I am no expert on car mechanics but was wondering if these new cars with ever increasing gears in the transmission actually improve performance. Back in the 90's it was almost exclusively 5 speed manual and a 4 speed automatic. Today you got cars like the Lexus L460 with a 8 speed automatic. I know how gears work in a car. I was just trying to figure out how something like a 8 speed automatic would increase performance. Intuitively, my guess would have been that the time lost changing gears every split second from 1-x or down shifting when needed would offset the increase in performance by keeping the RPM's in the peak of the powerband.

Also, how do CVT's compare in performance to standard manual transmissions??

6/14/2007 10:19:03 AM

gas

6/14/2007 12:15:31 PM

^^they're not as good.

6/14/2007 1:03:14 PM

yeah it takes more time to shift, but the transmission is designed to shift as quickly as possible

basically and engine is really only efficient at one speed (variable valve timing helps but when you consider things like intake runner length, etc it only helps so much)

more gears keeps you around this most efficient point (you can replace efficient with max power if you want to design the engine that way)

6/14/2007 1:46:54 PM

actually there are no gears in a transmission, they work by magic. the noise you hear is a little guy in there snoring.

6/14/2007 3:09:56 PM

yeah, and engines run on dreams and rainbows.

6/14/2007 3:12:31 PM

i would like to drive a car with a cvt sometime cause it sure as fuck gets the most out of my lil scoot's 50 cc's haha. wheres that srt4 caliber with a cvt they promised?

[Edited on June 14, 2007 at 4:24 PM. Reason : .]

6/14/2007 4:23:21 PM

^^ Don't worry, capn old boy, we'll have these babies in showrooms while he's still grappling with the unicorn matrix!

6/14/2007 5:45:49 PM

another reason manufacturers are going to more gears is because it helps their average gas mileage

6/14/2007 5:55:41 PM

you can have higher overdrives with more gears also

6/14/2007 6:14:30 PM

i drove a nissan murano a while back. it had a cvt tranny. pretty fucking weird to floor a car and the rpm's stayed the same the entire time.

6/14/2007 7:16:59 PM

I had a rental CVT Maxima for almost 2 weeks last November. Felt a little strange, but it pulled pretty hard when you floored it. Seems like they're finally getting the hang of CVT's that can handle more than economy-car levels of power (I think it's an option in the Ford Five Hundred Taurus now too, isn't it?)...

6/14/2007 8:03:46 PM