So,
I'm sat waiting patiently for my LSG GTI to arrive (Sept 1st with a bit of luck).
I'm bored, so I start wondering what gearboxes will be like in the future. Given the desire, of Governments at least, to get us all into cars with 500cc engines, manufacturers will no doubt add more gears to get back some performance and flexibility. If the VW DSG 10 speed gearbox does come to fruition it made me wonder if manual trannies will just die out. I can't imagine many folk opting for a 10 speed manual even if such a thing was feasible and cost effective to make and I couldn't see a six speed offering enough variation to match the engines most likely limited output.
I had a 5 Series on holiday in the states and that had the 8 speed auto with 2L petrol and it was really nippy and flexible, especially given the size of a 5.
Is a 6MT as far as you can go? I have driven a track car with progressive shift, it had a clutch to get you off the line, you pull back to change up and push forward to change down although you have to depress the clutch on downshifts only - I could see that causing real issues with some of the driving population.
Who knows what's next. Maybe a comeback for CVTs? If they could get a really decent CVT then that may be the best option, although personally, the only one I've tried (Audi) did nothing for me, even though it was really smooth - I nicknamed it a trundlertronic which didn't go down well with the brother-in-law.
Finally a quiz question which had me stumped. If you had two identical cars, with a gearbox that had practically infinite ratios between the lowest and highest ratios (a sort of CVT box I guess). You accelerate from a standing start - in one car the revs are fixed at the point of maximum torque in the other at the point of maximum power - assuming same degree of wheelspin, etc, which one accelerates faster? Any solutions gratefully accepted.
Your thoughts?
Cheers, Neil.
