OH NO! Not another Tiptronic Thread!

Hello fellow rennlisters. I have a question that I am worried is going to devolve quickly or simply get ignored, but wanted to hear others input. The situation: I'm coming off lease of a Ford Explorer in a few months and am looking to replace that with a daily driver 996.2 or 997.1. This car will be daily driven on the west side of Los Angeles, in stop and go traffic, as well as the occasional Malibu canyon run (if weather doesn't permit my other car going out), and plenty of in the south west road trips. I commute about 2 hours a day on average, mostly stop and go/roll and go. I've driven a 993 tip but that was 15 years ago and I was too young and dumb to formulate an opinion. There is an 03 C4S that I'm having PPI'ed on Thursday. Great options list, beautiful car, 87k miles roughly, CA car all it's life, clean carfax, but it is Tiptronic. Now before this starts a flame thread, I have an 89' 3.2 for a weekend fun car, but don't want to daily drive that in LA. My brother thinks that me buying a tip C4S in LA is the dumbest thing I've ever considered but wanted to put it out to the peanut gallery. Pros: Great for traffic, girl friend can share driving responsibilities on road trips, reliable transmission, still wrapped in a Porsche, safer drive train for my significant other to drive (she has not had her license long and doesn't love driving like I do), car still has that fat *** and lovely leather smell, About 15k cheaper than a decent 997.1 C4S manual, would handle road trips in any weather, including the run to Mammoth in the winter for some skiing. Cons: 2 pedals, older transmission. Would love to hear everyones input, while I ultimately would prefer a stick, I feel it is the selfish thing to do to buy a car my significant other would be intimidated to learn to drive just to row 1st to 2nd 8,000 times a week without ever cresting 3k RPMs. Am I going to really regret the tip? Am I not going to care cuz I can hop in the air-cooled on a saturday morning to get my shift kicks? Cheers, Myles

No shame with a tip....especially if you are frequently in traffic. I have two 6 speed 996’s now and have been seriously considering getting a tip for daily driving duty

03 c4s is an awesome car, regardless of whether 6 speed or tip. best of luck.

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They made Tiptronics for a reason brother! Sounds like you could use one - go for it. Only you can answer this - but my daily driver is nowhere near as exciting as a C4S and I'm very happy with my Carrera weekends.

I have one in my Targa for those such reasons. My wife loves the Porsche but doesn't know how to drive stick and wouldn't do it enough to learn how. By having the Tip she can partake in the driving. Curiously, the only manual transmission vehicle we own is a pickup truck. Go figure. I found the Tiptronic to be a pleasant surprise. The shifts are actually pretty quick and the buttons on the wheel allow for shifting, though I think paddles would be cooler. A manual is certainly more "pure", but a Tiptronic is less of a compromise than one would think.

I've enjoyed driving a couple different "Slap Sticks" and they where fun. I bet a paddle shift upgrade would be just as fun to drive in a spirited manner!

I'm not a supporter of changing the IMS bearing in most cases, but with your planned use for the car, changing/verifying it was changed is imperative. I never understood why people choose expensive cars/expensive cars to maintain to sit in traffic, but that's just me. I know it's a personal preference. If that's what you like, the C4S tip is not a bad choice. Good luck! C4S is a cool car!

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I fully understand that sentiment, which is why I got a Ford after I bought the air-cooled for the weekend. I think it comes down to a few factors: 1. accounting for depreciation, these aren't terribly expensive cars to get into now. 2. Driving is my primary activity for enjoyment. I drive from A to nowhere back to A for enjoyment, and I drive to and from work, and I drive for errands, and I tend to road trip vs. fly anywhere within 8 hours. There is a great personal value to me in smiling when I walk out to and sit in the car. The explorer doesn't do this, my 335 did it but not after a couple years, the air-cooled does it more now than when I first got it. 3. I made the mistake of buying a 911, now I just can't see myself buying anything else and feeling satisfied. They are expensive to maintain financially, they are rewarding emotionally, I'd happily over pay on yearly maintenance by a couple grand to have that emotional high on Monday morning at 7:45am. We will see how the PPI checks out. Dealer cannot confirm if IMS was done and I'm not going to pay the shop to look if its an engine out check (will ask when I chat with them this afternoon) so will simply factor the price of the update into my offer. I am getting a leak down and bore scope with the PPI. Cheers, Myles

So go drive the tip and see what you think. I have one because of a worn out knee and a automatic-driving wife and it's just fine. In a 996.2 you have many more shift patterns than a 996.1 and its fairly easy to add paddle shifters ($150 for parts) - several threads and DIYs on that. I do feel it needs another gear, but that's life. But for your needs, it sounds right. Drive it and see how it feels to you.

Driving it on Saturday if the PPI checks out well, put a deposit on the vehicle just to hold it till then.

Wife can't drive a manual so had to get a Tip, and easier for me in Los Angeles traffic jams. It shifts smoothly but I presume a manual with slipping the clutch accelerates faster and with more control because can't apply exactly the power I want with an automatic. For someone thinking about a 996 the feeling we get is an inner glow like wearing a Rolex but stronger. We daily drive it and I can't wait to get in that all leather cockpit.

996.2, looks like you are having too much fun

For the record, I've already convinced myself that a 996.2 c4s with a roofbox is easily as practical as a Ford Explorer...

And you can get where ever you are going much sooner in the 996!

I got a tip for a lot of reasons and don't regret it at all. Fun still when you figure out how it reacts as well

What is the learning curve on it? Something with downshifting and blipping or specific RPM ranges for shifting between specific gears?

in auto mode it will adapt to how you driving at the moment and shift at the appropriate place, both up and down. in manual mode you'll get the hang of it in about 30 seconds, kind of like driving a manual but your left foot sleeps.

When shifting up in manual, do you lift the accelerator at all? On manual downshift, do you blip the throttle at all?

996.2 with a tip is a blast to drive. Fast and fun💪👍 I would recommend a sprint booster, it dramatically helps the initial throttle feel.

What�s a sprint booster? I love my Tiptronic as I have to drive in London traffic so a manual really isn�t an option unless you want a hugely developed left leg. The manual switches work well for faster driving and hopefully if I get the time and find a nice steering wheel I will do the paddle mod.

I have a 2003 Carrera Tiptronic since 2008 for weekends and I can only say positive things about it. It takes a few days to get used to the buttons ( my prev car was a E46 M3 SMGII) but once that is mastered it can be great fun. I also find the tTptronic ( and I hope this doesent create a debate here ...) box faster than the manual one

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it makes the accelerator respond quicker. there are some threads on RL talking about it. https://www.sprintboosterusa.com/ Per OP earlier post, no, you can't blip on downshift.

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Sprint booster works like a modern day �Sport� button to improve throttle response on the way to WOT. Big improvement IMO.

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Concur, just shift when you want. When you downshift, be careful, it will do what you tell it to!

Yeah, and don't shift down into first unless you are stopped or nearly stopped. It will be abrupt.

Tip! I think this is the most misunderstood aspect of the 996, and most of the 'advice' comes from people who admittedly have never even driven NOR been in one to form said 'opinions'... I live in NW Houston, drive around Houston a lot, etc., and my 996 C4S is my DD. So, a Tip made sense. I had held off for years not getting a Turbo Tip bc I read forums like this who said the car was literally undriveable due to the Tip transmissions... what a crock! I don't believe the 993 Tip is the same as the 996 Tip, but I could be wrong. I think they changed to a "Tiptronic S" sometime in the 996's life, so I am going from experience of 2.5 years now on my 2003 996.2. The Tip 'learns' as you go, and adapts to your driving style. Drive your 996 like an 80s Lincoln or Caddy? It will respond that way. When I don't push mine it's a little lumpy and slow but when I leave it in "Auto" and let it do it's thing and just mash that right pedal, it likes it SO much more and responds accordingly. However, most of the time (even in my 14.8 mile daily commute) I'm in 'Manual' mode, so once you get used to that, leaving it in 'Auto' becomes secondary. The car will auto-shift at redline but usually will stay in gear when you want it to in 'Manual' mode IME. I've now done 4 HPDE events with my Tip, and have what gear I need to be in at what straights and corners to where even my instructor after 2 days and 8 sessions told me he couldn't even tell where I was up and down shifting, especially if you downshift under braking. I sometimes let it auto-shift up a gear at redline but you get a little more power shifting around 6k so most of the time that's what I do. Sometimes I will accidentally hit the thumb-buttons and shift from 2nd to 3rd in slower corners, but that's maybe once a day it happens. Otherwise just take care of hand placement when turning and it's a non-issue. I've found it will auto-upshift for whatever reason from 2nd to 3rd in said slower corners at times even when I don't hit it, so I guess that's just a safety function of the transmission, not sure. Again, once a day or once per weekend, not ruining anything. I've gotten so good at it I'm now considering a 996TT in Tip, for ease of driving around town plus my 2-3x a year DE attendance. YMMV, but read around and there are plenty of others here who track their Tip with as much speed as the 6MT crew. Lose a few e-peen points for sure but I'd rather have my instructors happy and moving me up classes and me be comfortable in it the 98% I'm not on the track, driving around and sitting in traffic with a city like Houston. Just go drive one and you'll know. I found the car I wanted and went from there. I knew within about 20 seconds at speed I had to have it, so was an easy call. Put it in Manual and give it some right-foot go-go and see how you like it. Then putter around in LA traffic for half an hour and see if you'd prefer doing that job in a 6MT instead! Not everyone DD's their 996 like me, so I get as a weekend car a 6MT may make more sense and is more of an 'occasion' as all the magazines like to say, but it just depends on your use. These cars really can do it all and do it every day with no issues (with good maintenance) so don't let a Tip dissuade you from getting the car/color/options, etc. you want just because it's not 6MT. The former is most important IMO. Good luck!

I got my wife a tip 964 awhile ago and I ended up lowering it etc etc and next thing I knew I was driving it way too much. Great cruiser.

So I ended up getting a PPI and then test driving the vehicle. vehicle was fantastic until 10 mins into test drive. It threw a CEL and limped back to dealership. PPI revealed pitting in cylinder 5. didnt mind the tip at all tho

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I've wanted to drive a 964 Tip just to see how it compares. Many deals to be had with this combo, and both my wife and I are huge fans of the 964.

I will chime in on this subject as I do have both First is my 99 996 6 speed great car and spinning the 3.4 and shifting gears is a blast it just feels right. my latest is an 05 TTS cab with a tip, hands down I’m glad I bought the tip. You need to pay attention to what’s going on around you because it picks up speed quick and it will put you in go to jail mode real fast and not even feel like you pushing close to triple digits. The tips are very dependable and also consistent on launching 0-60 something a six speed car isn’t. weekend toy 6 speed no doubt. Daily driver with lots of traffic, tip any day. and another I would consider a bonus is tips go cheaper than a 6 speed plus you don’t have to worry about any over rev’s in a tip too. hope this helps some.

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Not true. Not sure of the categories, but when I bought my car it had a second category over-rev.

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i believe zones 1, 2, and 3 aren�t actually over redline, it�s 4, 5, and 6 that are the trouble spots.

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No

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Hm, I think it was a zone 2, just one.

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As I understand Range 2 overrev for model year 2002 and earlier is a death bullet to engine. Later model years have different range values for death bullet.

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Not always!

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I was mistaken, believe the 6 ranges is a 997 and onward thing. Not positive.

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Yeah I didn't mean that literally a single Range 2 overrev will definitely kill the engine; but I think Porsche would no longer work on it and maybe voided warranty, and if it survived a certain amount of time after the overrev then it would likely have a normal M96 engine lifespan.