MANUAL VERSUS TIPTRONIC

“A lot of customers come in wanting a manual and end up buying a Tiptronic,” says Darren Street of RSJ Sports Cars in Slough. There are a number of reasons why. Some, admits Street, are simply used to driving automatics, preferring their ease. There’s no right or wrong in the manual versus automatic debate, as every owner has differing expectations and desires – what’s right for one might not suit another. I’ll admit I’ve always had my foot in the ‘three pedals are good’ camp, but that shouldn’t necessarily translate to mean two pedals are bad. Right now, trickling through Slough’s stop-start traffic in a GT silver Gen1 997 4S Coupe, I can genuinely see the appeal.

Automatic Porsche aren’t anything new. Back in 1967 Porsche created a two-pedal 911 with the Sportomatic, and while there was a brief manual-only era through most of the 1980s, when the 964