Much to the enthusiast’s chagrin, the majority of recent automotive technology has been aimed at increasing safety, comfort and economy. Well, here’s a new development that also makes cars faster: the twin-clutch transmission.
While the latest twin-clutch transmissions also help with economy thanks…
Robert Bowen said:
Even though all current dual-clutch transmissions sold in the U.S. have a manual mode,
Small detail, but I'm pretty sure the current ford focus auto is a dual clutch and the lower trim levels do not give you the ability to shift yourself (well, other than P,R,N,D,L). My 2012 was optioned that way.
Robbie said:Robert Bowen said:
Even though all current dual-clutch transmissions sold in the U.S. have a manual mode,
Small detail, but I'm pretty sure the current ford focus auto is a dual clutch and the lower trim levels do not give you the ability to shift yourself (well, other than P,R,N,D,L). My 2012 was optioned that way.
FWIW, the article was written in 2009, before pretty much all of the current cars that use manual gear sets as auto transmissions.
One of the funny things about dual clutches is that it seems like they pre-empted the eventual perfection of the automated single clutch. I feel like people remember automated single clutch manuals as sort of a joke, but i think they would have ended up reasonably good if dual clutch transmissions hadn't come along so soon after. In the end the DCT is vastly superior, it's just something interesting to think about (for me).
Robotized single-clutches are now making a comeback thanks to their lower weight, in the Aston-Martin Valkyrie and some of McLaren's cars.
GameboyRMH said:Robotized single-clutches are now making a comeback thanks to their lower weight, in the Aston-Martin Valkyrie and some of McLaren's cars.
Really?!?!!??!
That is very interesting, While I was working with Aston, we got a BMW M3 with a single clutch auto- what a total piece of crap that was. Only car that I kind of got car sick due to the horrible shifting. That car was part of the reason the Vanquish went straight to a dual clutch set up. Now, 20 years later, people at Aston want to take a bad idea and bring it back?
(We later got an Alfa 156 with a dual clutch, and that was pretty sweet- too bad we decided to follow VW/Audi instead of that)
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