My 2 bits on PDK
Just thought I would share my experience of test driving the
997S.2 with PDK & Sports Chrono. Now
I am not at all used to driving an automatic/tiptronic, especially in a sports
car, and have been driving a manual Porsche for the past 3 years. Even so I think that it is a phenomenal
effort from Porsche to replace their Tiptronic and make buyers of manual
trannies like me consider it seriously.
In effect there were 4 modes for changing gears.
In normal mode, it was a bit ridiculous for a sports car, (at one point I was doing 40kph in traffic, and it upshifted to 6th!!!) and unless I gave it a hard prod on the accelerator it was reluctant to downshift.
In sports mode, it seemed a bit more sensible, changing up at approx 3000-4000rpm, unless the foot was planted, and was more intuitive for my driving style.
In sports plus, it became a bit manic, and downshifted at every twitch of my right foot, making it again not do what I wanted it to. But on the track, I think this mode will shine, esp. in conjunction with Launch Control.
Finally, in manual, it did what I told it to do, and was the most satisfying to drive. Incidentally, I had no problems with the buttons, and found them quite easy. On the contrary, I found that having the same action on both sides helped me when I wanted to change gears whilst turning – the hand which was up could perform the gearshifts more easily. But then as said before, I have no experience with flappy paddles, so I didn't have to unlearn anything to learn this method.
I do realise that I need to ‘learn’ how to best utilise the modes of shifting, just like I had to learn all the different modes of shooting with an SLR camera. Normally I wouldn’t even consider the PDK but nowadays with the advent of huge traffic on my daily commute, it might let head rule heart and go the practical PDK route.
A piece of advice – don’t even DREAM of ordering a PDK car without Sports Chrono, as you will not have the sports, sports plus & Launch Control modes as described above.