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

[Bill Lewis]

Not to negate the article's content, nor your thought, I wonder what other times in history has this scenario occurred?

From: cengles at cox.net
To: detomaso at poca.com
Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2014 18:16:36 -0500
Subject: [DeTomaso] NPC: Dan Neil's latest report excerpts

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or 70, the “stick shift” as Buz and Tod would say, is obsolete in sports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
 

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-------------- next part --------------
   Not to negate the article's content, nor your thought, I wonder what
   other times in history has this scenario occurred?
   From: cengles at cox.net
   To: detomaso at poca.com
   Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2014 18:16:36 -0500
   Subject: [DeTomaso] NPC: Dan Neil's latest report excerpts
Dear Forum,





                  These excerpts are from Dan Neils 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 doesnt 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 its 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 buyers 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?  Were all agreed on that?  Automated clutching=faster,
better.





                  And can we not also agree that its a kind of madness to
hang so lossy a thing as a manual gearbox on so rigorously optimized an
engine as the 911s: 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 Porsches 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, its 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!
Youve stolen our hearts.





                 But its mostly because when youre good at something---a
language, an instrument, or in my limited case, heel-and-toe
downshifting----theres 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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