Ferrari Mailing List: Re: NFC: Comparing manual to auto trans on race track

[Fellippe Galletta (fellippe.galletta]

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 1:53 AM, Michael James
<cavallino_rapante [at] yahoo.com>wrote:

> I think the article might be misleading because the Tiptronic transmission,
> I recall, required a semi-auto engagement of 'up' or 'down' via the
> gearlever on the floor/console.  This required the driver to remove their
> hand from the wheel to shift, losing driver focus to fumble with a
> narrow-gated lever out of the field of view.  It is/was almost as bad
> as Ferrari's Valeo system - we all know how successful THAT was.
>
> I also recall the driver not having full-use of the rev range of the engine
> with the Tiptronic tranny, when the revs reached a certain value, the car
> up/down shifted automatically regardless of driver intent as a matter of
> preservation, so taking the car to max-revs before shifting
> wasn't possible.  I never saw a Tip-equipped Porsche do well on the re-sale
> market, and everything I've read or heard about them from owners said 'shite
> box'....YMMV.
>
> M
>

Mike,

I'm with you on the hating of the porsche tiptronic and semi-autos in
general....but the amount of new 911 turbos sold with this "PDK"
transmission is staggering. I think it's something like 30-40%....a lot of
people have them.

FG