I’d like to start a discussion comparing experiences with the tip tranny.
I have a 2008 CS with the tiptronic automatic transmission. In my experience the programming of it is wrong for touring driving. First off it starts out in 2nd gear which kinda boggs down from a dead stop start and is worse if on any kind of uphill. (The thing has a first gear, why not use it).
Then, if cruising (not getting on it for fast acceleration) the trans wants to quickly run through the gears to get to 5th asap. So in traffic you end up going 30 in 5th gear and it strains below 2k rpm’s. Driving slowly in 5th, it lurches every 10 seconds, like it’s trying to go back to 4th but it doesn’t.
how hard would it have been for them to program it to shift based on an rpm range?
I will say it is fine if you go hard out of the gate 0-70, which may be what it was designed for and it shifts appropriately between 4k and 5k but that isn’t reality for the average weekend tourer.
All that said, I get around it fine, always driving in manual mode, starting out in 1st gear and shifting manually with the buttons on the steering wheel, keeping it in the appropriate gear with rpm’s in the 2500-3k cruising range and shifting at 4-5k. It works fine that way and I actually like it, with single handed shifting (in traffic) and using 1st for responsive starts.
I just thought it would be interesting to hear experiences from other tip users out there.
Have you driven a
PDK
. Once you do it’s tough to go back to a Tip for sporty driving. Although the
PDK
in normal mode and sport when in auto it will also get to 6th gear by 35 mph. I have driven my brother in laws 2008 997 with a tip. It’s a convertible and he basically uses it as a cruiser. For that the Tip is fine. Compared to a regular old slush box the tip is not bad, but if you are a manual guy, a
PDK
guy or really any DCT , the tip is lacking. Sounds like you are doing the best you can and using manual mode which honestly works fairly well for spirited runs on mountain twisties.
This model of
Porsche
997/87 allows to easily swap out the steering wheel for a
PDK
paddle shifting wheel. It's truely
plug
and play. I found the thumb shifting was odd, so did
Porsche
, replacing Tip to
PDK
with paddle shifters. Now with the paddles it makes rowing/flipping/paddling through the Tip's gears so much more fun. Throw on a
PDK
Sport Knob and upgrade the whole experience.
Thanks guys, I have tried
PDK
, (paddle shifters on
bmw
and Mercedes too), and I know it is superior, especially for aggressive driving, but what I don’t like is that it takes two hands, right hand for upshift and left hand for downshift. Again, great for spirited driving but for country drives and dinner outings, I quite like driving/shifting with just my left hand while right hand is free to rest on my lady (she loves a
Porsche
drive) or hold a cup of coffee.
So I am not dissatisfied with the shifter buttons themselves but rather the design and programming of the transmission shift
points
(when cruising).
But don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy driving the
cayman
with tip, just wonder if they all shift like mine does in auto mode, running through the gears so quickly.
I have since found this link also discussing the tip.
https://www.planet-9.com/threads/tiptronic-is-that-really-that-horrible.245089/
