Quote:
Originally Posted by pothole
You have the illusion of manual control because the computer usually agrees that it's OK to change gear when you press the button. But try changing down at 7,000rpm and you'll find out exactly how manual PDK is. Yes, that's a safety feature to protect the engine. But it illustrates that it's the computer that makes the final call over whether to change gear at all, let alone how the gear change is executed.
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very interesting. I guess it makes sense to me looking back now at the first PDK's which had a very distinct "lag". It was addressed in the S models for some cars where I believe drivers, Cayman S specifically, reported that the gear change was much prompter. I guess you could say that lag highlighted the dynamic, as you point out, of the driver "requesting" the shift, the computer mulling it over, and then obliging the human a delayed shift. Wholly unacceptable in a sports car imho. Since then, PDK apparently has been refined to the point where you've been duped into believing that you are actually shifting the gear because the computer is much better at creating that "virtual reality" of sorts. Purely mechanical vs. automated.
Thanks for illustrating this big change in driving that few have really fully considered.