[WolfpackS2k]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

The MT is alive and well in the rest of the world.

True, but in many ways the USA is still the torch bearer for wanting manual transmissions. The only reason BMW even offered a manual transmission option for the last 2 M5 generations was because Americans wanted it.

Originally Posted by bfrank1972

Nah - Subaru/Toyota did an amazing job with this motor with their constraints. The F20C is a truly bespoke motor not used in anything else but the S2000 (as far as I know!), designed for that car. Below Vtec, it's not as torquey as the FA20 (though the higher gearing can level things) below the magical VTEC switch. It's a race motor made streetable. The FA20 is a street motor built as a shared design with some pretty significant cost constraints. The fact they pull 100hp/L out of that, along with other constraints (packaging, noise, emissions, etc) is pretty darned impressive in my book.

While that's all true, the K20A engine is seen by many people to be superior to the F20/22C engines. And that engine was built for a considerably lower price bracket. For all intents and purposes it was built for the same market level as the FA20. And is a better engine despite being 10+ years older than the FA20. But that's another conversation...

Originally Posted by nikitopo

Sure, this reply is fine. I was just responding to some previous reasoning like ...


"I cannot use my car to its full potential, so the longer gearing is just inferior and Porsche did it mainly to keep Cayman back from the 911. "


or
"the PDK in Cayman has shorter gearing from the MT, because they wanted to sell more PDKs."


or
"the 911 has shorter 1st and 2nd gear ratios again to give an advantage."
<- maybe 911 is more rear biased and can put more torque on the road?

Of course the 911 has more rear weight bias, but you're nuts if you think the gear ratio change is because of that. Not sure why you're not believing us when we tell you it was done specifically to handicap the Cayman.