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David Dymaxion
The good news is it looks like I'll fit in a Boxster, Cayman, or 911 with a helmet on (btw Corvette was too small).
Most years I'll do a few Miller DEs and autocrosses. My wife insists on an automatic. Perfect compromise: PDK transmission. However, the older Tiptronic cars are much cheaper. Here are my Tiptronic questions:
- Will it hold a gear? It's very annoying when another Tiptronic-like car I've driven upshifts for the last 5 feet of a straightaway rather than just hold the gear.
- Will it drop down a gear at higher rpm? The aforementioned car would not drop back into 1st until you were almost stopped -- not good for autocross times.
- Is the Tiptronic reliability good under hard use? The aforementioned car just blew its transmission.
- Any general comments on Tiptronic vs. PDK?
Greg Troester
In my experience, tiptronic is a hard transmission style to 'race'
with. The concerns you've stated have been my general experience -
yes, they like to upshift if you are not at 100% full throttle, don't
really hold gears, etc. Its really hard for the car to anticipate
shifts or shift the way you would want it to in a race/track/autocross
situation (i.e. downshifting to use the full range of a gear, as
opposed to staying in a higher gear even though you are outside of the
power band). Even though you control the shifting, it is still an
automatic transmission. I have not driven a tiptronic transmission
for several years now, and none of my experiences have been with
Porsches, so I can't say how they handle this. My thought, however,
is that Porsche has found what you have concerns about to be true -
thus PDK.
I have driven an '09 Boxster S and an '09 Cayman S with PDKs on a demo
autocross course - if wishes were dishes I would go with PDK, hands
down. The dual clutch system makes it WAY easier on the transmission,
performs smoother shifting (up and down), and is generally speaking
superior. I think that even under your DE/autocross/fun cruiser car
usage desires, the PDK will be a much hardier and enjoyable
transmission to drive. As your racing progresses, I would imagine
that the tiptronic will be more frustrating, and that the occasional
track use will take its toll - could possible 'blow up' if you are
hard on it.
My two cents. Like I said "if wishes were dishes" - the budget/makes-
sense-in-the-big-picture thing is always a challenge! Hope this
helps!
Greg
On Dec 17, 6:36 pm, David Dymaxion <david_dymax...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> My wife has been saying she wants another car, and said "Grab your helmet and let's see how you fit in Porsches." Is she a keeper or what?
>
> The good news is it looks like I'll fit in a Boxster, Cayman, or 911 with a helmet on (btw Corvette was too small).
>
> Most years I'll do a few Miller DEs and autocrosses. My wife insists on an automatic. Perfect compromise: PDK transmission. However, the older Tiptronic cars are much cheaper. Here are my Tiptronic questions:
>
> * Will it hold a gear? It's very annoying when another Tiptronic-like car I've driven upshifts for the last 5 feet of a straightaway rather than just hold the gear.
> * Will it drop down a gear at higher rpm? The aforementioned car would not drop back into 1st until you were almost stopped -- not good for autocross times.
> * Is the Tiptronic reliability good under hard use? The aforementioned car just blew its transmission.
> * Any general comments on Tiptronic vs. PDK?Thanks for the advice!BTW thanks for welcoming me and my red Camaro, I've greatly enjoyed the handful of PCA events I've attended while my old 1977 911 was (and is) being restored / worked on.
Scott
She is a keeper! ;-)
I have an 09 PDK Cayman and got the PDK to satisfy the same
compromise.
In manual mode it will hold whatever gear you like up to redline.
Also in manual mode if you put the pedal all the way down and engage
the kickdown switch it will downshift to the gear with the best power
band for your speed. I found this to work great.
Although it is technically an automatic I still enjoy driving it and I
use the manual mode 95% of the time.
My wife of course uses full auto mode 100% of the time.
I have not driven the tiptronic - non-pdk. For me that was not an
option but I was willing to get the base cayman PDK and not dead set
on a Cayman S.
hoggel
I drove a 993 tiptronic at driver education and autocross events for
five years. Did you know the older tiptronics only have four ratios?
And there are only two ratios that are useable on the track or
autocrossing. Fourth is an overdrive for economy, first is too low for
all but the slowest autocross corners. I had a lot of fun with my car
but it never seemed to be right in the powerband. In these events I
always drove it in manual mode. In manual mode the car shifts up at
about 6500 rpm (redline technically 6800). I used the steering wheel
buttons to shift down and let the car shift up. The tiptronic in 993
and later cars is very sophisticated, six shift maps. The system has
an accelerometer and prevents shifts in corners and shifts down at
higher rpm when decelerating or decending. It took me several months
to learn to drive the tiptronic to it's full potential. If you go for
a test drive in a tiptronic car and have it in automatic mode you will
think there is something wrong with the car. In the default shift map
the system retards the timing during shifts to 'smooth' the shift and
the shift points are around 2500 rpm ... lethargic. To get into the
'sport' mode push the accelerator to the floor and then push harder.
There's a kickdown switch. I could go on and on .. like I said it took
me months.
In the end, I had the transmission in my car swapped for a six speed.
It was very painful on my wallet and in retrospect I should have sold
the car and bought a six speed car. But now I love my car all over
again. It's the sports car it always should have been.
I'd suggest PDK or encourage your keeper to learn to drive a manual.
> * Will it hold a gear? It's very annoying when another Tiptronic-like car I've driven upshifts for the last 5 feet of a straightaway rather than just hold the gear.
In manual mode, yes. In automatic mode ... it depends (and that is
annoying on the track).
> * Will it drop down a gear at higher rpm? The aforementioned car would not drop back into 1st until you were almost stopped -- not good for autocross times.
In automatic mode it will not shift into first gear even at a stop. To
start out in first gear (after warm-up) you have to have 3 selected or
press the accelerator more than 3/4 at a 'quick' rate. If you get a
tip you will be driving it in manual mode for autocross. The car will
not let you shift under lateral Gs so you have to shift down before
the corner or as you track out. I would hold the downshift button and
roll on the gas. When the car unloads a bit it would shift.
> * Is the Tiptronic reliability good under hard use? The aforementioned car just blew its transmission.
The Porsche tiptronic is famously durable.
> * Any general comments on Tiptronic vs. PDK?Thanks for the advice!BTW thanks for welcoming me and my red Camaro, I've greatly enjoyed the handful of PCA events I've attended while my old 1977 911 was (and is) being restored / worked on.
I've never driven PDK but seven gear ratios verses four fluid drive
ratios are no contest IMO. But if anything ever goes wrong with the
PDK and you are out of warranty ... complexity costs.
Louis
Bohemian Brewery
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