[DeTomaso] NPC: Dan Neil's latest report excerpts

Charles Engles cengles at cox.net
Sun Sep 7 19:16:36 EDT 2014


Dear Forum,

 

 

                  These excerpts are from Dan Neil’s car article in the WSJ
from Sept 6th about the Porsche 911.

 

 

                   “Standard transmissions in sports cars are going the way
of the moa.  Ferrari doesn’t sell one anymore, and neither does Lamborghini.
Porsche and a few other auto makers (GM, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler) offer them as
atavistic tokens of their performance heritage, bending over backward to
appeal to the old, grouchy purists, but it’s a bit silly and all over the
map.  The bat-guano fast Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat (707 hp/10.8 seconds
in the ¼ mile) has an optional eight-speed automatic transmission.  Might as
well say TorqueFlite on it.  

 

 

                    The 911 buyer’s other option is a seven-speed
dual-clutch transmission, the fabulously named Porsche Doppelkupplung, or
PDK, which essentially automates the function of a clutch pedal.  

 

 

                       Around your average road racing course, a
PDK-equipped 911 of any stripe will embarrass its manually shifted twin.  

 

 

                   Functionally, the manual transmission, be it seven gears
or 70, the “stick shift” as Buz and Tod would say, is obsolete in sports
cars.  Yes, right?  We’re all agreed on that?  Automated clutching=faster,
better. 

 

 

                  And can we not also agree that it’s a kind of madness to
hang so lossy a thing as a manual gearbox on so rigorously optimized an
engine as the 911’s: naturally aspirated 3.4 liters, in the classic
horizontally opposed  six-cylinder configuration, four cams, with phased
timing and lift on the intake and exhaust valves, direct injection, 12.5:1
compression ratio, dry sump lubrication and a brain of the purest silicon.
Nominal output is 350 hp at 7,400 rpm and 287 lb-ft of torque.

 

                 To pair such a mill with a manual transmission is
crippling.

 

                    The 911 with a stick accelerates from 0 to 60 in 4.6
seconds; with PDK, that number is as low as 4.2 seconds.  A difference of
four tenths officially!  If you were a German transmission engineer and you
were four-tenths of a second slower getting to the coffee pot in the morning
they would bin you.

 

 

                   And yet there it is: I want, I would only have, the seven
speed manual transmission.  First, because those few tenths at 100% throttle
are not actually that important to me and I, personally, would never track
my daily driver.  Second, because Porsche’s seven speed shifter is turned
out so beautifully, with lustrous aluminum and taut leather gusset in the
center console, almost steampunk in its elegant antiquation.  Third, it’s a
mechanical marvel: The weight, throw and uptake of the clutch pedal and
frictionless linkages, the gate-homing precision of the shifter, all
impeccable, all to the sound of an upscale lumber mill.  

 

 

 

                      To feather the clutch lightly up a hill, to rev
impetuously and dump the clutch when the floodlights hit.  Stop thief!
You’ve stolen our hearts.

 

 

                 But it’s mostly because when you’re good at something---a
language, an instrument, or in my limited case, heel-and-toe
downshifting----there’s joy in doing it.  A couple of mornings I caught
myself skipping out to the car
.”

 

 

                      So there you have it.   Automotive steampunks prefer
manual transmissions.   I am a steampunk.

 

 

 

                                              Atavistically yours,  Chuck
Engles

-------------- next part --------------
   Dear Forum,



                     These excerpts are from Dan Neil's car article in the
   WSJ from Sept 6^th about the Porsche 911.



                      "Standard transmissions in sports cars are going the
   way of the moa.  Ferrari doesn't sell one anymore, and neither does
   Lamborghini.  Porsche and a few other auto makers (GM, Ford,
   Fiat-Chrysler) offer them as atavistic tokens of their performance
   heritage, bending over backward to appeal to the old, grouchy purists,
   but it's a bit silly and all over the map.  The bat-guano fast Dodge
   Challenger SRT Hellcat (707 hp/10.8 seconds in the 1/4 mile) has an
   optional eight-speed automatic transmission.  Might as well say
   TorqueFlite on it.



                       The 911 buyer's other option is a seven-speed
   dual-clutch transmission, the fabulously named Porsche Doppelkupplung,
   or PDK, which essentially automates the function of a clutch pedal.



                          Around your average road racing course, a
   PDK-equipped 911 of any stripe will embarrass its manually shifted
   twin.



                      Functionally, the manual transmission, be it seven
   gears or 70, the "stick shift" as Buz and Tod would say, is obsolete in
   sports cars.  Yes, right?  We're all agreed on that?  Automated
   clutching=faster, better.



                     And can we not also agree that it's a kind of madness
   to hang so lossy a thing as a manual gearbox on so rigorously optimized
   an engine as the 911's: naturally aspirated 3.4 liters, in the classic
   horizontally opposed  six-cylinder configuration, four cams, with
   phased timing and lift on the intake and exhaust valves, direct
   injection, 12.5:1 compression ratio, dry sump lubrication and a brain
   of the purest silicon.  Nominal output is 350 hp at 7,400 rpm and 287
   lb-ft of torque.


                    To pair such a mill with a manual transmission is
   crippling.


                       The 911 with a stick accelerates from 0 to 60 in
   4.6 seconds; with PDK, that number is as low as 4.2 seconds.  A
   difference of four tenths officially!  If you were a German
   transmission engineer and you were four-tenths of a second slower
   getting to the coffee pot in the morning they would bin you.



                      And yet there it is: I want, I would only have, the
   seven speed manual transmission.  First, because those few tenths at
   100% throttle are not actually that important to me and I, personally,
   would never track my daily driver.  Second, because Porsche's seven
   speed shifter is turned out so beautifully, with lustrous aluminum and
   taut leather gusset in the center console, almost steampunk in its
   elegant antiquation.  Third, it's a mechanical marvel: The weight,
   throw and uptake of the clutch pedal and frictionless linkages, the
   gate-homing precision of the shifter, all impeccable, all to the sound
   of an upscale lumber mill.




                         To feather the clutch lightly up a hill, to rev
   impetuously and dump the clutch when the floodlights hit.  Stop thief!
   You've stolen our hearts.



                    But it's mostly because when you're good at
   something---a language, an instrument, or in my limited case,
   heel-and-toe downshifting----there's joy in doing it.  A couple of
   mornings I caught myself skipping out to the car...."



                         So there you have it.   Automotive steampunks
   prefer manual transmissions.   I am a steampunk.




                                                 Atavistically yours,
   Chuck Engles


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