Favorite transmission you’ve driven?

I loved the 6 speed in my RX-8 because it was smooth and wonderful rotary noises came out of the back of the car.

The DSG in my wife's GTI is better than I am. I can't complain about how it functions as a transmission.

In reply to wspohn :

I do know that I remember my MGB gearbox being surprisingly good in stock form for the 10 miles the car was able to manage before it decided it didn't want to be a four cylinder anymore.

I can tell you the T56 Magnum gets better the harder and faster you shift it. If you're noodling around, it's okay. If you're doing a fast shift near redline on track with a 500 hp engine, it's like a bolt action rifle. The regular T56 gets a little cranky at high rpm by comparison.

Mid 80s Subaru Justy with a CVT, it has the same top speed in reverse as it did in drive. 

I still haven't found one yet worth a damn... 

Yes, I'm picky but I also fix them. If I could afford it, I'd love to try a Lenco.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Any American auto with a ratchet shifter and reverse manual valve body.  Drive one and be forever annoyed with how slow manual transmissions are.

 

Has to be a hydraulic trans, too.  Electronic transmissions are painfully slow in comparison, even DSGs.

Best transmission I've ever driven was a TexRacing T101a, but shy of a proper dogbox, I'm 100% with you. I don't see the point of synchromesh anymore, to the point where an auto is just better.

I have ridden some motorcycles with awfully junky shifting. Some bikes have sublime shifters, but I've got an airhead with a few false neutrals, so clearly that doesn't apply to all of them.

Miata with a voodoo knob or a 5.0 Mustang with a Hurst short shifter.  Both offer nice feel and positive gear location.  Cable shifters fall short.  3rd choice would be the T56 after a new short shifter, reverse lockout mod, skip shift delete and fresh oil.

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

Reverse lockout mod?

I've always like the feel of the Miata 5 speed, or the TR6060 from the newer muscle cars... I really just miss shifting gears in general.  

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Yes the T56 has a reverse lockout solenoid that is fussy.  If it fails the spring pressure is immense.  You can disconnect the solenoid and install a spring with resistance that doesn't require two hands.  It converts a T56 with electronic reverse lockout to a manual transmission with a functional reverse gear that you won't go into on accident.  My F body came with a screwed up CAGS mod that disabled the reverse lockout solenoid too.  And a stock shifter with sad bushings.  It was completely awful.  I have photos on my horribly named build thread.  I asked for help with that too.....

Silly GM and their electronics on a T56.  

The sequential transmissions in Japanese motorcycles are the benchmark, but I generally expect all of them to be good, although the one on my 1972(?) Rockford Chibi 60 mini bike was kind of sketchy.

The bike transmission that really surprised me though was the six speed on my 2007(?) Harley Sportster. It truly felt like I was shifting a high quality bolt action rifle. I never expected it to be that good. 

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

I've driven T56s with just a spring on the reverse lockout. It's not good. In fact, we had one journalist convinced that our car wouldn't go into 5th because (I realized later) he kept getting halfway to the R gate on a 4-5 shift. It's how we used to do the Miata LS conversions because the GMPP PCM didn't come with the solenoid circuit. We messed around with different spring rates but never found one that worked well.

Then I drove my Camaro donor with a functional solenoid and it was a revelation. It worked really well. We developed a standalone solenoid controller that acts like the factory one (locks out reverse above 5 mph), and the cars shift SO much better because of it. It's available as a retrofit for any car running a GM PCM with CAN and a T56 ;)

So my opinion and experience is the exact opposite of yours - removing the solenoid makes them shift worse. Making it functional makes them smooooth as butter and you'll never miss 5th because you can't find the edge of the gate. If you have a failed solenoid, the correct thing to do is to fix the solenoid instead of judging the failure mode that still lets you get into gear. If I get into a swapped car and the T56 has a spring-loaded lockout, I assume the rest of the car is full of shortcuts.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

My experience with GM electronics in 90s cars is always the same.  It's overengineered complexity that fails and is overly difficult to repair and almost impossible to source parts for. You even developed a stand-alone controller.  Any chance it works in a non-canbus car?  

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

The only reason I had to develop a standalone controller is because the PCM we were using didn't have that control circuit. It wasn't a failure of 90's GM electronics, but an omission on the folks who put together the GMPP PCM wiring harness and programming. The parts are easy to get, and a solenoid is pretty simple and robust. Your problem was that someone turned it off, not that it was broken :)

Unfortunately, the standalone controller needs a CAN speed signal. That's what it's using to make the decision. You could simply throw a momentary switch in there if you wanted to try it. If you still have that stock PCM, you could turn it back on again.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

The car is slated for a PCM upgrade soon regardless.  I will see if the solenoid works correctly after the conversion. The car has a lot slated in the near future too as well as the Subie.  Challenge is first though.  I appreciate the input and will see about getting it sorted.  The 96 PCM is a real odd one.  Your experience with the GMPP one sort of says something about GM electronics too.  It could've easily been programmed in but was omitted.  

The GMPP stuff is designed to be as easy as possible to swap, so it's stripped down to the basic with no extra I/O beyond what's necessary. Maybe if we'd purchased the "connect and cruise" option with a T56 it would have driven the solenoid, but I suspect the target installation is an automatic hot rod :)

Cactus said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Any American auto with a ratchet shifter and reverse manual valve body.  Drive one and be forever annoyed with how slow manual transmissions are.

 

Has to be a hydraulic trans, too.  Electronic transmissions are painfully slow in comparison, even DSGs.

Best transmission I've ever driven was a TexRacing T101a, but shy of a proper dogbox, I'm 100% with you. I don't see the point of synchromesh anymore, to the point where an auto is just better.

 

I have ridden some motorcycles with awfully junky shifting. Some bikes have sublime shifters, but I've got an airhead with a few false neutrals, so clearly that doesn't apply to all of them.

If brute speed and force count The Seinz 5 speed dog ring is the best racing gearbox.  
  The various Hewland I've driven all had sloppy linkages making shifting very much an acquired skill.   Though there was the occasional shift where those felt •••    proper. 
  

I briefly drove a Corlloti connected to Holman & Moody Ford 427 in a Can Am car.  The less said about that combination the better. 

In reply to frenchyd :

Oh yeah, I should have qualified that. I'm not about to advocate for those old truck 18 speeds and what not. A good racing dogbox is worth every penny. A bad one is maybe not so great.

Nothing outside the norm here...the NA Miata is the slickest stock box I've used. The Tex racing T101 in the Camaro is new-ish to me but I think we will fall in love one day. The last gen gr86 is the second best street box I've owned. 
I had a '67 MG BGT that I really liked but that is a very old memory and the car that came before it was a Lancia Beta Coupe which was pretty awful. Probably anything would have felt great at that point. 

I had a '71 Datsun 510 2-door automatic. Picked up a dog-leg 5-speed (first gate was R-1st.  2nd- 5th were an H) out of a 200SX because automatic.

Not sure if the 5-speed was really wonderful or if it was just wonderful compared to the automatic, but I have really good memories of it.

The 4-speed in my MG was really nice, too.

One that I forgot about was the transmission in my old front engined Lamborghini.  It was unusual because not many manufacturers make their own gears and transmissions, but Lamborghini did - they had a tractor factory with a gear set up. It was smooth, the ratios well thought out, and had synchro on all gears including reverse. I switched to Red Line oil and it got even smoother.

I wonder how many car makers today also create their own transmissions?  Anyone know?

In reply to wspohn :

Mazda does their own.

The only manual I've driven is the C52 in my AW11 :D Cable-operated babey!

In reply to wspohn :

Mitsubishi I think too.

Pretty sure I'm not the only one here with this suggestion:  VW DSG.  My wife got a 2008 GTI brand new (because she's way too suggestible).  I had fun with the paddles for about a month, then just gave in to the auto function (sport mode is faster, anyway).  Still a very good setup--beats the hell out of a 10-speed Roadranger . . .

I enjoyed my 2.3 16v 190e, I've had others say it's not smooth but mine was great. 

Favorite manual I have driven was the ZF 5 speed in my E36. Shiften with the expected German precision.

Best automatic? My VW's DSG has been the only automatic I've driven behind a four cylinder that I didn't hate. Honorable mention to the 4L60E in my C10 project. Having tuned it myself helped a lot.