Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK).
It ’s the year 1984. Porsche unveils the
962 and a turbocharged flatsix engine
capable of producing 500 kW (680 hp).
It ’s a racing car intended to push through
existing limits and write its own motor
sport histor y.
Now legendar y victories were to follow
in Le Mans 1986 and 1987, introducing
Derek Bell, Hans Joachim Stuck and
Al Holbert in a C version of the 962.
A secret of its success was the double
clutch transmission that Porsche had
Motorsport history can be written in 60 years.
Or in milliseconds.
been continually refining since the 1960s.
In the Porsche 962C, it enabled extreme
ly fast gear changes, shaving off seconds
in motorsport and minutes in the 24 hour
race.
The subsequent transfer from the race
track to series production was equally
successful. Today, Porsche Doppel
kupplung (PDK) is set ting standards on
the road, with gear changes that take
place in milliseconds and with no inter
ruption in the flow of power to provide
faster acceleration and low fuel con
sumption. And yet our engineers still were not
satisfied – at least, not with the develop
ment of the new 911 GT3. So they
pushed the limits once again. Their goal
was to produce a transmission with gear
ratios specific to the 911 GT3 and with
a 50 % reduction in shift throw on the
even crisper and more dynamic gearshift
paddles. The result was a PDK perfectly
tuned to match the 3.8 litre engine. This
is the first time that it has been fit ted in
a 911 GT3, and it comes as standard. Goal achieved. Racing feel included,
with seven performance oriented gears
where even 7th gear has a sports ratio
engineered for maximum speed. Manual
operation of the 911 GT3 specific gear
selector is based on the established
motorsport principle: back to shift up,
forward to shift down.
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