Although we have yet to drive the 2009 Porsche 911 with the company's new twin-clutch automated manual gearbox, we are already fans of the name the company selected: Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK). All it means is "double clutch" in German, but to our American ears, it sounds cooler than that. The Porsche 962 racing car of the 1980s introduced this technology at the end of its life, but Porsche abandoned the concept because of weight and complication.
And while it's hard to imagine a day when we wouldn't want to work the clutch ourselves in a 911, the PDK might make Porsche life rewarding even for the third-pedal-averse. It works like the VW/Audi Direct Shift Gearbox (not to mention the dual-clutch gearbox in the GT-R), wherein you can be accelerating in one gear and have the next gear preselected, so gearchanges take place with minimal interruption in power delivery.
Read Article