Discussion
Sorry for posting to an ad (which is not mine) but this Sportomatic must be rare and is definitely interesting.... Lovely.
http://www.avantgardecars.co.uk/viewcar/PORSCHE%20...
http://www.avantgardecars.co.uk/viewcar/PORSCHE%20...
porkyspecialist said:
Looks loverly, I would love to try a sporto again just to see if it's as bad as I remember.
Its probably been 15 years since I last drove one and I suspect we would not change our views !Not Porsche's finest hour but they made up for it with the tiptronic & PDK.
Henry
Henry-F said:
Not Porsche's finest hour but they made up for it with the tiptronic & PDK.
I assume that's ironic? Perhaps in the Alanis M sense?Anyway back on topic, I thought that some owners actually liked the sporto?
Lovely looking car, but double-jeopardy surely? Sporto and Targa!
Bert
Sportomatic was actually very clever in its time. Most people who ctiticise it have never driven one.
I used to drive a friend's 2.4T Sporto
- Good fun with 4-spd box
- Very smooth and uncanny electric clutch
- Bit too much torque slip in the 'T' - would have been better with more power - E or S
Porsche killed it by going to a 3-spd in later models.
I used to drive a friend's 2.4T Sporto
- Good fun with 4-spd box
- Very smooth and uncanny electric clutch
- Bit too much torque slip in the 'T' - would have been better with more power - E or S
Porsche killed it by going to a 3-spd in later models.
uktrailmonster said:
BertBert said:
I thought that some owners actually liked the sporto?
Bert
Mostly those with only 1 leg.Bert
someone said:
Not Porsche's finest hour but they made up for it with the tiptronic & PDK.
To be fair I like the tips & PDK's, it opened up a whole new market for porsche with the advent of the 964 tiptronic, & believe it or not they are nice cars to drive, maybe not in the true sense of the word drive as a PH'er would have you believe, but then PH only plays a minuscule part in the Porsche market as a whole, & I think most of what is written on here is done so to promote the price of the cars of the advocates 
Obviously more units = more depreciation but if you look at it from the other side if Porsche were still producing the numbers they were before the 964, or more realistically the 996 & boxster, then 911's would be the price of the average semi detached house, the same as they were before the housing boom of the 80's.
Would you all prefer Porsche's to be a rich mans toy rather than what they are today?
i drive one once a year when the customer has his 3.0 sportmatic serviced and mot`d. always used to get me when you rest your hand on the gearstick and the revs shoot up. ive known the car for 15 years the last guy that owned it refused to have the box fixed and you had to turn the car off to get it out of a forward gear to put it in reverse or vice versa. it was horrible and ridiculous to drive. the new guy who brought it 18 months ago got us to fix it and its a completely different car. i can see why a badly maintained one can put people off for life!
BIG GT2 said:
i drive one once a year when the customer has his 3.0 sportmatic serviced and mot`d. always used to get me when you rest your hand on the gearstick and the revs shoot up. ive known the car for 15 years the last guy that owned it refused to have the box fixed and you had to turn the car off to get it out of a forward gear to put it in reverse or vice versa. it was horrible and ridiculous to drive. the new guy who brought it 18 months ago got us to fix it and its a completely different car. i can see why a badly maintained one can put people off for life!
I thought the real issue was the reserve 'pressure tank', it always seemed to leak & cause all sorts of issues with the box, or was I imagining it?MrCooke said:
I think the three speed is fine on an SC. It can be driven like a manual, or just left in gear and wafted like an auto.
It changes the character of the car from thrashy sports car to gentle wafter, but no more than tip and sometimes a gentle waft is just the job.
Real stupid question Sam. Are you saying that you can stick it in third and it will change up through the gears like a normal automatic gearbox. My other half's license precludes a manual gearbox and she has a passion for the early 911's. Specifically hates a rear tail spolier of any kind.It changes the character of the car from thrashy sports car to gentle wafter, but no more than tip and sometimes a gentle waft is just the job.
graemel said:
Real stupid question Sam. Are you saying that you can stick it in third and it will change up through the gears like a normal automatic gearbox. My other half's license precludes a manual gearbox and she has a passion for the early 911's. Specifically hates a rear tail spolier of any kind.
On the later ones then yes there is an auto mode, do I detect a new 'must have' model in the making & should I pull my money out of Goldman Sachs & in to sporto 911's? Kind of.
It doesn't actually change, it just stays in the gear you choose and the torque converter wriggles about a bit. You can stick it in first for a quick getaway but a low top speed, third for a slower getaway and a higher top speed or second for something inbetween. Round town I tended to drive mine in second and just change up once I got to a 50 limit or higher.
You can drive it through the gears like a manual or just leave it in the gear of your choice and drive it like an auto.
I'm sure it's legal on an auto license, as it's no different to Tip or PDK really.
I've seen the green car and it's very nice, you also won't find a more decent dealer than Jon at Avantgarde.
It doesn't actually change, it just stays in the gear you choose and the torque converter wriggles about a bit. You can stick it in first for a quick getaway but a low top speed, third for a slower getaway and a higher top speed or second for something inbetween. Round town I tended to drive mine in second and just change up once I got to a 50 limit or higher.
You can drive it through the gears like a manual or just leave it in the gear of your choice and drive it like an auto.
I'm sure it's legal on an auto license, as it's no different to Tip or PDK really.
I've seen the green car and it's very nice, you also won't find a more decent dealer than Jon at Avantgarde.
MrCooke said:
Kind of.
It doesn't actually change, it just stays in the gear you choose and the torque converter wriggles about a bit. You can stick it in first for a quick getaway but a low top speed, third for a slower getaway and a higher top speed or second for something inbetween. Round town I tended to drive mine in second and just change up once I got to a 50 limit or higher.
You can drive it through the gears like a manual or just leave it in the gear of your choice and drive it like an auto.
I'm sure it's legal on an auto license, as it's no different to Tip or PDK really.
I've seen the green car and it's very nice, you also won't find a more decent dealer than Jon at Avantgarde.
Yup; no clutch pedal = legal to drive on an auto-only licence.It doesn't actually change, it just stays in the gear you choose and the torque converter wriggles about a bit. You can stick it in first for a quick getaway but a low top speed, third for a slower getaway and a higher top speed or second for something inbetween. Round town I tended to drive mine in second and just change up once I got to a 50 limit or higher.
You can drive it through the gears like a manual or just leave it in the gear of your choice and drive it like an auto.
I'm sure it's legal on an auto license, as it's no different to Tip or PDK really.
I've seen the green car and it's very nice, you also won't find a more decent dealer than Jon at Avantgarde.
SS7
MrCooke said:
I think the three speed is fine on an SC. It can be driven like a manual, or just left in gear and wafted like an auto.
I really cannot imagine that being any fun at all. For me, classic air-cooled 911s are all about keeping the revs up. My manual SC only really comes alive above 4,500 rpm. But it would be interesting to try a sporto sometime.
porkyspecialist said:
Looks loverly, I would love to try a sporto again just to see if it's as bad as I remember.
I too had a Carrera3.0 with Sporto. Converted it to manual asap and this truly transformed the car into what you would expect from a 911. The three speed Sporto in particular was a real dog !porkyspecialist said:
I thought the real issue was the reserve 'pressure tank', it always seemed to leak & cause all sorts of issues with the box, or was I imagining it?
i was just commenting on the problem with the car i drove. my dads partner said you are right, that the pressure tank or lines have been the most common fault. he was about when they were new so has seen a few examples over the years. thinking about it i think its due in this side of christmas but i might be wrongThe sportomatic gear lever was wobbly and when you moved it forward or backward it connected a simple ON/OFF switch that allowed the vacuum servo to operate the clutch.
I had a 4 speed 2.2 way back 35 years ago and not only was it great to drive (especially as it also had an LSD that made the car driveable in snow unlike almost any other 911 of the era) but it also was the reason I started to use left foot braking (as it only had 2 pedals).
I found that with left foot braking you could throw the car into any corner too fast and simply feed on left foot braking while keeping the throttle set and the car just pulled back into the corner (avoiding understeer) - that felt as good at the time as modern computerised systems do the same thing today.
The 911's of that era were easy to lose on corners but that Sportomatic simply out cornered anything else I ever came across.
I agree the later 3 speed version was now where near as good but a 5 speed version would have been sensational!
Baz
I had a 4 speed 2.2 way back 35 years ago and not only was it great to drive (especially as it also had an LSD that made the car driveable in snow unlike almost any other 911 of the era) but it also was the reason I started to use left foot braking (as it only had 2 pedals).
I found that with left foot braking you could throw the car into any corner too fast and simply feed on left foot braking while keeping the throttle set and the car just pulled back into the corner (avoiding understeer) - that felt as good at the time as modern computerised systems do the same thing today.
The 911's of that era were easy to lose on corners but that Sportomatic simply out cornered anything else I ever came across.
I agree the later 3 speed version was now where near as good but a 5 speed version would have been sensational!
Baz
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