Hi All.

So I'm 48 hours in to driving my 2010 911 S, PDK. I came from an '11 535i with paddles. Different beast all together.

I love the car.. It excites me more overall then the BMW. I had the BMW chipped to produce about 350hp, and the new transmission in the 535i (not DCT) is quite impressive, not terribly inferior to PDK even. The power delivery in the 535i also was a bit smoother, especially in sport mode. Again, I'm 48 hours into the new car, so I may not have gotten to know the transmission quite as well as the other car.

The 535i is a single scroll turbo. I experienced lag with it when flooring the peddle. I thought I would get away from lag when I bought my 911 S.. This isn't the case. I still feel a bit of lag when stomping the peddle. I'm a bit dissapointed in this.

Question: What is the first MOD that you would suggest for faster throttle response, and to let the engine breath more? I'm not rich, and I just dumped a bunch of money on the new car, but I would like some improvement in the responsiveness.

The Porsche has a beautiful stance on the road, blows the 535i out of the water. The new body style of the beemer really caters more to the soccer mom than the last generation car. It's a shame. Sure with some of the expensive extras you can get a firmer stance, but even the sport package isn't enough on the 535i to qualify for an enthusiast's ride.

PDK:
The PDK transmission is excellent. Not as amazing to me as some have mentioned. The steering wheel buttons are odd, and not intuitive. I am going to be replacing the steering wheel with one that has paddles. This I'm sure will increase my visceral enjoyment of the car.

Power Delivery:
It seems like the car doesn't wake up until about 60% of the power band. Another dissapointment, or again, I haven't "gotten to know her yet".

This is an odd point, but I had a 2002 Harley Davidson Road King, carburated. I would crack the throttle and the bike would bark, causing me to hold on to the bars, while the bike's torque blasted me down the road. I would have thought it would be similar in the 911s, even stock. It seems like it's a little sleepy down low at times. 3rd and 4th gear seem to be where the car likes to accellerate most. Thoughts?

Sport/Sport + Mode
Regular driving mode is great while I'm talking on the phone, driving through town, but when I want to DRIVE, it's unacceptable. This shouldn't come as a surprise.

Sport mode is a great improvement, although I don't find it as intuitive as many have suggested. I still find the car in 4th gear at 40mph sometimes, and taking 20mph turns in 3rd gear. Not my idea of intuitive. Sport Plus is overkill, and only seems to shift at redline.. Very cool, but not real world practical.

Navigation:
The navigation really annoyed me today driving on i95 into Miami.. Is there a default mode so that the map is similar to a Garmin? It was a birds eye view from 10,000 feet above, very vague, and I had no idea where the next turn was until the womans voice, who I couldn't hear, or figure out how to turn up, told me to turn. I'd love to have it so I was seeing the streets approaching as I was driving, if this makes sense.

Summary:
All in all, I love the car, I think I just want to wake her up.. Would love your thoughts on the first few things in order, that I need to do to make that happen.

In addition, any "tips" on driving style, ways to finesse the PDK transmission to be more responsive, would be a huge help to hear.

I know I have much to learn, and get used to, and I'm excited for the journey. I can't spend 10k just yet on making her purr more, but I have a few grand that I can play with.

Thx!

 

Pull the shifter to the left <manual mode> drop gears and step on the gas. Sick.

I drive in manual mode 90% of the time. Second gear at 5k rpm's is fun fun fun. Just saying.

 

First of all, Congrats on your 911.
The PDK learns your driving habits, if you floor it a few times in sport mode it will not be in a high gear around any turns. It is intuitive and trying to learn what mood your in and will adapt to it, but you need to give it a chance to adjust when you get in the mood.
The mods I will highly recommend is an :

exhaust with a cross pipe and 3rd muffler delete.
IPD Plenum
EVOMS ecu tune.

This will give a great sound and much improved performance.

 

NA 911's are not exactly known for low end torque (your Harley bark, etc) -- she's a precision scalpel, not a rice rocket. Should have bought a 997.2 turbo (or nissan GTR) if thats what you were in the mood for. That being said, there is a reason the power band wakes up at around 4000 rpm, and Porsche thoughtfully reminds you of this by putting the number 4 on the tach at the noon position on the dial. Keep it there and have fun all day long....

I have a used IPD plenum and other goodies for sale I took off my 2010 911 S btw...

 

Did the car come with the PCM manual? Some good tips in there.
In any event you can turn the **** on the right when in Nav mode to change your scale all the way down to 50 feet; alternatively you can set your preferences by pushing "OPTION" when in the MAP mode and save your NAVI preferences the same way.
Also by using the steering wheel column stalk you can select to have the turn by turn directions relayed to the center display in the tach (just below the 4 )
Alternatively, you could buy a garmin

 

this made all the difference
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...dk-tuning.html

 

our primary muffler bypass x-pipe improves throttle response, i have put a few hundred miles on it since we installed it and i would say the improvement is pretty significant.

 

Speaking as a longtime Harley owner, I think that you may have inadvertantly offended big-twin riders by likening them to "rice rockets". Totally different beasts. In fact, a rice rocket does tend to have power delivery similar to a 911.