718S manual transmission -any criticisms from current owners
Discussion
bcr5784 said:
Controlled yes - ABS is active so it's a balls out stop.
And a balls out stop in a Cayman is pretty impressive, especially with the carbon brakes. I was stunned doing emergency stops from 80mph at the PEC last visit. Would feel very weird ding that with the handbrake button.
Regarding Tim Bo's comment on 2nd to 5th and vice versa in manual.
I never thought about this point during my cayman s test drive with the pdk. What i found was my fingers of both hands were very busy all the time， much more frequent gear change than I would have with the manual （though the latter requires left leg &shoulder muscles）. Now trying to recall the rapid shifts from 6-5-4-3-2 ，was so frantically busy with my fingers i didnt take note if there were a total of 5 autoblips， or 5 consecutive exhaust pops（？） on the same matter. Suspect that might become quite annoying after a while. Can this be one of the factors making the manual more enjoyable？Achieving one satisfying heel toe from 5th to 2 with a single nice blip & pop rather then 5- 4（rummm～crackle）-3（rummm～crackle）-2（rummm～crackle）！！！Or it is the other way round a more exciting experience？！
I never thought about this point during my cayman s test drive with the pdk. What i found was my fingers of both hands were very busy all the time， much more frequent gear change than I would have with the manual （though the latter requires left leg &shoulder muscles）. Now trying to recall the rapid shifts from 6-5-4-3-2 ，was so frantically busy with my fingers i didnt take note if there were a total of 5 autoblips， or 5 consecutive exhaust pops（？） on the same matter. Suspect that might become quite annoying after a while. Can this be one of the factors making the manual more enjoyable？Achieving one satisfying heel toe from 5th to 2 with a single nice blip & pop rather then 5- 4（rummm～crackle）-3（rummm～crackle）-2（rummm～crackle）！！！Or it is the other way round a more exciting experience？！
Bubbledragon said:
Regarding Tim Bo's comment on 2nd to 5th and vice versa in manual.
I never thought about this point during my cayman s test drive with the pdk. What i found was my fingers of both hands were very busy all the time? much more frequent gear change than I would have with the manual ?though the latter requires left leg &shoulder muscles?. Now trying to recall the rapid shifts from 6-5-4-3-2 ?was so frantically busy with my fingers i didnt take note if there were a total of 5 autoblips? or 5 consecutive exhaust pops??? on the same matter. Suspect that might become quite annoying after a while. Can this be one of the factors making the manual more enjoyable?Achieving one satisfying heel toe from 5th to 2 with a single nice blip & pop rather then 5- 4?rummm?crackle?-3?rummm?crackle?-2?rummm?crackle????Or it is the other way round a more exciting experience??
I suspect that to those of us brought up on motobikes - which all have sequential boxes - it's perfectly natural to shift down through all the gears - and they do actually all engage on the way down. And I do agree that I do change gear a lot more with PDK than I would with a manual, but actually I enjoy that - because it's so quick and smooth I can change gear in places where I simply couldn't (or couldn't smoothly) with a manual box. Depending on your perspective you can view the differences as a negative or positive. I like both manual and PDK, but don't drive them in the same way. I never thought about this point during my cayman s test drive with the pdk. What i found was my fingers of both hands were very busy all the time? much more frequent gear change than I would have with the manual ?though the latter requires left leg &shoulder muscles?. Now trying to recall the rapid shifts from 6-5-4-3-2 ?was so frantically busy with my fingers i didnt take note if there were a total of 5 autoblips? or 5 consecutive exhaust pops??? on the same matter. Suspect that might become quite annoying after a while. Can this be one of the factors making the manual more enjoyable?Achieving one satisfying heel toe from 5th to 2 with a single nice blip & pop rather then 5- 4?rummm?crackle?-3?rummm?crackle?-2?rummm?crackle????Or it is the other way round a more exciting experience??
ok....well I have a 718 Manual and I don't have any complaints at all -but some of these questions re manuals really go to the bottom of how you like to drive.
if you do track days - get a pdk
if you like to feel more involved with driving a car - get a manual.
if you just want to talk about how wonderful the pdk is and launch control is .....get the pdk.
if you just want a sporty automatic - get a pdk.
times change, you cannot drive fast on the road without risking prison and just not worth the effort.
Changing gear is one of the last pleasures left in driving a car ! ..and as for Lag , well i reckon that will be worse in the PDK as I can just drive round it.
if you do track days - get a pdk
if you like to feel more involved with driving a car - get a manual.
if you just want to talk about how wonderful the pdk is and launch control is .....get the pdk.
if you just want a sporty automatic - get a pdk.
times change, you cannot drive fast on the road without risking prison and just not worth the effort.
Changing gear is one of the last pleasures left in driving a car ! ..and as for Lag , well i reckon that will be worse in the PDK as I can just drive round it.
markst said:
..and as for Lag , well i reckon that will be worse in the PDK as I can just drive round it.
Yes you can drive around it - but PDK can do it far easier - either select Sport+ (revs never drop below 3500 once on the go, so no lag for practical purposes) or drive Pdk manually and use the fact that PDK changes gear much quicker than anyone (however good) can.I really don't want to start the PDK vs manual argument again (I like both) but I do think that many "manual" afficionados assume those who choose PDK are all the same and choose PDK because they are "automatics" when actually some of us couldn't care less whether PDK had an automatic mode at all. Clearly not all manual owners are the same either and some actually like auto blippers (can you believe it!), when others want it precisely because they want to heel and toe.
I contributed earlier but I've just had a 718 2.0 manual for the day while mine is at the opc and I wanted to say that the manual suits the engine very well since the power band is now much shorter than the 981. You are changing gear more often, potentially 15mph taken off 3rd since there is little point redlining it. There is some lag but keep the revs higher and it's not a problem, I would spec manual on the 718.
I really enjoyed driving it, I thought the lack of noise/drama may disappoint and it did to begin with but the flat 4 begins to grow on you particularly at low rpm when it starts to show some character.
Potentially handles a little better but difficult to tell at the moment, the steering has been improved, it wasn't bad in the 981 but you get more feel again and I like the new wheel with the mode dial, new pcm is better too but other than that it's business as usual. Economy wasn't really any better than my 981 S on the test route though!
Definitely a good car and nice to see the manual making a comeback.
I really enjoyed driving it, I thought the lack of noise/drama may disappoint and it did to begin with but the flat 4 begins to grow on you particularly at low rpm when it starts to show some character.
Potentially handles a little better but difficult to tell at the moment, the steering has been improved, it wasn't bad in the 981 but you get more feel again and I like the new wheel with the mode dial, new pcm is better too but other than that it's business as usual. Economy wasn't really any better than my 981 S on the test route though!
Definitely a good car and nice to see the manual making a comeback.
bcr5784 said:
Yes you can drive around it - but PDK can do it far easier - either select Sport+ (revs never drop below 3500 once on the go, so no lag for practical purposes) or drive Pdk manually and use the fact that PDK changes gear much quicker than anyone (however good) can.
I really don't want to start the PDK vs manual argument again (I like both) but I do think that many "manual" afficionados assume those who choose PDK are all the same and choose PDK because they are "automatics" when actually some of us couldn't care less whether PDK had an automatic mode at all. Clearly not all manual owners are the same either and some actually like auto blippers (can you believe it!), when others want it precisely because they want to heel and toe.
I quite agree - for when I did the Porsche experience day I was really impressed with the pdk and it was certainly easier to drive .....my dealer was even checking to see if I could change my spec....lolI really don't want to start the PDK vs manual argument again (I like both) but I do think that many "manual" afficionados assume those who choose PDK are all the same and choose PDK because they are "automatics" when actually some of us couldn't care less whether PDK had an automatic mode at all. Clearly not all manual owners are the same either and some actually like auto blippers (can you believe it!), when others want it precisely because they want to heel and toe.
but in the end I'm happy with my manual. Which is just as well as I gather there is a real shortage of supply at the moment .
lovely car, and will certainly have another (unless a manual Dino is released and then I will order one of those).
just wish I had more time to drive it
1rup said:
I bought a 718s manual as a second car and enjoy the engagement of a manual box.... Every car nowdays is auto/pdk of somekind. Can't beat a bit of old school. It's alittle jekry in 1st gear when pulling off though.. So if you are mainly stop/start city driving get a PDK....
Have you really joined PH to say to people 'buy the best car for your own personal use/preference'??? You'll never last. 
Found the more annoying aspect of my manual 981 was it's discomfort in slow/stop-start traffic. I did exactly as you said tho - went PDK after that and I find that what I lost in 'right place, right time' engagement, I more than made up for in liveability - especially since I like to use mine pretty much as a daily during the drier weather.
For the record, I also took my 718S PDK on track when I had it and I did not long for the manual at all. Frankly it was one less thing to worry about when sharing a track with lots of Fiestas being driven on their door handles.
SRT Hellcat said:
I will never buy into smaller capacity turbo engines. They are just fuel consumption BS. Or EV's. Not interested. Buy what makes you smile
As the owner of a 5.5 litre V8 SLK55, I'm certainly enjoying the 1.6 turbo triple in my GR Yaris...the lightness vs power of the little engine is something to behold, plus I can get 300hp plus with a couple of hundred quid performance box.On the Cayster manual thing, I had extended test drives of both a 2.7 litre 981 and 2.0 turbo 718 Boxster, and found the manual was much more suited to the engine in the 718. One thing I did dislike however was I felt that the clutch pedal was set too high which caused me to end up with an aching ankle and it also made for jerky take offs in first, that applied to both cars.
Holgate86 said:
SRT Hellcat said:
I will never buy into smaller capacity turbo engines. They are just fuel consumption BS. Or EV's. Not interested. Buy what makes you smile
As the owner of a 5.5 litre V8 SLK55, I'm certainly enjoying the 1.6 turbo triple in my GR Yaris...the lightness vs power of the little engine is something to behold, plus I can get 300hp plus with a couple of hundred quid performance box.On the Cayster manual thing, I had extended test drives of both a 2.7 litre 981 and 2.0 turbo 718 Boxster, and found the manual was much more suited to the engine in the 718. One thing I did dislike however was I felt that the clutch pedal was set too high which caused me to end up with an aching ankle and it also made for jerky take offs in first, that applied to both cars.
It's quite a firm pedal action as well, if I recall. You have to put a bit of a shove into pushing it down.
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