So is anyone else really annoyed by very wide gear ratio spacing between second and third gear?
Shifting at redline, rpm drops from 7600 to 5800.

 

It saddens me deeply.

 

Well both transmissions have nearly identical radios:
Manual gearbox | PDK transmission
1st gear 3.91 3.91
2nd gear 2.29 2.29
3rd gear 1.55 1.65
4th gear 1.30 1.30
5th gear 1.08 1.08
6th gear 0.88 0.88
7th gear 0.71 0.62
Reverse 3.55 3.55
Final drive ratio 3.44 3.44

 

I am really annoyed from 1st to 2nd

old 997 had a shorter gap..

 

When I had the 991 C2S Cab back in January as a press car with the manual, I hated the clutch more than anything (well, maybe not more than the stupid electronic e-brake and its placement), but I also feel the manual is too soft and lazy when compared to the 997.

 

As it should be. But, I wonder why there is any difference at all... I mean, the engine wouldn't be more or less efficient in any RPM range, simply because of the transmission style, so why not choose the best ratio, and use that twice (if you're going to use the same number of gears in each one)?

 

Now I'm even more annoyed. PDK has a little shorter 2-3 gap. My 997.1S had perfect gear spacing. This stupid fuel economy race is ruining everything. Even when Porsche offers a manual tranny, they compromise it compared to PDK. I don't really care how tall the 7th gear ratio. But I want to have fund rowing gears, and instead I just get frustrated with every third gear shift!

I'd rather have my 991s with eco tires that I can replace, whereas I'm stuck with the stupid gearing. When I shift from 2-3 at redline quickly, the rpm gap is so wide that it feels like the engine falls out of the peak power band.

 

Question for pdk owners: where is your rpm immediately after a redline shift from 2 to 3rd?

 

It was great to meet you Saturday (Serge? - did I get that correct?). I have only done it a couple of time and only in sports+ where the car has done it for me. My car does not see 7000+ rpms very often. From memory, it drops me down to around 4500 rpms. I thought that that was the intent - to not shift until readline or until is could put you into the meat of the next power band. I wonder if others have had the same experience. Is that something you can have tuned?
Warmest regards

 

Not sure the exact RPM but haven't noticed any issue with the close ratio strategy.

ChuckJ

 

Hi Mike, It was nice to meet you as well. For best performance, you always want to shift at redline because the torque at the wheels in the lower gear will always (except perhaps for diesel trucks???) will be higher in the lower gear due to higher multiplier of the lower gear ratio, even if the engine has some hp/torque drop off near the redline. I think you should see something closer to 6000 in third after a redline up shift from 2nd

 

My only other Porsche was a pdk 997, so maybe that's good - I never felt the manual gearing for them. I've just really grown to love the 2nd- 3rd shift at redline and it feels dropped right into the meat of the powerband (to me). 3rd-4th seems so soon after that I've wished 4th was a little taller, and 4th redline makes me wonder how the car is going to get to its maximum speed with 2 gears left, but that's left to happily explore

(via 6SpeedOnline iOS)

 

By my calculations, the difference between 1.55 for manual and 1.65 pdk gear ratio makes for 350rpm smaller gap. So after a redline shift, pdk should be around 6100 or a little more, whereas manual is just uner 5800. 6100 would be much better. I don't understand the logic of putting a longer third gear in a manual.... Just look at the HP curve.... you would really want to be ideally above 6250 to redline

 

Hi, Sergey,

I was thinking about what you'd told me at the meet while driving around yesterday: I did notice the drop between second and third gear.

I'm still under the 1K mark so I haven't really been pushing the car to red-line, but I'm hoping this annoying drop in RPMs doesn't really hurt overall performance; especially while trying to shake a competitor from a standing start ...

 

Totally agree. I had always wondered why they did that. They actually had to spend money to do that. I would be a good question for someone going to the factory tour (or someone who knows a PM or engineer in Porsche) to ask.

ChuckJ