Advice on 996TT - TipS or Manual?

Hi Everyone Can the owners of both the TipS and Manual 996TTs please enlighten me on the reasons / pros+cons of their choice? I drive an auto 330d as my daily driver and although its fine in a relaxing, quick way it's not really 'sporty'. Does the TipS in the 996TT suit the car and does it give you a sense of feeling sporty? I ask as I recently drive an SMG E46 M3 and was really REALLY impressed by it - the way it rev-matches the downchanges and gives you a fantastic sense of being a mini touring car type change. Is the TipS like this or just a normal autobox that is 'okay'? Any TT that I will buy will be a second fun car for me and not a daily driver too, so I've always considered that the manual must be the only choice but is it really? Cheers, Will.

I test drove both tip and man before I bought a manual. It's the age old question of whether you want to drive or be driven. I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice advocating each camp, but I think you really have to do what I did and then chose what suits your intended usage. :judge:

I haven't driven either but a number of people have said that the Tip is quite good at keeping the turbo spinning. My cousing recently bought Tip 6TT, previously owning a manual G50 and he is really happy with it - he said that he much prefers the Tip

'tip is great if you want an auto...it really is as simple as that. If a manual 'box makes it more involvng a drive for you then you've answered your own question really. The 'tip is not an SMG or DSG type 'box. It's the same part that goes in many mercedes! :lol: The manual 'box on a turbo is really easy to use with a nice light feeling power assisted clutch, unlike a GT3!

:agree: I would only consider a tip if 90% of my driving was in the city

Here we go again... I love my Tiptronic Turbo and I will get another next time too (a year ago, I would have laughed at anyone who bought one). Manual gearboxes are really old technology compared to a modern auto box - all we are talking about these days is the actual method of changing gear, as once in gear modern autos all have torque-converter lock-up and only differ around the gear change itself. The beauty of a Tiptronic S is that you can choose whether you want to drive a manual or an auto - and constantly switch between the two. For example, I had a 20 mile journey home tonight and chose the back roads - switched it into manual mode and changed gear entirely through the thumb switches. Then when you get into a 30 mph zone, just switch it to auto and cruise through, then back into manual the other side. Fantastic :thumbs: (Oh, and don't forget, if you are buying used, you KNOW a Tiptronic has never been over-revved and you won't have to worry about burning a clutch out every time you join the traffic light GP - at £1300 a pop ) PS. I hardly EVER drive in a city... I live out in the sticks and less than 1% of my driving is in a City!) PPS. I'm also (just) old enough to remember when F1 drivers and Rally drivers had to press a third pedal, take their hand off the steering wheel and move a bloody great stick mounted on the floor, to change gear :floor: :floor: :floor: :floor: (picturing the little spacemen in the 'Smash' advert right now, as I type this...)

:hand: I would ignore the advice from the man above .. how can you take him seriously when he drives around with a ladder in his 911?

In my case a manual just wasn't an option (being in a chair and all), so the Tipo was the only option. Do I feel like I have bought the lesser of the 2 options... no not at all... infact given the choice if I had it, I would still choose the Tip S over the Manual... You can have fun when you want with the Manual mode, while still enjoying those lazy Summer crusies in Auto, with the sunroof open, windows down, stereo playing...

Odd. I have a rev limiter on my manual. Doesn't everybody?

Stops your engine from over-revving if you miss a gear on the down-change does it? :wink:

Sounds a pretty thin excuse for choosing an auto box to me. You either like them or you don't. To me it would be the antithesis of what a 911 stands for.

Just out of interest, have you driven one? (In a Turbo?) I would have said the same as you up until I bought this one... I used to rally (SAAB 99s) in the '80's, have had 911 (manuals) for 9 years, quattro (manuals) before that, been to racing school, mastered 'heeling and toeing' and left-foot braking and everything. Don't think I'll ever go back now, though (although I'm looking forward to the day I can afford a PDK). Finally, I would challenge your view of what the 911 was always about to it's designers (as opposed to the 'romantics' wallowing in nostalgia about the '73 Carrera RS'): The 911 was always, and still is, about exploring the capability of new technologies (but commercial pressure forces them to keep producing 'traditional' manuals to satisfy those more resistant to progress :wink: ) If you don't believe me, just think back to the ground-breaking 'Sportmatic' transmission, or more recently the GT RS Cup car - with 'KERS'. As a final note, the Lexus LFA, Bugatti Veyron, McLaren SLR, Ferrari 458 Italia and Maserati MC-12 are all paddle-shift, with a default mode of automatic gear shift, and how about this for a quote... Keep up at the back :thumb:

Although mine isn't a turbo, I must say I am a big fan of the tip box. When I began looking for a 911 I was convinced it would be a manual, after all, manual boxes are all i'd ever known (in previous cars). Then, after reluctantly driving my friends C2 tip for the first time, I was hooked!! Try both and see for yourself.

I'm also a TipS user in my TT. Love it. This is actually my first auto, and one of the reasons to get it (2nd hand) was the fear of over-rev history of a manual blowing up on me with a hefty bill and the fear of myself blowing it bluntly and the help of 420HP. Meanwhile, I driven it on track and on road for 2 years now and am also hooked. I always drive it manually and I can tell you that it is much faster and efficient in changing gears than I am. When I'm driving a bit more (...) vigorously, I just let it upshift by itself at the rev limit, and only manually downshift for the bends. Driving it in auto has the advantage of the computer being quicker to downshift 2 gears at once than I can do that manually. Approaching a roundabout in an idling 3rd, stepping down on it, 1st gets in nearly instantaneously and I zoom past it before I notice it and with a slight nice drift! Man, I love that! The problem with the Tip is that it only has 5 gears, is heavier than the manual and the torque converter concept has its flaws, including "viscous slipping" (just invented this ). This also results in higher fuel consumption, but I didn't buy this car to save fuel! Weighing pros and cons, the pros largely outweigh the cons.

No, but be sure I'll grab at the chance as soon as I meet an owner. But you are missing MY point I first saw a 911 back in the late 1960s and wanted one then. At no point in that forty odd years has the dream of ownership ever included an automatic box. I've driven several modern high-performance cars with various combinations of auto, semi-auto and flappy paddles and they are very good. I just don't want one anywhere near MY Porsche. If I was enamoured of that style of gearchange I would also have almost certainly gone for a car with a mid-engine rather than the anachronistic rear engine layout of the 911. As Vittorio Dini put it "The manual gearbox has been a tradition...."