Latest Porsche 911 Performs the Perfect Shift … Without You
(29 August 2012)
"Any gearhead worth their weight in engine oil has painstakingly developed the art of heel-and-toeing; simultaneously matching the engine speed with the transmission’s input shaft to elicit a perfectly smooth downshift. But the latest advancement from Porsche will make all that late-night throttle/brake ballet practice for naught.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of the heel-and-toe downshift, its name can be a bit misleading. In cars equipped with a manual transmission, drivers obsessed with keeping the vehicle weight from transitioning abruptly during a downshift (going from fifth to fourth, fourth to third, etc. can unsettle the vehicle at speed) will push in the clutch, shift into the lower gear, and while applying pressure to the brake to slow the car with their right foot, they pivot their heel to stab the throttle. This matches the engine revs with the transmission speed, and when they then let out the clutch, it’s a seamless transfer of power. And all of this happens in less than a second.
The computer in Porsche’s latest all-wheel-drive 911 models – the Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S equipped with the Sport Chrono package – is smart enough to recognize when the driver wants to downshift in the manual transmission models, and automatically matches the engine speed, negating the need for fancy footwork.
But to give credit where credit’s due, this latest advancement isn’t that new. Nissan began fitting a similar technology – dubbed SynchroRev Match – to the 370Z when it was introduced in 2008. It does the same thing as this new Porsche system, but features an on/off switch to allow shifting purists to eliminate the unwanted technological advance.
According to a Porsche spokesman, the system is only active when the driver selects the “Sport Plus” driving mode, so in Normal and Sport mode, the system is deactivated. But the fact that drivers can’t disable the system no matter what mode they’ve chosen will surely be a sticking point with a fraction of enthusiasts. But they’d better get used to it. The new rev-matching feature will eventually roll out to the rest of the 911 range in the coming years, and there’s little doubt it will find its way into other Porsche models equipped with a stick shift, including two of our perennial favorites: the Boxster and Cayman."
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