Citaat: The Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe name dates from 1983, when the first experimental version was developed and used in a 956 Series-produced endurance race car. A 956 with the experimental gearbox won a German national championship race, and a couple of years later a 962, the 956's descendant, equipped with the gearbox won an international championship race at Monza, in Italy.
So, why didn't the PDK appear in street Porsches by the late 1980s? Given the state of the electronic technology then, it would have been prohibitively expensive and likely none too civilized. The early automated-manual gearboxes that appeared in road cars a decade or more after that were none too civilized, either, and had the benefit of much more development in control technology. |