Just watched EVO car of the year. Love the very technical, nuanced and well articulated feedback on contenders. Finally, someone in the press pointed out my biggest disappointment about my 991S - gearing is screwed up. Not only is it too tall like in the cayman they were testing, also 2-3 gear ratio spread is just too wide. All in the name of getting an extra mpg out of a sports car. That's just screwed up. I ordered a manual because I like to shift and interact with the car, but the screwed up gearing takes a lot of fun out of it. And to add insult to injury, Porsche decided to give manual cars wider gear ratio spread vs PDK cars. Who's with me on this one?
EVO COTY video for anyone who hasn't seen it

 

Your "poll" is more of an editorial than a poll.

 

2-3 is too wide on PDK also.
They could have done better there.

 

I think their gearing was optimized for the ring. Since speeds average at 98mph there, the meat of the gearing is in that range. Idk I could be talking out of my *** though.

 

Porsche wrote themselves that in a manual cars, third gear was optimized for fuel economy. Just look at their advertisements. Almost every single one mentions fuel consumption.

 

Agreed....

 

I think the Evo guy was digging deep to find something wrong with the Cayman GTS. I spent some time in one at the track and that is no easy task. He could have kept the PSE open and stayed a gear lower to keep the revs up, but then he would have not had a reason to pick the 458 Speciale! What does that tell you?

 

Funny you mentioned this! I watched the video over dinner and smiled when he commented on the gearing.

I've said it before months ago, and that feeling hasn't changed. While I don't see it as a big problem, I do feel like the car *could* use shorter gearing, especially since we have a 7th gear. The car would feel more nimble.

 

My thoughts exactly. I am just really surprised that this is the first time anyone in the media mentions this. These guys are good. I also really like Chris Haris' commentary for the same reason ... It's technical and he really knows what he's talking about. There is no excuse in my book for a 7 speed tranny not have short/tight gearing in the first 5 gears.

 

Agreed -- with 7 speeds, you have no excuse not to get the spread across gears exactly right!

 

Not me. I think the gearing is fine.

The actual gearbox is the same between the manual and PDK, it's just the clutch and shifting mechanism that's different. In other words, they have the same gear ratios.

 

+1

To write as my only option: "(I.e. I don't know what I'm missing)" is just insulting.

 

On the 991? Because on the cayman GTS they are different

http://press.porsche.com/vehicles/20...Cayman-GTS.pdf

One of the reasons I went with a pdk (first auto I have ever bought) was because the manuals gearing was too long and the shorter gearing of the pdk results in more glorious ups and downs of the engine.

 

I'm sure the OP wasn't deliberately looking to insult anyone here.

Perhaps you should hang around the ZO6 forum for a while; that will surely toughen you up a bit.

 

Now that's a real s=t=r=e=t=c=h! I can easily compensate for the gearing in the manual, but are you able to compensate for that nasty little lag you get with the PDK at lower RPMs? And yes, I have embarrassed a few at the stoplight.