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[Steve-White]

Thermogeddon has now gone mainstream... 

[Scott Holtzman]

On the list of plusses I'd like to add no transmission needed in most applications. Electric motors, and their controllers, generally provide maximum torque at stall and torque decreases modestly with speed over a very wide speed range. The complete specification of motor performance is complex, much like that of audio power amplifiers, as thermal limits on multiple time-scales must be taken into account. But the result is that all current or imminent production cars and light trucks use nothing more than a fixed reduction gear between the motor and the differential, or the wheel in the case of hub motors. (There might be a trick that manufacturers can employ on dual motor vehicles which is to gear the front and rear axles differently allowing for some "transmission effect" by proportioning torque between the axles. Not sure about this but it makes sense.)

Personally, I've never been a friend of the automatic transmission and prefer to row my own when driving an IC vehicle -- hey, it's an art, and a form of personal expression But with the need for variable gearing gone I don't miss those levers and pedals.

If you haven't driven a modern EV you really should give one a try. In terms of driving experience it's hard to go back.

--Frank

Oh, the best part: When your nosy no-nothing neighbor asks, "So, is it a manual or an automatic?" you can say "neither".

Frank, I had rented a few hybrids but my first Tesla experience was courtesy of you!


I love rowing through the gears too, was your Quigley a manual?


We just picked up (upon verification of condition) another Isuzu/Mitsubishi box truck, this one has the 4 cylinder diesel and a manual so it will be interesting to see who amongst our crew has the best prowess managing the energy of this highly underpowered box truck.  The torque curve comes real early and I am sure 1st gear is a crawler but it also has aj electric 2 speed rear so you could play baby semi-truck driver with a road ranger like 10 forward gear possibilities. 


Funny story I was dating this girl probable about 25 years ago that wanted to quit her teaching job and fly for a living.  She did not have her CFI yet but she was a more experienced aviator than I was at the time.  I knew it took her about 30 hours to get ready for the multi-chrck ride but I never gave it a tremendous amount of thought as she was a decent stick but didn't seem to grasp how things worked, she was a process pilot and learned procedures.  I had no interest in commenting on her flying as I had other goals and we had our little CRM thing going so no ego issues up front. 


With that background I can finish the story.  For some reason I had to drive her car and it was a super eco Honda with a manual, no tach this was a basic car.  We pulled away and I moved through the gears and then she began to admonish me and was clearly upset. She said I exceeded the shift speed, apparently the manual publishes the ideal speed (probably for economy) to change gears and I just abused her baby.  I tried to explain to her what a power band was and how you can feel when it's time to shift, when the go is gone and the RP/M's are climbing.  Well she didn't get it.  We drifted apart and I had moved back to Tampa from Jax and I get a call from my buddy where she trained.  She was out flying and had an alternator failure, didn't notice, freaked out when the electric hydraulic pump would not actuate the gear.  Somehow got the gear down and then proceeded to land with no radios at NAS Jacksonville.  The problem was not only would they not let him fix his airplane they could not permit him to depart.  He was thinking he would have to take the wings off and truck it home.  That situation resolved itself however the legal eagles had to get involved.  She still stuck with flying and eventually bought a Baron, she travels and writes about her experiences with in Cande Nast Traveler, I have caught her bi-line a few times.


That's my big manual transmission story.  Hope all is well in your world....

[Frank Koenig]

I love rowing through the gears too, was your Quigley a manual?

Hey Scott,

Happy to hear that things are picking up for your sound business. I have yet to do a post-pandemic event but at the very least I expect to drag out some gear on the 4th of July.

Sadly, the Quigley/Transit is not available with a manual in the US. It would be a blast with the 3.5 Ecoboost (Egoboost?) and a dash-mounted shift lever like the Euro-versions have. There might be some practical advantage, too, as I don't think the automatic is really up to the job thermally. At least with Quigley there's a low-range that greatly reduces the stress on the tranny when climbing steep, slow hills where the torque convertor is unlocked. The saving grace on the automatic is that the ergonomics of the range limiter buttons is really good. You rest your right hand on the big selector blob and you can diddle the up/down buttons with your thumb. Holding the up button for a couple seconds returns to full automatic glory. There's also a "tow/haul" mode but I've never found any use for it. It makes the upshift points higher but still waits too long to downshift, and the downshifts under load are never pretty. Better just to use the buttons.

When I was a young teen I wanted nothing more than to drive (audio was a close second, sex and drugs came later). After watching a tandem-axle motor coach driver taking me to summer camp run the tranny up Highway 1 along the Norcal coast I wanted nothing more than to drive something with a manual. My parents' cars were automatics which I thought was so lame. Fortunately my friend's dad had a cherished Volkswagen microbus and when he drove us around I always positioned myself in the second row bench to where I could watch his hands and feet. He was an expert driver, as it turns out, and I pretty much had all is moves before I was ever at the controls of a car myself. Soon after I turned 16 and got my license I got a 1961 Volkswagen Beetle of my own and started learning for real. I've only owned two automatics in my life, the other was also an American van.

Enough autobiography. I have to take my Biennial Flight review this afternoon. Cramming airspace, V-speeds, VFR-minimum corner cases, etc. Wish me luck

--Frank

[John Roberts {JR}]

Last time I was in the market for a new car I scratched a few models off the list that were otherwise acceptable but they did not offer a standard transmission option... Soon that won't be the only feature unavailable.

I can just see some young kids today trying to learn how to double clutch so they can downshift into first gear with an non-syncro gear box...(like what is that old geezer even talking about?).  That seemed like a useful skill back in the 60s for street fun.

JR 

[Landon Lewsaw]

China is the perfect case in point for how industrialization curbs population growth.  As people move into cities there, they find they can't afford to have more than one child anyway and they sure don't need them to help with the endless tasks of rural life.  Besides, the restrictions on having children were a joke as you could get around them with permits or bribes (or membership in the CCP).  Easing these restrictions won't do much. 

I've read similar things to Russ, that global population is already starting to plateau.  There's only a few parts of the world where population growth is still high, like Africa and SE Asia.  Industrialization is a huge part of the solution but the other part is the empowerment of women.  When women gain access to birth control and education, those population numbers flatten out in a hurry.

[Frank Koenig]

I can just see some young kids today trying to learn how to double clutch so they can downshift into first gear with an non-syncro gear box...(like what is that old geezer even talking about?).  That seemed like a useful skill back in the 60s for street fun.

JR

In the US a manual tranny is the best anti-theft device.

As for double-clutching, in the cars I owned early on it wasn't a matter of there not being a 1st synchro, more that it failed to do anything. The habit persisted into later cars that had working synchros and I eventually decided it was an affectation and got over it. -F

[Dave Garoutte]

Last time I was in the market for a new car I scratched a few models off the list that were otherwise acceptable but they did not offer a standard transmission option... Soon that won't be the only feature unavailable.

I can just see some young kids today trying to learn how to double clutch so they can downshift into first gear with an non-syncro gear box...(like what is that old geezer even talking about?).  That seemed like a useful skill back in the 60s for street fun.

JR

I had a Dodge D200 pickup during my MC racing days.  I used to enjoy going through the gears (4) without using the clutch, up or down.  Well truthfully. I hardly ever used first gear.

[Russell Ault]

{...} As for double-clutching, in the cars I owned early on it wasn't a matter of there not being a 1st synchro, more that it failed to do anything. The habit persisted into later cars that had working synchros and I eventually decided it was an affectation and got over it. -F

I always got the impression that the synhro on 1st is a difficult piece of engineering. I owned a current-century Camry (before a delivery driver blew a stop sign and T-boned it into a write-off) that I recall required a bit of finagling to engage first from a stop. (Reverse did too, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a synchro on R.)

-Russ

[dave briar]

In the US a manual tranny is the best anti-theft device.

Last year I dropped my 95 Silverado off at a repair shop and I heard one guy call out to another to “Go get that green truck with the millennial anti-theft device”.  My son is actually very proficient at it.

I sold that truck last summer and for the first time in 52 years of driving I do not own a vehicle with a standard transmission.   Kind of sad but you know what, that six-speed CVT in my 2021 Outback sure is some magical piece of engineering.

[Chris Hindle]

I always got the impression that the synhro on 1st is a difficult piece of engineering. I owned a current-century Camry (before a delivery driver blew a stop sign and T-boned it into a write-off) that I recall required a bit of finagling to engage first from a stop. (Reverse did too, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a synchro on R.)

-Russ

As a retired mechanic, I can safely say that nothing has a synchro on reverse.
Simple reason, you're supposed to be at a dead stop before shifting into reverse.
Sometimes you get a wee bit of "gear clash", but it doesn't hurt anything.
You really shouldn't have problems selecting 1st  gear, in motion or not.
FYI, the synchro on 1st is no different than any other. They all go together and operate the same way.
or at least in my time, they were all the same......
I've rebuilt more than one 3 / 4 / 4+1 gearbox in my time...
Chris.

[ProSoundWeb Community]