Performance Tiptronic Driving Article in Pano

[Dan Chambers]

Howdy all:

With the rains, I've had time to actually read the Pano .... instead of just drooling over pictures, and such.

I found the interview about performance driving a Tiptronic trans. very interesting. I'm curious what others think of the concept of down-shifting a Tip using the "blip-the-throttle-to-the-floor-while-left-foot-braking with the lever position in drive." This is a somewhat radical idea to me .... and I like it. I've often wondered how you can "pre-shift" or "early down-shift" an automatic trans prior to a corner.

Greg P., you've logged some serious time on the courses with atuo-trans. Your thoughts?

Steve G., what about abuse to the drive train? Could this in any way be harmful; or, any more harmful than down-shifting while braking (without heal-toe) in a manual trans.??

Chris Huck, any word from the Sales crew about this idea? Would you mention it to a known performance driver when selling a Tip-equipped car? Could it be a selling point? Would they install a "Tip" in a Carerra GT?

Curious minds want to know.......

[Chris Huck]

I haven't tried the exact description you posted but I do find it beneficial to simply "down-Tip" 3 times EVERY time as the system will only down-shift as far as it safely can. No missing a lower gear! No blown engine!!

I always let the system up-shift itself and am always surprised the customers who come in with Tip cars, test-driving a newer tip car and short-shift in manual mode! Seems to defeat the whole thing to me.

Remember Gabriel Igartua a few years back with his Tip 1997 Boxster?? My recollection is he usually won his class!!

[Greg Phillips]

The 928 is automatic, but not tiptronic. I usually shifted manually, the drawback with the 928 is that you can't manually select 1st gear, it will downshift when it feels like it depending on speed and throttle position. But practically; at an AX, once I left 1st I never got back short of missing a corner and almost stopping
The few student's cars (and WTA Cayenne) I have had with tips were not a problem. Like Chris said, it will upshift automatically near redline and will not allow a downshift too low for the engine speed. On a tight AX course, sometimes it was confusing where the downshift buttons were on the wheel, but at most tracks and roads, if you have the steering wheel turned that far, you probably should not be downshifting
I did like the early tips that have a floor shifter along (instead of?)with the steering wheel buttons. I have done the shifting for the student from the instructor seat to minimize their confusion and allow them to concentrate on steering.
Of course, I have not mastered left-foot braking, although I have used it in a few places on the track.

Greg