DCT Facts - Cover story - Audi R8 Switches to Dual Clutch

[teagueAMX]

FYI

Cheers

http://www.dctfacts.com/

[HerrK]

Well at least for now you can still buy one with a MT. I predict that in 10 years there will be no MT's offered for sale in 4 wheel vehicles in the US market. Or if they are offered, the MT will be the option @ premium cost. Motorcycles are now beginning to utilize the DCT. The scale of cost/efficiency is inevitable. Thankfully mechanical technology doesn't move quite as fast as electronic technology. Who ever would have thought the incandescent light bulb would be banned.

Hopefully the grand kids will still be allowed to steer their cars.


A slightly modified "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They gave me a crutch
Sav'n for that new Dual Clutch

[nicknaz]

It will be interesting to see if the US will be the hold-out that keeps that traditional manual transmission around the longest in performance models (i.e. US was the only market to get a manual for the E60 M5) Almost ironic considering how rare the manual is in mainstream models.

[teagueAMX]

Originally Posted by HerrK

Well at least for now you can still buy one with a MT. I predict that in 10 years there will be no MT's offered for sale in 4 wheel vehicles in the US market. Or if they are offered, the MT will be the option @ premium cost. Motorcycles are now beginning to utilize the DCT. The scale of cost/efficiency is inevitable. Thankfully mechanical technology doesn't move quite as fast as electronic technology. Who ever would have thought the incandescent light bulb would be banned.

Yes, it saddens me to see the trend. IMO true sports cars should always have a manual transmission as an option.

Originally Posted by nicknaz

It will be interesting to see if the US will be the hold-out that keeps that traditional manual transmission around the longest in performance models (i.e. US was the only market to get a manual for the E60 M5) Almost ironic considering how rare the manual is in mainstream models.

Is it true that most of the cars in Europe have MT's?

[javol]

Is it true that most of the cars in Europe have MT's?

Transmissions perception in Europe, IN GENERAL TERMS, is the following:

1) only automatic, 4 or 5 speed: a real rare beast: old style, expensive and boring. Now, 10, 20 or 40 years ago the opinion has always been the same.

2) manual: top seller as it is cheaper and culturally felt funnier. In the last years this perception has been progressively changing.

3) modern auto - dual clutch: the best mix among sport and relax. Most of the people would nowadays buy such a trans for family, city or sport cars, but it is expensive.

It seems that, since US people have been using auto trans since '50, more frequently consider the manual as sportier and funnier. The European have been always using manual trans, practically IGNORING the classic auto trans, so feels the modern dual clutch as sportier and funnier...

CLEARLY SPEAKING IN GENERAL TERMS WITH TONS OF EXCEPTIONS.

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by teagueAMX

Is it true that most of the cars in Europe have MT's?

Seems that way to me when I am over there, based on when I glance at cars on the street and try to rent them.

[bmwmick]

Originally Posted by HerrK

Who ever would have thought the incandescent light bulb would be banned.

Herk,
That is just another myth: The idiots just raised the efficiency requirement for incandescentss, NOT BANNED (it should not matter 1/21/2013 anyway as most if not all of the 923 current executive orders will be rescinded and with any luck, the EPA will be dissolved).

You can still buy rough duty incandescents in any wattage.

They have not banned incandescent bulbs. Once the law begins to take effect next year, wattages for 100 watt bulbs are required to drop by about 30%. That means a former 100 watt bulb will use only 72 watts, yet emit a comparable amount of light. The law will be phased in over the next several years affecting 75 watt bulbs in 2013, then 60 watt and 40 watt bulbs in 2014. The new incandescent bulbs employ a small halogen capsule with an incandescent element that looks and operates just like a conventional bulb, while producing the same quality of light and using less energy. These halogen incandescents already meet or exceed the standards set by the EISA. To say it another way, incandescent bulbs are not banned.