2007 Porsche Boxter S review

[jinijazz]

Originally Posted by eslai

This is not applicable AT ALL to the Boxster. The Tiptronic Boxster is still going to be slower than a manual Boxster

While I enjoyed reading good postings from you, eslai, this is far from the truth
As a owner of both tip and manual, I noticed manual owners immediately underestimate or misjudge on what tip is capable of. Can't blame them since I myself hated tip for the first couple of months, before I learned how to work with it. Most manual drivers simply don't have enough experience with tips, relying on the numbers. 20 minutes test drive at dealer definately doesn't tell you anything about it.

On paper, tip LOOKS slower bacuase of torque converter load and all that. In reality, the fact that you can outshift EVERY manual Box tranny driver 99% of the time has much bigger impact. A friend of mine had 00 manual Boxster(2.7) and mine was 99 tip(2.5). Every drag race we had in our back road and track, We agreed we can't not beat experienced tiptronics driver. Funny now I got 06 manual 987 while he just got 07 997 TT Tip. So many AX champions were with tip, it's not even shocking news anymore.

So why I am back to maual? Not because it is faster(but has more potential on paper!), because it's just more fun. But never ever underestimate tiptronic.

[eslai]

I can agree with you on all of that! After reading again I see that I'm arguing the wrong points--didn't pay attention to the fact that it was a 0-60 discussion.

What I should have said is that the tip boxster probably has a slower 0-60 time than the manual does (don't know for sure, never cared to check) and that the Turbo's specs can't be used as proof to compare the two trannies on a boxster for the reasons I mentioned.

It's all irrelevant though because really, the following two things are more important:

1. On *paper* the tip is slower. Quarter-mile times that the manufacturer reports are always achieved in ways that would make any car owner cringe. I don't launch my car, I don't spin the wheels and I don't shift gears as though transmissions were cheap so yes, i could believe that the tip would be faster if you were racing someone at a stoplight.

2. Torque output within a gear should be lower on the tip so the car should *feel* slower--I can't say I've tested that myself or seen dyno charts but the tip uses a torque converter so it's going to be sapping more power than the manual tranny. This is more important to me than getting to some arbitrary line before someone else does--I want the car to be punchy and respond to throttle input in turns, etc.

And as I said before, if someone were to buy a manual simply because "it's faster", I'd say they were missing the point. I bought a manual tranny so I could have fun driving the car. Heel-toe downshifts and all that.

Thanks for the correction!