Well just to add my little bit to the PDK initial feedback.
I traded in my 07 Gen1 C2S Manual in for a new Gen2 C2S PDK 6 weeks ago. One of the driving forces for my change was to get PDK. I had long been a fan of BMW's SMG technology having previously owned 2 cars fitted with it and having loved them, and I had test driven PDK and thought it was pretty much as good as SMG.
After a few days the rose tinted spectacles effect wore off and I started to feel some lack of satisfaction in the new car compared to the previous car I had loved so much. Initially I was in denial and was convinced that I still loved PDK and tried to blame the lack of connection and feedback with the road on the new, more compliant suspension and the steering in Gen2.
After about 2-3 weeks I was finally starting to admit to myself that all wasnt well with the new gearbox and it was actually PDK, the main reason I had changed cars, that was at the root of my feeling that the old car was actually a much better car to drive.
Im now 6 weeks in and my dislike grows by the day. The problem for me is that I do the majority of my driving on the urban streets of a large UK city. High speed twisty lane driving actually accounts for only a small amount of my driving time. PDK does have a lot of positives, including making the car a much faster package all round and actually being quite good fun on twisty lanes. Once you get going at speed PDK comes into its own, however in the city, stop starting at the traffic lights its just truely horrible. It just feels like a damn tiptronic and to me there is no place for an automatic in a sports car that you want to get feedback from. There is a definate torque convertor 'slip' of the cluch as you set off at sedate speeds. The revs are just not directly connected to speed for the first two or three yards after setting off as they are in a manual. It also creeps forward all the time when you are waiting at the lights, so you have to keep your foot on the brake otherwise you set off. Alternatively you have to put it in "N", again just like tiptronic. The whole layout of the stick and buttons also both go further to reinforce the feeling that you are driving an automatic.
I'm now of the opinion that PDK is a rather slick manually operated automatic, rather than a sporty automated manual (which I still belive BMW's SMG is much much closer to being). Its just the overall feedback of the damn thing around town thats killing it for me. Porsche have just positioned this too close to being a Tip replacement unfortunatly, and its ruined the whole thing for me.
Im gutted to be honest. Ive spent a lot of cash upgrading to PDK and I really really wish I had my old car back instead. The old car quite simply put a grin on my face everytime I drove it. The new one just serves to make me feel disgruntled with the gearbox everytime.
So I have the solution in hand - GT3 mk2! Spent much of yesterday locating a dealer who still has (in theory) a Sept/Oct build slot for GT3. Ok nobody knows for sure on this, but a decent sized dealer with only 1 existing deposit looks very promising for 2009 to me! On monday morning it is my intention to finalise things and place my £10k deposit down. Then I only have to put up with PDK for 4-5 more months.
I had two 6-point curves and three 5-point curves, so there is plenty to improve. But it actually gave me one of these metal things as nr 3 of the R-drivers in my group. But there were 4 S-drivers who were better, so I was just lucky regarding that. I was placed as a R-driver just because I won the ladies cup for sportfahrers last year, with the score I had then I should still have been placed in the S-group.
I have the sports suspension so I hope that it will be stiff enough on sports position...but, last week I did some 'spirited' driving in Italy on some very twistie and bumpy roads and even with the sports suspension on I thought it needed to be more stiff sometimes.
