F355 - Nope - this is not an auto box. Its a dual clutch system. Of couse you can have it run automatically but these are solid shifts from one gear to the next - no torque converter. It just means you do have to lift as the CPU will momentarily back off the power to allow the shift - franckly, because the syncros will not be used at the moment of shift - I would expect this worth 3-5 seconds at my track. Oh, you will never miss a shift or lock your rear up.
See below:
"Sporting two clutches in place of the Tiptronic’s torque converter, the DSG sequential-manual was greeted with open arms by the enthusiast community. Always engaged, the DSG unit uses an inner and an outer clutch to engage and disengage cogs. The outer pack drives gears 1, 3, and 5; while the inner clutch pack drives 2, 4, and 6. Using complicated electronic algorithms, the driver’s selected gear is engaged by one clutch pack while the previous gear is disengaged by the other. The result is lag-free, seamless, predictable shifts that can be easily tuned for different situations by simply changing the clutch pack’s modulation. Compared to the slow, jerky, and cumbersome Tiptronic gearbox, the DSG is light years ahead and miles better.
So, it makes logical sense that Porsche should choose to assimilate that technology at the first opportunity (especially now that they’re a majority owner of VW group); which they did. But in grand Porsche over-engineering fashion, they’ve gone one better; quite literally. Developing their own variant of the DSG ’box, Porsche filed a patent indicating the company will be unleashing the world’s first seven speed DSG gearbox upon the public.
Porsche
Expected to see duty in everything from the lowly (relatively) Cayman and Boxster models all the way up to the upcoming Carrera GT-based GT1 racecar, it turns out the development program is surprisingly far along, and Porsche apparently hoped to have had the gearbox completed for use in the new 911 Turbo. "
