike paddle shifting because Tiptronic is such an abysmally vague and erratic sack of soiled condoms. I have little doubt that hard core track drivers will be counting their pennies to afford both PDK and PCCBs on their next GT3 or RS.

For fun with a street car that does a dozen or so track days each year, I expect I'll go "old school" in the RS, but if PDK wins me over in the GT3, I'll still have the 993 Turbo (converted to 2WD and with a Guard LSD) for my fill of auto-erotic cog swapping. : )