"Porsche Puts Two More Nails in the Manual Transmission’s Coffin"

i thought i'd link to an article for the benefit of the remaining moldy figs here. i won't mention any names though **cough** **cough** **guenter** **cough**

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"Some things in this world are assured. The sun rises in the east. Birds head south for the winter. Donald Trump always will be a tool. And you can get a Porsche with a stick shift.

You can scratch that last one from the list. Porsche has introduced two new 911s – its flagship Turbo and track-focused GT3 – with a glaring omission in the options list: a manual gearbox."

full article here: [www.wired.com]

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MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

Don't birds head north for the Southern Hemisphere's winter?

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Laz
Don't birds head north for the Southern Hemisphere's winter?

that got me too. it's just poorly written. i think what he's saying is that when winter is coming in the southern hemisphere, the birds fly north since it's summer up there.

--
MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

He says what makes the GT3 so brilliant is how much fun, etc. it is to drive on the street. Doesn't the PDK make the GT3 more of a pure track car?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2013 02:42AM by Laz. (view changes)

The GT3 and Turbo get PDKs only because it eliminates the cost of R&D for a new transmission in a limited number of cars, when the vast majority of purchasers of these cars are either ROGs (Rich Old Guys) who prefer not to row the stick, or guys who will race the cars on tracks where the PDK is a substantial advantage.

For the mouldy figs here, Porsche will continue to offer, IMHO, a stickshift for years due to cost benefits, and the fact that Europeans still drive sticks.

The transition to automatics stems from the fact that transmission losses and shift logic evaded automatics for years, but with PDK, and even modern hydraulic transmissions, that shift faster than anyone could ever manually shift, and are pretty darn smart with respect to gear selection logic, the performance benefits of a manual are eclipsed.

I personally like stickshift, and surprisingly, my wife, who complained about stick in our 'family car' for years, now misses it in our automatic five passenger barge. Performance, however, is no longer the issue, but it's a bit of a nostalgic throwback, and some sense of driver involvement and feel. Feel of a car, however, is slowly being eroded as all cars become far more refined, and lots of stuff is filtered out. I was driving my 986 to Niagara a couple of days ago along a bunch of different roads, and I found it amazing that I could actually feel the various road surfaces, their grip performance as the day wore on. Fresh asphalt gave great grip, gravel roads felt gravelly, oil roads felt bumpy, and you could feel the front tires and what they were doing.

Our family car (an Audi A6, which has sporting enthusiasts crowing about performance on audi boards) with it's electric steering, and comfy ride tell me little -- but the built in navigation tells me about traffic and where to go.

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m4240z
The GT3 and Turbo get PDKs only because it eliminates the cost of R&D for a new transmission in a limited number of cars..

I am not so sure that this was so simple, true of course, but there is more to it. I believe in a little conspiracy here to kill the manual. Porsche appears to have no problem de-featuring a car or making special editions for a limited market and then bumping up the price... Top Gear railed on this a few times... more for less. The marketing folks no doubt did some research and calculated how many sales were lost vs revenue/profit gained, but I think the accountants ruled with a longer-term view. Just kill the darn thing and make less stuff.

I view this as just another example of Porsche serving their stock holders (nothing wrong with this, as it is their fiduciary responsibility defined by law) and maximizing their profits. They discovered that making super high priced luxury goods is more profitable than making sports cars. Really pretty simple actually.

Peace
Bruce in Philly



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2013 10:34AM by Bruce In Philly (2000 S Boxster, now '09 C2S). (view changes)

There are differences of course - mostly the engineering for the linkage and clutch hydraulics, btu they are not very large.

At least on regular 991s adn 981s, the two are the ame basic box.

I suspect the real savings is in production and inventory.

I also can't fault any company for not building what consumers don't want.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

According to this article. The two transmissions PDK and 7 speed manual share about 1/3 of their parts. The 981 doesn't have a 7 speed manual, so I imagine there aren't many, if any, interchangeable parts.

[www.caranddriver.com]

I don't know the details of the current lineup, but in the 2000s, the manual in the Carreras was the same in the Boxsters and Caymens (except for the 5 speed). I am sure some folks here can correct me or fill in the details, but they absolutely shared manual transmissions across models. I doubt that the savings from not offering a manual was that significant.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

991's have the 7 speed and 981's have a 6 speed. Not sure, but 6 speed might be the same as what used to previously on the S only.