300HP Rumors Are True!
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blackknight,
A small correction. There is a difference between sequantial manuals like the F1 cars, Ferrari's, BMW, etc. and triptronic like the 350Z 5 speed auto, Porsche, Acura CL, etc. The triptronic type are nothing more than normal auto's with a convenient way of manually selecting which gear you want to be in. They are still a slush box and don't shift any faster in auto or pseudo- manual mode. Actually most any auto will allow you to select what gear you want to be in by moving the gear selector to "1", "2", "D", or "OD" for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.
Sequential manuals (which I believe are the only ones to have paddles) are simply manual transmissions that have an electronically controlled clutch. You just tell it to upshift or downshift and the clutch is handled automatically. These can actually be faster than a standard manual because the computer can control the clutch faster than your foot. Sometimes they have an auto mode where the computer also selects which gear you should be in but they are totally different than a slushbox.
CVT stands for constant variable transmission. Instead of having 5, 6, or 8 gears they have infinite number of gears and infinite resolution in between. You can hold the engine's rpm at a constant and the transmission will just decrease it's gear ratio to make the car accelerate. They only say that it is an 8 speed CVT because they have a pseudo manual mode where you can select between 8 different pre- selected gear ratio's while driving. It makes it feel more like a traditional car even though it is less efficient to do this and completely unnecessary. These are usually thought of as fuel efficient designs but I think they could be used in a racing application too. You could use them with an engine that has a very peaky power band because you could just rev up to the peak HP and leave the engine rpm there for the entire race. Takes the fun out of it, though.
A small correction. There is a difference between sequantial manuals like the F1 cars, Ferrari's, BMW, etc. and triptronic like the 350Z 5 speed auto, Porsche, Acura CL, etc. The triptronic type are nothing more than normal auto's with a convenient way of manually selecting which gear you want to be in. They are still a slush box and don't shift any faster in auto or pseudo- manual mode. Actually most any auto will allow you to select what gear you want to be in by moving the gear selector to "1", "2", "D", or "OD" for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.
Sequential manuals (which I believe are the only ones to have paddles) are simply manual transmissions that have an electronically controlled clutch. You just tell it to upshift or downshift and the clutch is handled automatically. These can actually be faster than a standard manual because the computer can control the clutch faster than your foot. Sometimes they have an auto mode where the computer also selects which gear you should be in but they are totally different than a slushbox.
CVT stands for constant variable transmission. Instead of having 5, 6, or 8 gears they have infinite number of gears and infinite resolution in between. You can hold the engine's rpm at a constant and the transmission will just decrease it's gear ratio to make the car accelerate. They only say that it is an 8 speed CVT because they have a pseudo manual mode where you can select between 8 different pre- selected gear ratio's while driving. It makes it feel more like a traditional car even though it is less efficient to do this and completely unnecessary. These are usually thought of as fuel efficient designs but I think they could be used in a racing application too. You could use them with an engine that has a very peaky power band because you could just rev up to the peak HP and leave the engine rpm there for the entire race. Takes the fun out of it, though.
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