Well at any rate, all of the small advancements, they did worked. The Carrera PDK gets 35mpg highway. Not that I care, but that's a very good achievement for a sports car, and its good to know Porsche has what it take to survive without sacrificing performance under upcoming government regulations.

 

In any account, not a bad thing for the advancements, it's just that they can't be taken advantage of except in specific situations. On the other hand, improvements to engine efficiency can be taken advantage of in almost all driving situations. I also tend to think that the efficiency though electronic systems is probably slanted towards the US and European Driving Cycle tests.

There probably is some improvements in engine efficiency (airflow, exhaust, etc), but not much.

 

I guess the advantage of having all this emissions ans consumption improvement met by peripheral systems is that when you just want to burn some gas for fun, it can all be turned off.

Cars these days should have a "master health & safety switch off" button, to make it very simple to disengage all aids and fuel saving devices, and just let you enjoy the machine for a few moments.

 

It was entirely necessary to meet their cruise economy standards, and I for one am totally fine with that sort of number fudging. It keeps the morons at bay while not affecting the car in a negative way. It also opens the door to much higher top speeds when more power is added.

 

Same here. Although I am all for their goal of greater fuel efficiency as they don't seem to be doing anything that hinders performance to achieve it.

Anyone else still chuckle a little bit when they say Doppelkupplung? Always gets me for some reason.

 

Porsche suprises me all the time. Well done,

 

The coasting feature is very cool! Not sure about the stop/start feature, but luckily you can turn it off.

 

This is all for environmental requirement nothing else...

 

Great post! Updated it a tad and featured on our magazine home page!

 

I have driven a ton of cars requiring another gear, but I have yet to drive one that has one too many. Cannot wait to try this. And as little as I care about the eco-hippie agenda and average CO2 emissions, what I do care about is range and highway noise.

In fact, I am curious why there are any negative reactions to this - unlike the flappy paddle garbage which jams its idiotic way of operating down your throat, you can still decide for yourself whether you want to use the 7th manual gear or not.