{"id":505,"date":"2013-08-12T18:00:28","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T22:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/borjeson.com\/?p=505"},"modified":"2014-03-07T09:25:37","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T14:25:37","slug":"flappy-paddle-gearbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/?p=505","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFlappy Paddle\u201d Gearbox"},"content":{"rendered":"

BBC\u2019s Top Gear television show belittles them with the label \u201cFlappy paddle gear box.\u201d Auto enthusiasts are horrified that Porsche\u2019s latest track tuned 911 GT3 doesn\u2019t even have the option for a conventional manual transmission. But Porsche is not alone. Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes Benz, Lexus, Nissan\u2026all offer high end sports cars with no option for a manual transmission.<\/p>\n

Wolfgang Hatz, Porsche\u2019s head of research and development, explained his decision this way: \u201cBecause it improves the performance \u2013 drive it for the first time and you\u2019ll think it\u2019s impossible to be this good. It\u2019s the fastest transmission in the world.\u201d For manufacturers that\u2019s the point, cars with \u201cflappy paddle\u201d transmissions are faster. That\u2019s the reason they have been standard in Formula One race cars for about 20 years. As a side benefit they protect these very expensive cars from\u2026let\u2019s say drivers with less talent than money.<\/p>\n

Driving my little red Corvette out in the country working through the gears with the manual transmission was sublime. Getting stuck on the Cross Bronx Expressway depressing the clutch pedal every 10 seconds for mile after mile was literally painful. My left leg was still sore the next day.<\/p>\n

Now after decades of buying cars with manual transmissions I drive a car with a \u201cflappy paddle\u201d transmission. Sadly, it does not have the 7-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK). It is by today\u2019s standards a fairly conventional automatic transmission but in \u201csport\u201d mode it allows me to take full control of the gear selection using \u201cflappy paddles\u201d on the steering wheel. While gear shift times are not the 100 milliseconds of the PDK they are still faster than I could manage in my last car though maybe not faster than in my little red Corvette, or so I like to think. So bottom line, while the published 0\u201360 times for this car and my last car are virtually identical, in the real world the new car is faster by a couple of ticks due to its \u201cflappy paddle gear box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those enthusiasts who insist that clutch pedals and stick shifts are the only acceptable transmissions are at risk of being labelled Luddites. Technology has moved on. Automatic transmissions long ago replaced manual transmissions for the overwhelming majority of drivers. Dual clutch automatic\/semi-automatic transmissions[1]<\/a> have taken over high performance sports cars and they are rapidly becoming available across the spectrum. Even the Ford Fiesta has an available dual clutch transmission.<\/p>\n

Very soon the manual transmission will be relegated to history, available only on a few cars for those willing to accept lesser performance so they can relive the \u201cgood old days\u201d.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Wikipedia contributors, Dual-clutch transmission<\/a>, retrieved August 9, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

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BBC\u2019s Top Gear television show belittles them with the label \u201cFlappy paddle gear box.\u201d Auto enthusiasts are horrified that Porsche\u2019s latest track tuned 911 GT3 doesn\u2019t even have the option for a conventional manual transmission. But Porsche is not alone. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borjeson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}