No surprise. Race cars went to auto clutches long ago. If I bought a Ferrari, I'd go F1 without a doubt.

 

I had a Boxster with tip and a Boxster S with 6 speed and found that there was no comparison - the 6 speed was the only way to go. I have a six speed on my tt cab and did not even consider the tip.

But, I just got a 360 spider with an F1 tranmission and so far, find it extraordinary. I have not had the opportunity to track the car and even drive it very much in the sport mode, so I don't know what it really is like, but I suspect it will be the optimal transmission.

My next car will either be the successor to the 430 or possibly the 997 turbo, if Porsche comes out with a paddle shifter.

 

Even though the tip may be faster, like someone mentioned, 6 speed is much more engaging. Call me old, but part of the driving experience for me must include the connection I feel when manually shifting through the gears.

 

Seems like someone on rennlist posted that the 1/4 mile for the 997 tt tip is .6 seconds faster than the six speed. The advantage does not go away. It aint the gearing. I think six speed are fun also but it seems that modded cars that try to speed shift have a few issues in some cases with tranny problems. I think once PDK is perfected it will scream. Does anyone know if there is a ecu upgrade for the tip control ecu that quickens shifts? Don't need higher shift points but would like quicker, crisper shifts up and down. Every litte bit helps.

 

Does this mean that this site will soon be called "Automatic-Online"?

 

Not if my TT looks like this

 

I'm still interested to know why the triptronic suddenly became faster than the 6 speed manual gbox.

I hope it is due to some amazing engineering discovery and not to an artificial marketing tip in order to decrease the efficience of the manual gbox in order to sell more of the expensive trip version.

 

it's pretty obvious, auto transimissions these days shift A LOT quicker then most humans ever will be able to. This goes for many cars actually. Also, 8 out of 10 times the auto in most cars w/ a performance edge will be quicker straight simply for the fact there is no room for error and they are more consistent.

 

The numbers are so close that it really doesn't matter very much IMHO. How fast the car is ultimately depends on the driver a lot more than tip vs manual.

 

it's maybe obvious in USA but in France we are used to manual gearbox, and used to manual gearbox being more efficient on good hands than automatic clever box. Here most ppl still believe that human experience is still better than a box which is less adaptative to road/drive conditions ( an Abox will never know where the next corner is so it will never know if it's worth going into next gear or not before hitting the breacks again for instance).

Thou i do agree than on a perfect road on a straight line froggies will have to adapt their ego and recognize the superiority of trip over manual.

@teflon_jones: numbers aren't that close:
on a 0-100 km/h the difference is really tight i agree: 0.2 secs
but on a 0-200 km/h the difference is 0.6 secs.
You can clearly see that it's more than linear.

 

I'm not bummed out at all. A good juice drive like the ones in the AMGs will have an adaptive TCU that can read driver input and get the next gear ready and hit the shiftpoint EXACTLY where it needs to be every time. That's why when I launch my SL55 I just let it do it's thing. If I try shifting with the buttons the TCU will not be anticapating the next gear and in that split second many a driver has hit the engine cough of the rev limiter kicking in. I know I have. Juice drive rules the straight line hole shot.

 

yea, so you basically said what the rest of us said. Through the twisties the 6 speed will still be faster because you can hold a gear etc. But in a straight line it's hard to shift as quick as the computer controlled automatics.

 

im not bummed out....im kinda bummed out I gotta wait till august for my SY beast but....oh well.

 

Isn't choosing which gearbox you want a bit more than just performance numbers only?
I mean ok if it's a dedicated track car but I doubt anyone who buys a TT will use it as a track car only.

I'd never get a certain box just because it's faster, even if it was 2sec faster to 100mph. A gearbox is about the way you want to drive your car, not if you want to go .2sec faster to 60.

 

agreed, completely.