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- #Affordable cars with dual clutch transmission how to
- #Affordable cars with dual clutch transmission manuals
- #Affordable cars with dual clutch transmission manual
- #Affordable cars with dual clutch transmission license
The new seventh gear is taller, lowering engine rpm at any given speed, thereby decreasing fuel consumption and CO 2 output without compromising acceleration or top speed." How Many Is Too Many?Įach manufacturer answers this question differently.
#Affordable cars with dual clutch transmission manual
"Traditionally, Porsche models with manual transmissions hit their top speed in top gear (sixth). Porsche spokesman Dave Engelman says his company's bold step to a seven-speed manual-a highly modified version of the current Porsche PDK automated manual-was also motivated by fuel economy. Now it makes sense to jump from the five clutches required for a six-speed, and the overall package saves 2 to 6 percent in fuel economy."
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#Affordable cars with dual clutch transmission how to
We've recently discovered how to reduce the clutch drag losses so that eight gears are beneficial.
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"If you had asked me five years ago whether an eight-speed would give better efficiency, I would have said no," Renneker says, "because the additional sixth clutch required for an eight-speed would have created more internal drag than the added gear span could offer. Having more gears allows smaller, more economical engines to power larger vehicles or improves the efficiency of existing engines. This means first gear can be shorter for better off-the-line acceleration while the top gears can be taller for better fuel economy. Porsche unveiled its all-new 911 at the Frankfurt auto show, showing off a new seven-speed manual option.Īccording to Ford Motor Company's chief engineer of transmissions, Craig Renneker, more gears give powertrain engineers more gear spread to work with. Manual transmissions have been relegated to either performance or low-price fuel-miser cars in recent years, but even they are seeing the trend. It's not just automatics that are seeing the gear count creep ever upward. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play Mercedes-Benz is known to be developing a nine-speed version of its G-Tronic gearbox to back its AMG performance models. Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne says ZF's new nine-speed automatic could go into new front-wheel-drive offerings beginning in 2013.
#Affordable cars with dual clutch transmission license
Chrysler recently announced it would license ZF-built eight-speeds to pair with the Pentastar V6 as a $1000 option.īut you can always go higher. Ford has committed to manufacturing its own eight-speed automatic in-house. BMW, Audi, Lexus, and Porsche currently offer octo-geared automatic transmissions with traditional torque converters and planetary gearsets. The latest craze amongst manufacturers is the eight-speed automatic transmission. As the gear count in new cars approaches double digits, we have to wonder: What's with the rush for more speeds, and how many is too many? The Latest Gear Counts
#Affordable cars with dual clutch transmission manuals
And though two- and three-speed automatics and four- to five-speed manuals ruled for decades, new transmissions offer seven, eight and even nine forward gears. Today, traditional manuals and torque-converter-equipped automatics share the road with continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), dual-clutch automated manuals, electrified automatics, and power-split electric motor transmissions. But today's gearboxes have as much in common with the transmission on Henry Ford's 1896 Quadracycle as your kid's balsawood glider has with the gone-missing hypersonic Falcon HTV-2. Belts, chains, and gears: They've been the stuff of transmissions for 125 years.
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