What Does PDK Stand For And How Does It Work? - Jalopnik

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Man, Porsche makes some fabulous cars. The Cayman is just a terrific little coupe, the Macan is so popular that one probably just drove past you right now, and of course the 911 remains one of the automotive world's all-time greats. What makes them so good? Well, maybe you've heard about something called PDK, which all those cars - depending on year and trim level - feature, alongside much of the Porsche range. What exactly is that, and what does it do?

PDK stands for Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe, an absolutely ace-tier German word that simply means it's a double-clutch transmission (DCT). As a concept, DCTs go all the way back to the 1930s, first conceived by French engineer Adolphe Kegresse before another man named Adolph interrupted him and the rest of France. In the 1960s, Porsche started playing around with the concept again, finally debuting the technology in 1981. The company named it PDK to emphasize that this was a Porsche innovation. It was first used on race cars, most famously the Audi Quattro rally car that took motorsport by storm in 1985.

DCTs first started showing up in road cars with the Volkswagen Golf R32 in 2003. Not to be outdone by its mass-market rival, Porsche started putting its PDK on production cars in 2008 and hasn't stopped since.