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The 2009 Porsche 911 has a fun-loving seven-speed dual clutch transmission.

Niagara-on-the-Lake - I never said this: The new automatic transmission in the 2009 Porsche 911 is so many light years ahead of the old tiptronic that even for lovers of manual transmissions, it's an option worth considering.

I would never be caught alive buying an automatic, especially in a sports car as sublime as a Porsche. But here we are behind the wheel of the 2009 911 and this brand new seven speed, dual-clutch transmission, known as a PDK, which is an acronym for the bizarrely-long German word (Doppelkupplung), is shifting exactly as I want it to, right up to the 7,400 r.p.m. redline.

The transmission, four years in the making and a $5,560 option, even picks up on my animal-like driving pattern and begins to anticipate my shifts. Even when I try to outsmart the damn thing by accelerating in third as if I'm going to need fourth, but slyly shift back into second, it blips the throttle and smoothly drops into the lower gear, ready to do whatever I command, which is generally go faster.

I hate to admit this, but in normal driving with the sport mode off, the PDK is so smooth between gears, it can be impossible to notice gear changes. If the radio is playing some bad Madonna throwback to obscure the change in engine pitch as the gears change, the passenger will not be able to identify the switch between gears two through seven.

That's partly because gear changes can be made before they happen, Porsche explains, to make for a smoothness not seen before. Essentially, the transmission is a conventional, seven-speed manual gearbox with two electro-hydraulically controlled, oil-bathed multiplate clutch packs. One clutch pack controls the odd-numbered gears and reverse, the other the even-numbered gears. As one clutch pack engages the appropriate gear based on engine speed, load and vehicle speed, the other clutch simultaneously disengages the previous gear.

From a stop, the car engages as if it's attached to a traditional manual; it feels like the clutch is being let out, only there's no clutch pedal. Between shifts in the sport mode, there's a firm and almost instant change between gears, but no big bang or hard upshift like some dual clutch boxes. It is, I'm afraid to say, seriously fun to drive.

There's even an insane launch mode in which you can plant your left foot on the brake, stand on the gas with the right. When the engine hits what sounds like a rev-limiter at about 6,500 r.p.m., release the brake and hold tight because you will instantly be hurtling into space, reaching 100 km/h in anywhere between 4.6 and 4.8 seconds, according to our tests. That's with a brand new car, passenger and full tank of gas.

Shifts are controlled by an updated main gear lever or new buttons that fall to the thumbs at three and nine on the steering wheel. While the new buttons are improvements over the old toggle switches, I couldn't help but think paddle shifters might be simpler.

Regardless, motoring about some seriously twisty roads in wine country - or on a racetrack - the PDK transmission shifts faster and more accurately than I could ever do. On the track where this car was engineered to be driven, it can shave several seconds over the course of several laps.

The carbon-fibre-backed sports seats from the GT2, and equipped with thorax side air bags, are also available as a $4,750 option. They're capable of a six-point harness, fold forward and are immensely comfortable as long as your butt isn't as wide as a bus.

The bigger change, however, is the new 3.8-litre engine in the Carrera S, now packing 385 horsepower, up from 355 h.p., with torque up to 310 lb.-ft from 295. The 3.6-litre engine in standard models goes from 325 to 345 hp; torque goes from 273 to 287 lb.-ft.

Porsche says the engine is entirely new, with a significant reduction in moving parts. Thanks to the addition of direct injection, fuel consumption is down to an astonishing 7.3L/100km on the highway and CO2 output is also reduced.

For a sports car with that much horsepower, that's a shockingly impressive return. For drivers and enthusiasts, it makes the new 911 that much more desirable.
source:autoscanada

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