youre not alone Carrera with your thoughts..I share many of yours too. Porsche has been too much Marketing lately. In a Germaan motoring magazine the number of 397 sold units was mentioned last week so still a long way for them to find the remaining buyers..

The real question for th 918 will come once its not built anyore: will it hold its value ? If so it means people are fascinated about it..if its value drops..then..

And yes, Porsche has build in its history "disappointing cars"..I even realised that when I was once im my childhood dream 959 - for me its clear why the f40 is so much more sought after...

 

It seems like you're arguing two different things here. If this is "an ultimate battle between Ferrari, McLaren and Porsche for...the fastest, best-looking and most technologically advanced production road car in history," then they're making the right decision by tapping every high-tech weapon they can afford to throw at the problem.

Just cutting it down to the proverbial wheel, motor and stick shift would produce a car that wasn't nearly as fast nor as flexible as the 918 Spyder (or P1 or LaFerrari). It wouldn't lap the 'Ring in seven minutes with Jesus behind the wheel, let alone Walter Röhrl. It would be a more involving, more direct driving experience, true. And I'd love to drive the piss out of that car.

But that car would be a nightmare to control, unless you were a professional racing driver—and even one of them wouldn't be able to go as fast on a regular road as they would in a 918.

Most supercar buyers are not like us. They do not want the rawest, rarest, most untamed driving experience. They will never push their cars to 10/10ths in the turns, never take them on track, never intentionally balance on the knife's edge between controlled oversteer and uncontrolled ohcrapisteer. They want a car that accelerates like a bat out of hell, draws attention like a Jessica Alba nip-slip, can take a corner really hard that one time every few months when they're showing off for their friends, and can win every bench-race a jag at the hotel bar can throw at it.

Porsche is not staffed by idiots. They made a GT3 RS, they made a GT3 RS 4.0, and then they turned out a 991-series GT3 without a stick shift. They clearly didn't do this in a vacuum. They talked with their engineers and conducted interviews with buyers and thought long and hard about it. And they wound up with a car with a dual-clutch transmission, because it's faster and more usable. Presumably, because that's what most people buying the GT3 want. A 911 GT3 that's faster and easier.

And Porsche also knows that there are people like us, who want the basest, rawest driving experience possible. Which is why they went out of their way to bore out the GT3 RS and make 500 examples of a 4.0 liter version. They know we're here, too. I don't think they've forgotten us. So I wouldn't be surprised to see a new 991-series GT3 RS 4.0 in 2016 or so, with a 540 horsepower naturally-aspirated flat-six and a seven-speed manual and a 3,000 pound curb weight.

They haven't forgotten us.

 

Maybe they will remember us in a few years, but right now McLaren F1, CGT and 4.0's (biased) look like bargains!!

Throw new rubber on a CGT buy a new 20k clutch every year...

Strip the 918 of all the nonsense and throw the most powerful NA engine in the back and call it a day.

 

Good point you bring up there. I guess I worded it wrong in saying that to win the tech competition they should bring it back to the basics. I should have said more clearly to win the outright "best of the best" competition they should bring it back to the basics.

But you are very right in saying that the majority of people with this kind of money want a flashy, easy to use car as you described, with all of the latest and greatest tech. This is more of a "look what I can do" car than an enthusiast's car, which actually makes sense kind of, I guess for Porsche.

And just to nitpick: "Presumably, because that's what most people buying the GT3 want. A 911 GT3 that's faster and easier." -I wouldn't exactly say that outright, because up until now, absolutely every single GT3 sold has had a manual transmission, so if most people wanted a PDK GT3 they wouldn't have sold any.

Though I understand what you mean, I still think this was a wrong move as the GT3 is an enthusiast's car and not a "look what I can do" car (as is the 911 Turbo to an extent).

Also as far as there being a GT3 in the future with a manual transmission, I highly doubt it. The 991 GT3 chassis and engine were designed specifically to maximize performance with the PDK transmission. Adding in a manual would screw the balance up and they'd have to rework everything. Even if they did get that far, the overall performance would be worse than the PDK, so it wouldn't make sense as an "ultimate edition".

It is sad, but this is the death of the manual transmission in performance cars. Heck, in any 991 manual transmission you buy, Porsche doesn't trust you to rev match your own down shifts so they do it for you.

 

This is the problem with technology in cars. In 20 years time the 918 Spyder, LaFerrari, and P1 will look old as dirt, while the RS 4.0 and Carrera GT will still seem relevant because they are so simple. Case in point, the F40 vs. the 959, and the Enzo vs. the Carrera GT.

 

And the F1.... Golden age for cars in that time.

 

I don't think the lack of PDK was a dealbreaker for many potential GT3 buyers—I think many of them just would have preferred it. People might have wanted it, but not so badly that they'd rather buy another brand with flappy paddles. To put it in SAT, 911 GT3 PDK > 911 GT3 stick for them, but 911 GT3 stick > Nissan GT-R or 911 Carrera S...or whatever the other dual-clutch cars in that price range those people might consider.

I'm not so pessimistic. If Porsche knows there are a lot of people who want a stick shift GT3, and that they stand to make decent money and generate a lot of positive press by adding one back in, they'll go to the trouble. The PDK and the seven-speed stick are basically the same transmission at their core; it wouldn't throw off the balance that much to swap two clutches for one.

As for the performance of said "ultimate edition" being less than the regular car due to the transmission change, well, I could very easily see them offering two versions of a souped-up GT3: one with PDK and every track-focused piece of tech standard, for ultimate performance, and one with a stick-shift and a focus on simplicity and light weight, for "purity of purpose." Hey, it's not like Porsche's ever skipped an opportunity to offer another sub-species of 911...

 

I get what you're saying and I definitely agree they should build a car like this. But the balance really is a major part, it isn't just about two clutches vs. one, it's also about how the suspension reacts to shifting mid-corner, and also in a straight line. That means the steering, shocks, springs, rear steering, engine etc. are all optimized for PDK, unfortunately.

But as you said, when Porsche only has a year left of the 991, they'll be pushing out a new 911 variant once a week, so there might be some hope.