On reading manual a bit more carefully, it states "don't use emergency brake to hold car." However with hot weather, with air on, pulled in a parking lot to make a cell call and pulled emergency brake with manual trans in neutral. After idling there for ~20 minutes (no car movement with flat concrete), pulled the key and went into a store. Back out in 15 minutes and vehicle had rolled into stone wall about 3 ft away. Apparently, while things were hot, emer-brake held, but on cooling, this minor temp chg caused this ever-so-slight brake slippage. The incline was less than 1%, the car movement might have started with mild burst of wind. Cost $800 with a three days w/o car. Porsche tech says my brake was normal, but emergency brakes on these turbos are garbage and should never be relied on for holding the vehicle. Seems like for +$130K, one could get a more reliable emer-brake, but i guess with disc brakes, a weak emer-brake is an issue. Anyway, this crap was news to me, but a lesson learned.
I have heard often that it is not good practice with manuals to leave them in first or reverse in case with parallel parking they get tapped & moved...could be an expensive repair. However, I think with these cars its best to put them in gear and maybe forget parallel parking.

 

Buddy, I almost pull an emergency brake on my eye lids while reading your all bold types

Thanks for sharing, I didn't know our hand brake is that bad

 

So park the car in gear, problem solved. No need to thank me.

 

+1 - this was taught in driver's training 50 years ago. Here's what the owner's manual has to say:

f

Pull the lever all the way up (arrow).
With the ignition on, the parking brake warning
lights in the instrument panel and on-board
computer will come on if the lever is even
slightly raised. A firm pull upward is required to
properly engage the parking brake.
If the brake is not fully set, the vehicle may roll
without control.

f

Move the selector lever to “P” (PDK) or move
the gearshift lever to reverse or first gear
(Manual transmission).

f

Before exiting the vehicle, make sure that the
parking brake is fully set and the vehicle is not

moving at all.

 

+1 ^^^. Neutral is definitely no place for a parked manual. The handbrake is there for additional hold when you need....hills etc. Flat surface neutral will suffice.

 

Are they really garbage? Any drifters or rally drivers care to comment?

 

I'd be willing to bet a drifter or rally driver puts aftermarket e-brake kits on their cars or something, relying on the stock setup probably doesn't cut it.

I've found my own e-brake doesn't really do much until it is pulled almost till it's last 'click'.

I don't know about the Porsche e-brake, but on BMWs they need to be adjusted and tightened periodically. Had to do it on my M3. Haven't bothered with the Porsche yet.

 

There are far better cars to use for rally and drifting than a tt. The internal workings of a TT's handbrake mechanism show that they really are not designed to be yanked on hard while the car is going.....unless you want to break it or, unless its someone else's car you're driving that you don't like.

 

Handbrakes on rally cars are almost always replaced with hydraulic ones, since repeated hard pulls on a normal one stretches the cable. Also you would need to remove the lock-button feature.