981 Boxster - 2.7 manual vs. 3.4 PDK impressions
Discussion
Hi everyone, I thought about putting this into the "prospective 981 purchasers" thread, but after reading to page 20 of that thread I thought an individual topic may be the better way to organise this info on a forum. 
I'm seriously considering a Boxster as a 3rd car. I had a 987 gen1 Boxster S about 5 years ago, and since then I've had an M3, Aston V8 Vantage convertible, Nissan GTR and a couple of track cars too.
I drove a gen2 Cayman 987 with PDK a little while back and remember not being too impressed with the PDK. It seemed a bit too slow-witted for my preference. So I asked the dealer if I could back to back a 3.4 PDK and 3.4 manual. They didn't have a 3.4 manual available so it ended up being a 2.7 manual.
So... my impressions. The PDK is much improved over the previous generation, with Sport Plus from Sport Chrono the shifts were properly quick. The 3.4 had the PSE, and I found with this turned off the engine note was a bit boomy when doing a 50mph cruise in top.
The test drive conditions weren't ideally - it was tipping it down. When I drove the 2.7 manual it was an eye-opener. I found it much more engaging - I put this down to two things. Firstly the manual box meant I had to put more effort into the gears. Secondly the lower power led me to ringing it out a bit more.
After the test drive the 2.7 manual was my favourite by a clear mile. I went in thinking I would probably end up buying a 3.4 PDK.
I'm interested to hear from those who have driven the 2.7 and 3.4 back to back. Particularly did you find you enjoyed the 2.7 more owing to being able to use more of its performance? And did you find the 3.4 exhaust boomy on a cruise?
I'm seriously considering a Boxster as a 3rd car. I had a 987 gen1 Boxster S about 5 years ago, and since then I've had an M3, Aston V8 Vantage convertible, Nissan GTR and a couple of track cars too.
I drove a gen2 Cayman 987 with PDK a little while back and remember not being too impressed with the PDK. It seemed a bit too slow-witted for my preference. So I asked the dealer if I could back to back a 3.4 PDK and 3.4 manual. They didn't have a 3.4 manual available so it ended up being a 2.7 manual.
So... my impressions. The PDK is much improved over the previous generation, with Sport Plus from Sport Chrono the shifts were properly quick. The 3.4 had the PSE, and I found with this turned off the engine note was a bit boomy when doing a 50mph cruise in top.
The test drive conditions weren't ideally - it was tipping it down. When I drove the 2.7 manual it was an eye-opener. I found it much more engaging - I put this down to two things. Firstly the manual box meant I had to put more effort into the gears. Secondly the lower power led me to ringing it out a bit more.
After the test drive the 2.7 manual was my favourite by a clear mile. I went in thinking I would probably end up buying a 3.4 PDK.
I'm interested to hear from those who have driven the 2.7 and 3.4 back to back. Particularly did you find you enjoyed the 2.7 more owing to being able to use more of its performance? And did you find the 3.4 exhaust boomy on a cruise?
I did do a back to back to comparison of my old 981S PDK vs the 2.7 PDK.
I certainly got my S back and it wasnt a moment too soon. Sure you really need to work the 2.7 hard to extract the performance, but the downsides for me were two fold. Firstly on a nice A/B road, where I would go for an overtake in the S i wouldnt risk it in the 2.7. Missing the lower down grunt. Secondly and more annoying for me was at Motorway speeds the 2.7 would keep changing down a gear whenever any low to moderate acceleration was need. In the S it would happily stay in 7th.
So as a day to day car I didnt like the 2.7. Maybe if it was just a weekend crusing car then it would suffice.
Chins said:
I did do a back to back to comparison of my old 981S PDK vs the 2.7 PDK.
I certainly got my S back and it wasnt a moment too soon. Sure you really need to work the 2.7 hard to extract the performance, but the downsides for me were two fold. Firstly on a nice A/B road, where I would go for an overtake in the S i wouldnt risk it in the 2.7. Missing the lower down grunt. Secondly and more annoying for me was at Motorway speeds the 2.7 would keep changing down a gear whenever any low to moderate acceleration was need. In the S it would happily stay in 7th.
So as a day to day car I didnt like the 2.7. Maybe if it was just a weekend crusing car then it would suffice.
Yes, I've driven a 2.7 pdk before and I did notice it was eager to kick down with moderate throttle pressure from a cruise.I certainly got my S back and it wasnt a moment too soon. Sure you really need to work the 2.7 hard to extract the performance, but the downsides for me were two fold. Firstly on a nice A/B road, where I would go for an overtake in the S i wouldnt risk it in the 2.7. Missing the lower down grunt. Secondly and more annoying for me was at Motorway speeds the 2.7 would keep changing down a gear whenever any low to moderate acceleration was need. In the S it would happily stay in 7th.
So as a day to day car I didnt like the 2.7. Maybe if it was just a weekend crusing car then it would suffice.
Did you find the 3.4 boomy?
I surprised myself and preferred the 2.7. Both cars I drove were PDK which I love personally, so I went for a 2.7 PDK.My last 4 cars have all been V8 (RS4, Vantage, R8 & GranTurismo) so I was surprised that I preferred the 2.7, it was just more fun, which is exactly what I was looking for after owning the Maserati.
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