Next 911 Turbo Abandons The Manual
Published: April 30th, 2013
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Next month’s Road & Track will be devoid of Baruthian driving impressions of the latest P Cars, but it will have lots of 991-related content to celebrate the 911’s 50 years on this planet. Among them is the scoop on the next 911 turbo, and it won’t be pretty for three-pedal driving fans.
Porsche’s PDK gearbox will be the sole transmission choice – likely due to customer taste as well as the ever-present desire to enhance the “green” factor of their cars. Fuel economy is apparently improved by as much as 13 percent with the new gearbox and start/stop is standard too. That warm and fuzzy feeling is the polar bears thanking you for making a responsible choice when buying a six-figure supercar.
More by Derek Kreindler
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It's an accumulation of things really. First the bloatmonster known as the Cayenne. Then there was their wretched reinterpreting of the Tatra, the perfect car for dentists spouses to get groceries at Whole Foods. Now this.
"I think everyone here would agree that if they were the VP of Racing at Porsche, and losing the race meant they and their children would go hungry, if given the choice between the 7 speed manual and the seven speed auto they would have to go with the auto. It’s faster and that’s not of opinion, it’s a fact. Once that fact is established I’m not sure how you can rationalize selling manuals in ultra high performance cars." Ok then if its about winnning races how come the race GT3s use sequential manual boxes. A. they are kighter and more robust. Q. If its about wining races how come the porche race cars have the metzger engine whereas the new GT3 has a stock based engine, A. because the new GT3 is amarketing special about sales to ever more posuers who want what appears on paper to be faster. Q. If its about wining races how come the race cars have n 4 wheel steer. A. because its banned in racing and probably not robust enough. The PDK only thing is a fuel economy emissions easy way out for porche. Allowing a manual requires essential two developments, its not worth it to porche, just sell the public a load of crap about PDK being the futiure and dont bother with a manual. Thing is we buy sportscars for fun, at least many of us do, I know for most its fashion pose. Its not about theoretical ultimate lap time its about fun and engagement with the machine. Between PDK only and EPS porche has removed two USP's to the 911. What the 991 is in fact is a rear engined 928 and we know how iconic the 928 became considering like the 911 its still in production? And were not most 928's auto too. I think car companies abandon the driver trackday crowd at their peril. Brand cred comes not only from racing but also from weekend warriors, maybe more so. Expect corvette Viper Noble Lotus etc to pick up the slack. Maybe porche wont notice it now, what with suburban moms picking theor kids up in turbos, but in time porche will have devolved into just another sporty car, whereupon it will be displaced by nissan or audi or maser. You loose the faithful at your peril, and frankly if they cared as BMW does they would offer a manual, 20% of customers should not be dissed. I say this is a major marketing blunder.
Why would I care that a car I will never be able to afford no longer has a certain transmission option? #firstworldproblems
For those who wants to connect with the car, we may have that in 20 years, like running an optic from your brain to the car.