With a 70 miles commute a day (work and back), I will trade my 6sp for a tip NOW.

 

Never thought I'd own anything but a manual sports car. All my past Porsches have been manual and I really like my 01' Turbo TIP. If I'm going out for an early Sunday morning back road road blast or a track day I'll take the manual, but to drive my car the other 99% of the time I really like the Tip. With traffic congestion and low speed limits between the opportunities to open it up the Tip is great. I really like that I can leave the Tip in "Drive" but use the shift toggles anytime to manually to shift up or down and if the throttle's used aggressively it holds the gear as long as I want, all while left in drive. I'd like to think the percentage of Tip cars is growing because more people realize how well they work, not the drivers are lazy or inept.

 

I think it largely depends on why you have the car...

I would likely say that if you've got the $$, a 997TT with PDK is the way to go (btw, does the new 997.2 turbo have proper paddles yet?) since it has a "drive" mode anyway as well, but it's a true automated manual for when you want full driver/car interaction.

If you're commuting all the time though and if you're set on a 996TT as a daily, well then a Tip is probably something you can live with a lot easier.

Every time I drive my 6 spd around town it's such a chore. All the speed limits seem to be at exactly the most awkward RPM's - I'm always between 2 and 3, and with all the damn hills here on the Island it seems every stoplight I'm doing uphill starts.

(Which is exactly why it's not my DD)

So I can really see the practical logic of a Tip if you're putting more than 10,000 Kms (6K miles) a year on it as a daily.

But yeah, check out the 997.2 PDK's, I believe paddles are now an option (so you don't have to "thumb shift"). See if it fits in the budget, because it's the best of both worlds...

Cheers

-Chris

 

Actually, that's not true. Same car, same mods, TIPs will always put far less power to the ground than the 6-speed cars will. When it comes to performance, modified 6-speed Porsches (with good drivers) will almost always be faster overall than modified TIP cars will. The Porsche TIP trannies have a ton of parasitic drag, so TIP cars have to make up the difference by making more power to the crank than their 6-speed counterparts do, regardless of the advantage that less boost lost between shifts provides. PDK is a another story, however.

That said; Charlie- I think for your purposes a TIP just might be the ticket. There are several advantages that TIP cars provide that makes them very tempting. The way I use presently use my car, a TIP would not be optimal for me. But in the future, who knows?

Good luck with your decision.

 

I thought the tip in our 996 is one of the most efficient auto trannies out there? I just saw an old AutoWeek review of a early model 996 (4S). The 1/4 time was slower due to low rpm launch, but the trap speed was only 1 mph less with the auto. Does anyone know the average 1/4 mile time and trap speed on a stock tip?

 

Car and Driver tested a Tip and got 4.2 sec 0-60 and 12.6 sec @ 112 mph for 1/4 mile.

In a separate test, C&D had the 6 speed doing 3.9 sec 0-60 and 12.3 sec @ 116 mph for 1/4 mile.

 

Thanks For all the response guys. Know of anyone wanting to trade a comparable tip for my 6-speed let me know. Charlie

 

I have Clutch Master Stage 3, good up to 750hp easy, cost range low as 1300 to 1800 + install.

 

so is almost half the price of the tip tuning from MKB...

 

Same track? Same day? Same driver? Same conditions? Same settings? It's always good to know these answers when comparing.

 

It will never happened unless the cars are stock, why concern about which one is faster? Just mod the heck out of your car and beat the person next to you.

Plain and simple, 6speeds have much more modding potential for high power. If your goal is around 500 awhp, either car (Tip or 6speeds) can win.

 

+1!

 

Could you please elaborate on 'parasitic drag' ? Sounds interesting. I never heard of that regarding the tip.

 

Someone should explain this better than I. I'm not the expert, but as I understand it tips like all automatics rely on a fluid interface and various pumps between the gear faces and engagements. The manual is a hard interface with gears changing via the clutch. Once the clutch is out, everything is mechanically engaged. Not fluid engaged. The PDK is an autoshifting manual with internal clutch packs that do the engagements. It does the shifts faster than a human can.

 

You have to have been in an MKB tip car to appreciate how good the box is. It is night and day to the std tip.

Before my EBC played up at the weekend, I ran @ 1.3 bar

0-60 3.4 ( I have done 3.09)
0-100 6.6
0-130 10.5
0-150 14.29

1/4 mile 134.20mph @ 11.1 - lots of improvement to come on that.

and that was on a very slight incline, and an extremely dusty.

I am considering have the TCU upgraded for shift times but to be fair it shifts so quick now anyway.

That said with a sach 890 clutch on a manual might be a cheaper option.

Sadly due to EBC small issue, i wasn't able to improve the 60-130 time because I only at 0.8 bar boost. There is another chance to run next month.

Ken