[BGB Motorsports]

For all those 981/991 folks that have been asking "can you speed up the shifts in the PDK," the long wait is over! Yesterday Cobb released their PDK control unit flash upgrade for all 991/981 customers that want that snappy, PDK-S type shifting in their 911s, Boxsters or Caymans. We were lucky enough to be able to beta test some of this stuff last week and see first hand the improvements that it delivers. One of my customers is on Planet-9 and he's running the software and hopefully he will chime in. We have built a few large displacement, 430 - 475 hp engines for customers running PDK 981s and this software was necessary for me to have the cars behaving in a manner i think they should. This is the first ever flash i know of for the PDK control unit; it can bring a non Sports Plus car up to Sports Plus spec, you can have Launch Control and they have provided several different shift maps. You don't have to drive the car in manual mode anymore to be able to realize any raised RPM limits & gone is the hesitation you feel when rolling from a dead stop to pull out from an intersection!

If anyone is interested, please call the shop and ask for either Wray or myself!

https://www.cobbtuning.com/maps/porsche-911-carrera-991-cobb-high-torque-aggressive-pdk-map

Thank you.

John

 

[jamesrg]

I am not the BGB customer, however COBB did come to my house and load the software a few months ago and I have been running it ever since. I will say that while I know the car isn't creating any more horsepower, it sure feels like it.
It shifts higher in the RPM band, so it will hover in the 3500-4K range most of the time if you are just cruising which is great so when you punch it you are in the power band. I don't track my car all that much but for the fun weekend trips I take it is a great improvement.

Every since I got the car, I felt that Porsche purposely selected a gear or two higher to keep RPM's down to increase MPG, this gets rid of that.

Highly recommend, great job again COBB!!

 

[Cayman Ed]

that rpm also makes the Flat 6 sing!

 

[JCviggen]

Having seen the price point of $600, more than I was expecting for a firmware upgrade, I'd like to know how good it actually is before pulling the trigger. I'm not interested in the altered shift points much, I always use the paddles. Would not mind a better D mode but I wouldn't pay much for it.

Can we count on at least 2-3 tenths of a second gained on a 2 minute lap of a racetrack with the faster shifts? Just the feeling of the shifts being harder in itself doesn't appeal to me if there isn't a tangible gain.

Of course, worth keeping in mind that it's not really setting 600 bucks on fire either way as the resale value of these is strong.

 

[BGB Motorsports]

It would really be hard for me to quantify the lap time differential. Yes, if it's shifting faster it should translate somewhat into improved acceleration but i am not marketing that aspect of it. I think that the value is in the improved non-sport, sport and sports plus modes, the ability to have the car rev higher in D mode and the removal of those annoying hesitations experienced while rolling off from a start. I am about to flash my 3rd car so i think i will try and have those guys offer up their $.02 to remove any bias. All of your questions and concerns are valid ones. I need to have some more 3rd party opinions, which i should have in the next week or so.

 

[Croc999]

is it useful for S cars fro Sport+?

 

[snoopy]

Just installed. All I can say is this is how the car should have shifted from the factory in normal mode and sport mode.

 

[Ryun]

I have this installed on 2 cars:
On my Stage1 boxster 3.4, it is pretty noticable. The shifts are nice and crisp. The dead stop hesitation is gone. As others have mentioned, the shift points for normal and sport are adjusted. Even though my car does not have sport chrono, they were able to use the sport button to become sport plus. Its a little over aggressive for the streets and i may swap back.
Driving it back to back it is a definite improvement.

In my 4l, it completely helped the shifting. The adjustment to a custom high torque programming helped the pdk deal with the extra power. Dead stop hesitation was terrible in the car prior to and it drastically changed when the software was installed. Normal is quick to respond to throttle inputs and while it still gets you to 7th on the highway, it holds the gears longer under acceleration. To me, it finally made normal usable since it just doesnt keep you at 2k all the time. As for sport, it definitely holds a gear and doesnt jump from gear to gear as much with slight throttle inputs. Even under partial throttle it will not shift until 4k or so. Much more usable and a bigger difference than before.
Across the board, shifts feel firmer and sharper esp under the sportier modes. If you only use the paddles, you will still notice the difference in the quality of the shifts.

As for value, obviously this wouldnt be my first or even second mod on the car. But for cars that have a tune and some other mods, it is a noticable upgrade, If your car is making more power than stock, it is a definite must have

my 2 bits

 

[COBB Tuning]

I got to working on this and got it sorted out.


This is the GT3 style of shift lever. We will release this in maps hopefully this week so for those of you that want this please let us know and we can send you calibrations with it enabled.


This is what we are calling-- COBB PDK Inverted Shift Lever

Keep any other requests coming!


-Mitch McKee
COBB Tuning
[email protected]

 

[BGB Motorsports]

This upgrade is now available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83UBZxBV8s8

I just tried it out and it's everything we always wanted. The shift orientation has been changed now which is the most recent development. I have had nothing but the best experience with these PDK upgrades from Cobb. We have built some larger displacement, high torque, high horsepower Caymans and had some issues with clutch slippage and this upgrade fixed them completely. Between the faster, crisper shifting, the reversed shift orientation and now the ability to custom tune, it's an awesome time in the Porsche aftermarket world.

 

[ICNU]

I got to working on this and got it sorted out.


This is the GT3 style of shift lever. We will release this in maps hopefully this week so for those of you that want this please let us know and we can send you calibrations with it enabled.


This is what we are calling-- COBB PDK Inverted Shift Lever

Keep any other requests coming!


-Mitch McKee
COBB Tuning
[email protected]

Installed this new sequential map today, however I notice now that the aggressive shift map that was loaded in my car is now gone. Do I have to give up the benefit of the other maps in order to use this one, or is this specific map more for the guys like me that manually shift at all times and some other goodies added in? The reason I ask is because there appears to be no real benefit at all with the other maps for those of us that manually shift or already have sport chrono/launch control. We already have control of the shift points anyway, and the dead stop hesitation is exactly the same with or without the tune in my car.

Ive had the agressive tune installed since inception, and I couldn't tell you the difference at all from stock if in a blind test based on how I normally drive in manual mode, so really hoping there is something more within this new map. It's only when in full auto mode that I even know there is a tune installed. Also, what effect if any does removing the kickdown feature for those of us with Sport Chrono and launch control, since the kickdown is required for this?

 

[JCviggen]

Ive had the agressive tune installed since inception, and I couldn't tell you the difference at all from stock if in a blind test based on how I normally drive in manual mode, so really hoping there is something more within this new map.

I'm curious, have you checked for any differences in shifting behavior between the protune and the OTS v2 engine maps? (the FS tune kind of "breaks" my torque boost in sport+ so something in that tune does affect the shifting somehow or other)

 

[ICNU]

I'm curious, have you checked for any differences in shifting behavior between the protune and the OTS v2 engine maps? (the FS tune kind of "breaks" my torque boost in sport+ so something in that tune does affect the shifting somehow or other)

I haven't done any formal side by side testing with and without the FS pro tune, however like you I have noticed that the Sport + high rpm shift torque boost that I used to have is gone. I originally thought that this was due to the PDK maps so I removed the maps back to stock and drove for a few weeks, but the behaviour didn't change at all. It's nothing to do with the PDK maps in my case it seems.

I haven't taken the time to remove the pro tune to see if the TB comes back yet, so maybe another experiment to do soon. I used to get a donkey kick in the back that would spin the rears a bit when doing redline RPM 1-2 shifts, but now that never happens anymore and is just a lightening fast "pop" from the exhaust with no kick at all as if I'm driving a Cadillac. The shift itself is practically undetectable other than the exhaust sound. I get harder shifts out of partial throttle, normal driving around 4-5K as if the torque boost is still there somewhat when using Sport + but strange that it's completely gone from the higher revs like it used to be. Of course none of this has anything to do with actual performance of the car, but is just a noticed change in the car's behaviour