Drivers who Shift Into New Gears.
Introductory:
In a society of driving conveniences, we’ve seen such technology as hands-free Bluetooth phone calling, touchscreen navigation, app compatibility with your smartphone, cruise control both radar adaptive and basic and of course, there’s one feature that we drivers often take for granted. Just like electric windows, that would be the automatic transmission.
Before Bluetooth, before turn-by-turn navigation and even before basic cruise control, the automatic transmission was a revolutionary tool over time as it made driving much more convenient. No clutch pedal to press and no gears to shift. And of course, no fears of stalling.
Sports cars however, many sports cars until around a decade or two ago were mostly still only available as manuals. This had changed a lot with the concept of eliminating the clutch pedal and putting fins behind the steering wheel so the driver can electronically change gears, all without taking his/her hands off the wheel. These “Fins” behind the steering wheel are called “Paddle Shifters”. Almost every sports car has them and many of these other fine cars aren’t even available as a manual anymore. But why?
I’m Nicholas Bonneau, the author of “Drivers who S.I.N.G.” And in my book, you’ll read about how the automatic transmission started, why more and more sports cars are converting to flappy-paddle gearboxes and how the manual transmission is on the verge of extinction.
Introducing a Driving Revolution:
The year was 1939. General Motors, along with an inventor from Portland, Oregon named Earl A. Thompson would create the world’s first mass-produced automatic transmission. Marketed as “Hydra-Matic Drive,” this amazing innovation would be first installed on 1940 Oldsmobiles. The Hydra-Matic is the first true automatic gearbox as a couple years before, the Automatic Safety Transmission was invented to do the same thing except it had a clutch pedal for starting, stopping and to shift into reverse. It took a fluid coupling (not a torque converter) to eliminate the clutch pedal in the Hydra-Matic.
the Future of your Everyday Car:
According to 2013 statistics, only 3.9% of vehicles sold in America were equipped with a manual transmission but over twenty years ago, it was over a quarter of vehicles sold. 67% of vehicles in 2013 came only available as automatics. Around 15 years from today according to analysts, stick shift vehicles will no longer be sold.
Manual gearboxes are starting to loose their keen advantages over their automatic cousins. One of the advantages would be fuel-economy. Now days, automakers have the ability to add many more gears in an auto than they can in a manual. For example: a seven-speed manual vs. a ten-speed automatic. The reason they can add more gears in an automatic is because the driver doesn’t have to stress about shifting all ten gears. Seven gears is more than enough gears to manually shift in a vehicle.
If there’s a future for the standard transmission, it might be with the eClutch from Bosch. The eClutch is an automated clutch that has the ability to disengage and re-engage automatically in the first two gears. This is done to prevent the driver from stalling the car at takeoffs and still be able to drive the car manually. The eClutch can even cut off engine power while the car is coasting, which increases fuel efficiency up to 10%. Unfortunately, Bosch only planned for these automated clutches to be installed into Indian Hondas and is not planned for any American vehicles. However, this idea wasn’t a first. Decades ago, Volkswagen had the “Automatic Stick Shift” for the 1968 to ‘76 Beetles and Karmann Ghias.
But what’s the point when you have all of these new high-tech automotive features where the car can use radar sensors to practically drive itself? I mean adaptive cruise control, lane change warning, front and rear end collision warning. Most of these features may be an option now, but i’m sure within a decade or two they’ll all be government mandated safety features. And guess what, there’s no way that that could be properly synced to a manual gearbox. That, and there’s hardly any demand for it.
The reason these newly popular safety features can only work with automatic gearboxes is mainly because of the fact the vehicle may be required to downshift or even come to a complete stop while applying the brakes by itself and the driver is just getting prepared to brake. It could work with the Bosch eClutch as the clutch is automated, but in the event however, you’d still have to figure out which gear to put it into afterward. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough demand for that in the standard transmission.
Starting a new Performance Trend:
Almost every sports car you could think of before it was cool not to have a clutch pedal were stick shift. Car companies that only use paddle shifters today had to rely on the standard transmission back then. McLaren, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Ferrari and many more.
The only sports car that I can even think of before paddle shifters which wasn’t a manual was the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette. Equipped with a two-speed automatic and a six cylinder engine producing 120 horsepower, it’s not what we would think of America’s sports car today. But, it’s true. A manual gearbox and a V8 engine option was introduced to the ‘Vette a couple years later. The Corvette was the best example of a few sports cars that offered both manual and automatic gearboxes before semi-automatic sequential shifting became popular.
The manual transmission was an essential item for sports car manufacturers. It was critical for the driver to have self control of the vehicle. And though it may seem that driving a manual is much harder than an automatic, you have the advantages. You have much better control of the gears, you can increase the RPM’s for extra acceleration power and for slowing down faster, engine braking (downshifting) is a huge helper.
Manual gearboxes were used in the majority of sports cars for many decades. It was the same for race cars. The first semi-automatic transmission that made a statement to racing, high performance road cars and the public eye would be inside the 1989 Ferrari 640 Formula 1 car. It was equipped with a seven-speed flappy paddle gearbox. The first of its kind in any vehicle. It was such a critical deal being able to shift, accelerate and perform as fast as possible that in 1995, paddle shifters were finally on all few Formula 1 race cars as the traditional manual was phased out.
It took Ferrari eight years to implement paddle shifters from its Formula 1 racing car into a road car due to it’s complexity. In 1997 however, Ferrari introduced its first sports car with an optional flappy paddle gearbox the company marketed as its six-speed “F1 Transmission”. Customers who were looking to purchase the 1997 Ferrari F355 could choose for the first time from a traditional manual or the future and simplicity of sports car driving. However less than 20% of British customers were convinced.
As the years went by, Ferrari kept making progress at its paddle shifters. Giving the shifting response time faster and because the transmission is computer controlled, it can be linked to a dial where you can change the traction and e-diff into different drive modes (This is similar to Land Rover’s Terrain Response dial). With this “magical drive mode dial,” that’s when the stick shift pretty much saw the end in Ferraris and the last Ferrari with a manual gearbox would be the 2008 California and only two of those were sold.
We would however, see these same trends occur in Lamborghinis and McLarens, along with the Audi R8s, and most other european sports cars. Even the upscale Corvettes (like the ZO6) are transitioning into paddle shifters. Before, you could only get a ZO6 as a manual. Now the C7 ZO6s come as seven-speed manuals or eight-speed automatics with paddle shifters.
The only sports car that I can think of that is still only offered as a stick shift would be the Dodge Viper and the whole purpose of Chrysler’s introduction of that car back in ‘89 was meant to be a retro comeback of the Shelby Cobra. It’s the whole point of nostalgia. Shelby Cobras didn’t have automatic gearboxes or paddle shifters and that’s what Chrysler wanted for the Viper. Unfortunately, stick shift vehicles as expensive as the Viper don’t come in much demand anymore so the car itself is ending production soon.
Other manual sports cars that are cheaper and have an optional automatic transmission, like the Mazda MX-5 Miata for example are stick shifts people will want to learn on. They’re cheap and not too powerful. Also, economy cars like the Fiat 500 and the Mini Cooper because they’re cheaper to maintain. Overall, the manual transmission is being downgraded to cheap little economy cars as with high performance sports cars, it’s all about shifting quicker and driving conveniences.
Bibliography:
ETE Product Support. “The Dynaflow Automatic Transmission: Buick’s Smooth Operator.”
