Although this system works if you are a drink-my-coffee-and-talk-on-my-phone-while-I-shift-in-traffic kind of person, it tends to confuse drivers accustomed to the internationally recognized, “right paddle up, left paddle down” setup. Instead, what rests on both the left and right steering-wheel spokes are sliding buttons that one pushes to upshift and pulls to downshift. Unfortunately, Porsche didn’t fit dedicated paddle shifters for the manual operation. The ZF-supplied, dual-clutch gearbox works flawlessly in automatic mode, with barely noticeable shifts, like other well-developed dual-clutch setups.
We’ll have to wait to test both transmissions to see which is ultimately quicker, but for now our money is on the PDK, with the manual a 10th or two behind. We’d call that an extremely conservative estimate, considering the 4.8-second sprints we’ve whipped out of a 295-horse, manual-transmission S model and that launch-control starts are engineered to allow the car to accelerate as quickly as physics will allow. Porsche claims a PDK-equipped Cayman S will accelerate to 62 mph in 4.9 seconds when performing a start in sport plus mode with launch control, a feature only available with the optional Sport Chrono package. Subjectively, the Cayman S PDK we drove (Porsche didn’t let us drive any other setup) felt about as quick as the 2008 model. The base Cayman’s engine gets a 0.2-liter and 20-hp boost to 2.9 liters and 265 hp, and the Cayman S gains an additional 25 horses, up to 320. PDK replaces the aging Tiptronic five-speed manumatic transmission. Now the Cayman is the Porsche getting revised engines (including direct fuel injection for S models) and a new seven-speed twin-clutch transmission dubbed Porsche Doppel-Kupplungsgetriebe-or PDK, for those not inclined to German.
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