2007 Porsche 911 Targa 4S Tiptronic Road Test
11-1-2007
by
Amyot Bachand
, Auto123.com
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That said, manipulating the Tiptronic shifter is not particularly pleasant. What's more, the paddles on the steering wheel do not deliver a lightning-quick response. Still, acceleration times are convincing for such a world-class sports car: 0 to 100 km/h in 7.1 seconds in automatic mode and 6.1 seconds in Sport mode. Passing maneuvers (from 80 to 120 km/h) are completed in 4.96 seconds in auto mode and 4.5 seconds in Sport mode. That's pretty quick, but still almost a full second slower than with the manual transmission. My dissatisfaction behind the wheel was a matter of manipulation and response feel. Otherwise, in terms of overall performance, this Tiptronic-equipped Porsche is almost as good as the manual model. For instance, braking power is phenomenal: stopping distances from 100 to 0 km/h were measured at 28.7 meters.  | | You can manually shift gears by using the paddles on the steering wheel. |
A matter of tastes?I don't think so. Sure, I prefer manual gearboxes, but I've had the opportunity to drive several high-performance cars with an automatic or semi-automatic transmission that proved to be more responsive and more effective at transferring power from the engine to the wheels, even at low RPMs. Maybe the problem lies in the design of the boxer engine, which makes the engineers' work so complicated. In the end, though, it's still a Porsche -- a beautiful and powerful thoroughbred.
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