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Never drove one in my life and no way i am rowing thru gears in my traffic with lights every 200 ft. The built A6 auto trans on my modded C6 Vette is faster than MN6 any day. I would have no clue how to drive a stick rick.
With all those lights and traffic how would you ever know its faster? What a waste of capability. Guess you have it just for people to gawk at.
Last edited by Parnassia; 01-20-2020 at 01:16 PM..
I like the longevity factor of the old stuff. It held together longer and gave you a lot more options. Never drove an automatic but I could see it being handy if you did nothing but city. The decent thing is also a real advantage. It's a big industry both transmissions have their advantages and disadvantages.
Heck yes, it takes tons of stress off of mountain driving to let the electronics do the work going downhill. Lately I have been crossing the Appalachians a lot, and there’s something to be said for how genuinely well it handles that.
I’m still not entirely used to how and when it shifts. I end up having to gently guide it into what I am trying to make it do quite often.
My company had apparently been toying with autobox trucks for many years, gathering data about fuel savings vs any maintenance or other costs. Our fleet typically keeps a truck for around 4-5 years, or 400-600k miles, so they probably aren’t rebuilding these things. Evidently the fuel savings were compelling enough (about a half mpg improvement on my new DD15 Cascadia P4 vs my regular DD15 Cascadia from before; not a tiny amount) that they have quit buying any new units with three pedals since about a year and a half or two years ago.
Its not that I love manuals, but I truly hate automatics, them trying to outguess me as to what gear I want to be in, but especially writing that check to a shop to rebuild it. Hey you buy a new car with automatic and lets say you are smart enough to buy a Toyota since it has one of better automatics, you can baby it and change fluid often (well if they give you a way to do that) and get 200k to 300k probably, wouldnt bet on it but its possible.
However those of us that dont want perpetual debt buy used. Used automatics with over 100k are a crap shoot dont care which brand. You have no idea if fluid ever changed or how they were abused. Yea go ahead and write that check for $6000 for rebuilt tranny hoping the shop knew what they were doing, modern automatics are super complex. I will replace my own clutch thank you. Cost me $150 for parts and a weekend if I take my time.
Here a guy shifting 4 speed auxiliary box coupled with a 6 speed transmission 24 gears old school. I just put the video up on my 13 speed site this morning.
Fascinating... never really knew how the large trucks' transmissions worked except that they sometimes (often? always? or perhaps I'm outdated and it's "used to"?) lack a synchro.
Is this functioning in a way similar to-- sorry for the analogy-- bicycle gears where, for example on a 21-speed, on the left handlebar you have a shift from 1-3 and then on the right, 1-7, and there are seven gears for each of the three settings on the left? IOW, on this truck, does he start out in one setting on the left-side gearshift, go through all of the available settings on the right-hand gearshift, and then need to shift the left-hand gearshift up another notch and do it all again? (that was a terrible explanation.)
I can’t answer the second question directly, but yeah, it works something like that. I unfortunately have only ever had an air splitter, where you go through the gears on the low side, flip the switch to high, and repeat your way through the shift pattern again. Once on the high side of the splitter, 1st gear is now 6th gear, etc., all the way up to 5th gear now being 10th gear. That’s the most basic even-a-bonehead-can-do-it big rig setup there is, but I have to admit I kinda miss it. I think on the higher gear count transmissions you split the splitter to get into some gears. I’ll let a more advanced student of big rig driving give you a more satisfying response.
The first question is an easy one. Yes, big rigs do not have synchros. It was explained to me that there’s no way they would be able to match the expected durability of the rest of the powertrain and would end up being a costly maintenance item over the life of the truck.
Austin Healey 3000's had 4 speed manuals and 2 speed electric overdrives. 1st, clutch 2nd, clutch 3rd, flip switch for 3rd overdrive, clutch, flip OD off, engage 4th, flip switch for 4th OD. Essentially a 6 speed.
Great transmission for the driving enthusiast. I remember distinctly the car was super fast, a really screamer. 9.8 seconds 0-60 time. My wife's Infiniti SUV does 0-60 in 5 seconds, but doesn't seem nearly as fast as the old Healey did back on the day.
We have one manual left in the family, a 2019 Crosstrek (coincidentally almost the same 0-60 times as the Healey). It's my favorite to drive regardless of the traffic. Keeps me focused on my driving skills as Coldjensens already said.
Austin Healey 3000's had 4 speed manuals and 2 speed electric overdrives. 1st, clutch 2nd, clutch 3rd, flip switch for 3rd overdrive, clutch, flip OD off, engage 4th, flip switch for 4th OD. Essentially a 6 speed.
There was a push/pull switch on the dash to engage the overdrive which changed gear ratios in the rear differential if memory serves. My MG's had it and my uncle restored a 56 T-Bird that had something similar.
Quote:
Great transmission for the driving enthusiast. I remember distinctly the car was super fast, a really screamer. 9.8 seconds 0-60 time. My wife's Infiniti SUV does 0-60 in 5 seconds, but doesn't seem nearly as fast as the old Healey did back on the day.
But they FELT fast and were a blast to drive. Do you see what they are going for today?
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My wife's Infiniti SUV does 0-60 in 5 seconds, but doesn't seem nearly as fast as the old Healey did back on the day.
