Another Porsche Question

[texbike]

There are no factory cupholders in an air-cooled.

Texbike

[crownjewelwl]

Originally Posted by veggieburger

You're probably right. Especially when they see the size of a Big Gulp. Das ist nicht gut!

tell him to try suncoast...prices are below dealer for parts

just depends on how involved the repair is...i bet you could find a youtube video

[benb]

Originally Posted by fuzzalow

The best antidote for a cup holder is a manual transmission. Any Porsche owner cryin' about a broken cup holder is driving a Tiptronic. Idle hands are the devils workshop.

No Porsche's in our household but I drove exclusively manual transmission till I got my outback. It has flappy paddles, but my wife drives me nuts.. she get in the car and thinks the transmission area of the center console is designed to store her pocketbook. Either that or she wants to fill the little cubby in front of the transmission lever with so much stuff you can't put the car in park. Long lost habits from driving manual so long but I'm constantly telling her it's a safety issue to put cargo in places where it blocks operation of critical controls.

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by texbike

There are no factory cupholders in an air-cooled.

Texbike

I would guess in '98 (end of the air-cooled era) less than 20% of all cars in Germany had automatic transmission.
Combine that with roads that are generally much more winding and you know why Germans did not miss cupholders in their cars.

[benb]

Originally Posted by Gsinill

I would guess in '98 (end of the air-cooled era) less than 20% of all cars in Germany had automatic transmission.
Combine that with roads that are generally much more winding and you know why Germans did not miss cupholders in their cars.

It's kind of amazing how much of a difference your geographical location makes in what you view as valuable in cars.

I have always lived in the Northeast US the entire time I've had a drivers license. Our roads here have much more in common with Europe than they do with most of the Continental US.

I didn't "get" American cars until I spent a week driving around the Midwest. If you lived in the Midwest your whole life you wouldn't really value a lot of the things Europeans value because you could drive around for days on end and never get any benefit out of some of the differences in handling/chassis design.

A Mustang/Camaro with the same power to weight ratio as a Porsche is just as fun if you live in a place where all the roads are straight and the speed through turns is always dictated by having to stop for a stop sign or red light. (That place to me would pretty much be hell on a road bike or motorcycle.)

[fuzzalow]

Originally Posted by benb

No Porsche's in our household but I drove exclusively manual transmission till I got my outback. It has flappy paddles, but my wife drives me nuts.. she get in the car and thinks the transmission area of the center console is designed to store her pocketbook. Either that or she wants to fill the little cubby in front of the transmission lever with so much stuff you can't put the car in park. Long lost habits from driving manual so long but I'm constantly telling her it's a safety issue to put cargo in places where it blocks operation of critical controls.

I might have spoken a little rashly about drivers not driving a manual transmission car. It may well be that modern state of the art sportscars are no longer meant to be driven with a clutch pedal and gear lever used in sliding gears around in a manual gearbox.

I don't pay attention to cars much anymore but I doubt one ever loses the affinity for cars, especially Porsches, if one ever had an affinity for cars in the first place. I like cars, it is car culture I despise. But even if I'm not current about or in the market for a Porsche, Porsche Cars North America knows me as a previous buyer and sends me updates, brochures, booklets and swag to keep me interested. And indeed I am still interested and enjoy getting this marketing. A quick scan of a page from something PCNA sent me just yesterday:


Most of the higher output Porsches are no longer offered with clutch pedal/manual transmissions it seems. Porsche DoppelKupplung (PDK), or Porsche dual-clutch transmission is the only option on some Porsches, including the Carrera S PCNA is trying to tickle my fancy with here. Time & technology marches forwards - you could stick it in full auto in various modes and it'll change gears for you in a fashion anyhow from LMP-LeMans to drivin' Miss Daisy. Fantastic but perhaps saddened a bit with the changing of the guard.

Oh well, still don't see the need for cupholders. Paddle shifts in full manual still need two hands at all times. Driving, as God and Ferry Porsche intended.

[tiretrax]

Originally Posted by veggieburger

You're probably right. Especially when they see the size of a Big Gulp. Das ist nicht gut!

Even Detroit designers want to know why people have to drive and drink a pony size keg of diet cola. It begs the question of why the volume of a drink should be so much larger than the volume of a bladder. But, people demand them.

I don't remember if it was stated above, but it's against the law to drink or eat while driving in much, if not all, of Europe. Definitely in Germany. Sensible.

I think Porsche started to include them in 2001 as the 911 became a mass market car for the US market. Power steering and tiptronic ruined it.

[fuzzalow]

Originally Posted by tiretrax

I think Porsche started to include them in 2001 as the 911 became a mass market car for the US market. Power steering and tiptronic ruined it.

I disagree; the 911 was never positioned or intended as a mass market car. The sales numbers bring this out.

The car clearly designated for the mass market was the Porsche Cayenne SUV. A highly successful move that largely gave Porsche AG the cashflow to survive and prosper as an independent car manufacturer.

Nothing turns in on corner entry like a 911. In a rear engine layout car Porsche braking is every bit as good on the way into apex as the motor is on the way out on corner exit. And the beauty is you can feel this same thing both on a track and also just driving it safely and normally on the street - you give up the speed but the precision is still there provided the driver has the skill in executing the corner. Power steering has nothing to do with it.

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by tiretrax

I don't remember if it was stated above, but it's against the law to drink or eat while driving in much, if not all, of Europe. Definitely in Germany. Sensible.

Yes, but I was really surprised when I visited Germany and found mixed drinks in cans being sold at gas station/rest stops on the Autobahn. I guess it helps the passengers relax while the drive is ripping along at 155 mph.

[dddd]

A friend recently cajoled me into road-testing his used-Boxster purchase, and the clutch pedal in this stick-shift car took a lot of force to push even compared to my Isuzu 4-cyl gas truck.
Is this normal for a Porsche? I didn't like it, even as a cyclist with strength in my legs I would have rather been driving a Honda.

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

Yes, but I was really surprised when I visited Germany and found mixed drinks in cans being sold at gas station/rest stops on the Autobahn. I guess it helps the passengers relax while the drive is ripping along at 155 mph.

So was I when I moved to the US and learned that it is illegal to have unsealed containers of alcoholic beverages inside a car, at least in most states ("I zought ziz iz a free country?").

Little anecdote: I worked as roofer between HS and college in Germany. We were small teams of 2 - 4 folks in pickup trucks.
My team lead was an alcoholic and every single day on the way to a job site he made a stop at little mom and pop grocery stores to get his supply of beer for the day.
He started the first one right after he got back into the truck and then put it on the driver's seat holding it with his legs while he was driving.
Whenever we saw police, he took it an handed it to the guy on the passenger seat...

Re. it being against the law in Germany to eat or drink while driving, never really heard of it. I think it's just one of those many things "one just doesn't do".

[justinrchan]

Originally Posted by dddd

A friend recently cajoled me into road-testing his used-Boxster purchase, and the clutch pedal in this stick-shift car took a lot of force to push even compared to my Isuzu 4-cyl gas truck.
Is this normal for a Porsche? I didn't like it, even as a cyclist with strength in my legs I would have rather been driving a Honda.

I have a 911 and 968 and the clutch is as smooth as butter. It gets heavy when it comes time to replace.

[dddd]

Yeah, I was really wondering if maybe it was a racing clutch or if perhaps the leverage/geometry of the throw-out bearing actuator or pressure plate spring tines was out of whack. I could see how the leverage might be affected then by a heavily-worn clutch plate, since I didn't detect what I felt was friction.
He wanted me to hammer it through an abrupt, uphill corner, and I did, so I can say that the clutch wasn't slipping.
Somehow it wasn't my thing, being that it wasn't my car to be "experimenting" with, and having somewhat generally burned myself out on performance vehicles after just three years of racing dragbikes almost 30 years ago. He has already exchanged it for a BMW.

[tylercheung]

I still have to learn how to drive stick.

BUT, you can tell which models Porsche means for whom...specifically the manual-transmission-only Cayman GT4 and 911R....

Originally Posted by fuzzalow

I might have spoken a little rashly about drivers not driving a manual transmission car. It may well be that modern state of the art sportscars are no longer meant to be driven with a clutch pedal and gear lever used in sliding gears around in a manual gearbox.

I don't pay attention to cars much anymore but I doubt one ever loses the affinity for cars, especially Porsches, if one ever had an affinity for cars in the first place. I like cars, it is car culture I despise. But even if I'm not current about or in the market for a Porsche, Porsche Cars North America knows me as a previous buyer and sends me updates, brochures, booklets and swag to keep me interested. And indeed I am still interested and enjoy getting this marketing. A quick scan of a page from something PCNA sent me just yesterday:


Most of the higher output Porsches are no longer offered with clutch pedal/manual transmissions it seems. Porsche DoppelKupplung (PDK), or Porsche dual-clutch transmission is the only option on some Porsches, including the Carrera S PCNA is trying to tickle my fancy with here. Time & technology marches forwards - you could stick it in full auto in various modes and it'll change gears for you in a fashion anyhow from LMP-LeMans to drivin' Miss Daisy. Fantastic but perhaps saddened a bit with the changing of the guard.

Oh well, still don't see the need for cupholders. Paddle shifts in full manual still need two hands at all times. Driving, as God and Ferry Porsche intended.

[veggieburger]

Originally Posted by tylercheung

I still have to learn how to drive stick. ..

Apparently a pretty good anti-carjacking deterrent.