My friend makes the claim that a 993 Tiptronic really has two second gears, thus giving a total of 5 gears instead of 4. He thinks that if you are in second either auto or manual that it automatically goes from "low second" to "high second" and that it is completely out of your control even in manual.

Does anybody know anything about this?

 

err, he's wrong!

 

How can he be wrong when he read this on the internet? Seriously, I think he found some guy's blog about the 5-speed Tip in a 996 and confused it with his 993.

My theory is that it starts in second and if you give it enough throttle, it can shift back down into first.

Whatever...

 

He got this 2nd gear notion from misreading some information on Wikipedia.

Did you know that their article on the Targa 993 there says that Porsche deliberately made the Targa wheels heavier than normal so as to "balance" the top-heavy glass roof?

I told him that I could not imagine Porsche "deliberately" adding unsprung weight to any of their cars...even if the Targa was a little heavier in the roof than the coupe...

 

It doesn't have two 2nd gears. It's the torque converter lock up. It's supposed to do that. The torque converter lock up is like a clutch that engages to reduce the slippage of a torque convertor after it has reached around 25-35mph in 2nd gear.

 

You are exactly right - I drove his car to lunch today and showed him that...you can tell by the tach; it only moves about 200 RPM when it does the lockup, while a real gear change drops 1000 RPM or more.