12/17/2023 0 Comments Dual clutch transmission or single![]() ![]() But at the same time, carmakers were also making genuine sequential manual versions of their manual transmissions. The Tiptronic dual-gate setup spread to other carmakers, and soon sprouted gearshift buttons on the wheel, which later morphed into paddles. But Porsche’s gearbox was obviously far more sophisticated, and its parallel shift gate allowed drivers to rock the lever back or forward to go up or down through the gears, a bit like a sequential manual transmission in a racing car (though as true racers pointed out, the Plus-Minus layout was the reverse of the one in Porsche’s competition cars). Related: You Can Now Get An Aftermarket Manual Gearbox In Your Audi R8 Mk2, But There’s A Catchīack in the 1960s, Hurst offered a spectacularly sexist (at least by today’s standards) “His and Hers” dual gate shift kit to help going fast in an automatic feel more like a manual, and you could even factory order it in some muscle cars. What made it even more interesting was the dual shift gate, though Porsche can’t claim all the credit here. The fact that this true ZF four-speed epicyclic automatic had an electronic brain that monitored throttle position and movement, road speed and ABS activation to help it choose between five available shift maps was pretty cool. Ferrari buyers could choose a semi-auto Mondial Valeo in the 1990s that combined a traditional gated manual and an electronically controlled clutch (it even built a one-off F40 with the same system for Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli), and Saab’s Sensonic transmission served the same function.īut in 1989 Porsche had returned with Tiptronic on the then-new 964-generation 911. ![]() Porsche ditched the Sportomatic option on 911 in the late 1970s but the idea lived on for another 20 years or so. The lightweight, hardcore 911R was once of the most extreme Porsches ever built, as focused as any modern GT2 or GT3, but the 911 R ‘Quick’ Vic Elford, Hans Hermann and future BMW M founder Jochen Neerspach hurled around the Nurburgring Nordschleife for 84 crazy hours on the 1967 Marathon de la Route was fitted with, you guessed it, a Sportomatic box. And they weren’t restricted to cruising duties. But sufficient people did like the Sportomatic to make it a regular fixture on the Porsche options for almost a decade. “We understand the reasons for it, but we disagree and we don’t like it,” the magazine wrote in March 1968. I drove a Sportomatic 911 once and hated it, as it seems, did Car & Driver when the things were new. ![]() VW offered a similar system called Autostick on its Beetle the following year, as did Porsche, though the 911’s Sportomatic had four forward gears. The futuristic rotary-powered NSU Ro80 sedan of 1967 featured a three-speed manual transmission with a vacuum-operated clutch controlled by a microswitch inside the gear shifter that activated when you grabbed it (no cruising with your hand on the stick) and fitted with a torque converter for smooth getaways. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |