It's Here! 2010 TT first impressions
 

Arrived last Thursday. Put 500 km on it trying it out, in decent winter North East North American conditions. Mounted snow tires after 300 km.

Very competent; deceptively quick; great ride/handling combination; PDK is best twin-clutch in the business so far. Definitely an all season/everyday driveable supercar.

Previous Porsches I have had, 996 TT, and 997 GT3. Currently have a GT-R and ZR1. Comparisons are inevitable (especially with the GT-R - sorry!).

The 2010 does not feel any quicker than the GT-R or 996 TT, probably because it is pretty quiet, smooth, and well planted, but once I hooked up my accelerometer and V-Box, it showed that the new TT pulls more G force in each gear than any of the other cars. In winter conditions, and NOT using launch control, but just flooring it and lifting slightly to reduce the dreaded Porsche rear wheel hop, I still managed to do several 0-60 runs in the 3.5 seconds range.

Ride is excellent. Steering feel quite good for a 4 wheel drive car, not as sharp as the GT3 obviously, but can't really tell that the front wheels are being driven.

Transmission is excellent in automatic mode. Shifts well, always in the right gear, downshifts several gears at once if floored. Clutch take-up is great - as smooth as a torque converter. Creep function is very nice and feels natural. Manual shifting however is disappointing. It takes a perceptible delay between pulling the "optional at extra cost" paddles and the gear actually shifting. You have to pull the paddle at 5500 rpm if you want it to shift by 6500 rpm. By comparison, the GT-R transmission, while extremely crude in operation, upshifts immediately and very positively.

Handling is very good. Traction is OK, but not amazing. Very rear drive biased. I never felt the front wheels spinning, but the back ones spin readily in these conditions. Again, by comparison, the GT-R seems to make better use of the 4 wheel drive system, and finds traction everywhere. It feels like it is glued to the ground (but rides like a truck). In the GT-R you can feel the torque tranferring to the front wheels and actively "pulling" you around a corner.

Engine is very nice - smooth, torquey, revs much better and makes power much further up the RPM range than the 996 turbo. The effect of the optional Sports Chrono is tangible. However, notwithstanding the variable vane geometry and small turbo sizes, there is very noticeable turbo lag - while you can feel (and see in the display), the turbos starting to spool up pretty quickly, it takes quite a while for them to come up to full boost.

Looks: At this level of performance and price, I'd like to see a bigger differentiation and more uniqueness for the TT outside and inside. In my case I ended up with a silver exterior and black interior, and while easy to maintain and very functional, there is nothing "special" about the car. One of the other forum members with a blue car did much better at getting a "nicer" combination.

So in summary - a much improved TT. Nice combination of speed, handling, useability, and comfort. A bit more of a hard edge, and "specialness" would be nice.

Seems like you are so-so with your purchase....most of the things you've highlighted in your "review" have been previously noted in magazies etc...You sum up the looks as "nothing special" and that is the one thing that anyone could see about the car without ever owning one...it is a near carbon copy of the 997.1TT. So it begs the question...why'd you go with this car when (since listing your other cars)...you could have gone for a harder edged, more "special" car?

Thanks for the post and details. Congrats. I am a little surprised in your description of the paddle shift delay. I wanted this to be "the end all" trans experience, and I will await more reviews as more cars are delivered. Post some more pics of that bad boy when you have a chance. Thanks again.

I want to knwo how you got your car. Mine is still sitting in San Dieg. Offical Launch date is still a week or two away. Thanks for the review. How did you ge the car?

How would you compare it to the ZR1?
I really want one of those!

Excellent initial write-up. I'd be interested to know if the PDK shifting habits change as you drive the car more.

'Rocket

Something must be wrong . My PDK normally aspirated car shifts so instantly with the slightest tap . First realize that if the shift is done in "normal" it will differ from "sport" or "sport plus" . For street driving I use manual "sport" . Also the rev matching downshifts by holding in the paddle while braking are astounding .

I don't have the factory paddles . I have the Champion aftermarket .

thx for sharing...interesting to note how the turbos feel lag to you...could it be what they did with direct injection and lower psi/boost?

I am surprised to hear about the turbo lag and the poor manual shift times. A lot of the reviews have said the turbo lag, while still present, is much less than in prior models. And for the manual shift times, I've driven the base 911 w/ PDK, and the shift times were extremely fast, especially compared to my M5.

Maybe they had to slow down the shift time due to the high torque of these motors?

I think it would be great if the OP could post some of his recorded runs from his performance box. WOT runs in mid to higher gears would demonstrate both spool up and lag, and would be useful in quantifying the driving experience.

I am just pissed off I didn't get *THOSE* wheels...

Although reminiscent of the BMW wheel I'm still Loving that sporty look.

Hello Joe and thanks for sharing the very good review. Sounds to me like you are a seasoned veteran and you *know* your cars very well, which make me even more extremely :) surprised at your comment about the shift delay above. This is first time that I've read about such a severe delay. From my own brief test drive in a PDK test car, and from other reviews, the shift is instantaneous. Most definitely so in manual mode. Something is not right?

Re. "feeling" the front wheel being driven: interesting observation. I made some comments on same topic in 997.1 Turbo. http://www.rennteam.com/forum/thread/20137647/Turbo_steering_Better_purer_and_more_responsive_wi th_Sport_Mode_on/page1.html

thanks for honest review. pdk with turbo sounds like it has some safety cushion built in. i won't take pdk seriously until porsche uses it in the RSR or cup series.

That's one of the reason's I went manual again.
Test drove a c2s PDK and in manual mode too much delay on down shifts.

It's probably more to do with the brain waiting with nothing to do ;)

In a manual your brain has things to do (clutch, revs, gear change) so its thinking about things, in PDK you press and expect it to change - your brain noticing the delay much more.