Quote:
Originally posted by VR4_Craver
The new (2004) grand prix or the grand am has the paddle shifter. They are on the steering wheel as *paddles* or buttons on the sterring wheel. The Lexus IS300 autos have a sport shift that alows the driver to control shift points or if the driver dont shift, the car will drive clear up until redline and shift itself.
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IS300 shouldn't shift up unless you tell it to. It'll go to redline and stay there. If you put it in regular auto and turn sport mode on, then it'll shift at redline.
the IS300 and GrandAss still are just normal automatic trannies.
The BMW SMG in the M3 and now the new 5's is just a 6-sp manual transmission, exact same one as what's in the regular manual tranny M3. It's just a hydraulicly controlled clutch and shift linkage, it's not a true sequential manual, it's still a synchromesh tranny.
The BMW SMG is far superior to any manumatic transmission because it's still a standard transmission. It's just in theory faster because it's automatically controlled rather than having a clutch pedal and a shift lever for the driver. I think Audi and MB basically do the same thing.
Ferarri had a cool system where you still had a shift lever and just no clutch pedal. The clutch was automatically controlled by hydraulics but the shift linkage was like a normal manual. Based upon throttle and shift lever pressure read in by a bunch of sensors, it would detect when you wanted to shift and engage/disengage the clutch accordingly.
I'm not aware of any cars that are truly clutchless. They may be clutch-
pedalless but not clutchless. Just cuz the pedal aint there doesn't mean the clutch isn't there either.....
AFAIK a true sequential still has a clutch, or does it? Anybody who's familiar with F1 know?
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