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It’s official: the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will have more gears than a typical IROC-Z owner has teeth.
General Motors revealed today the new aluminum-cased beauty, touting 10 forward gears and upshifts quicker than a dual-clutch automated-manual transmission, will make its non-truck debut in the Camaro ZL1.
Did Camaro tell Mustang to step outside for a fuel-economy contest? Maybe not.
The new 10-speed was developed in partnership with Ford and will see its first application at the Blue Oval in the forthcoming Ford Raptor. As the transmission is engineered for rear-wheel-drive applications, there’s nothing holding Ford back from installing it in a Mustang — possibly called Mach I.
However, at General Motors, the 640 horsepower, supercharged, LT4-powered Camaro will be the first car-based recipient of the 10-speed. Other candidates include GM’s full-size pickups and SUVs (which will receive the transmission first, before the Camaro), and possibly Alpha-platform-based Cadillacs and Corvette.
We previously posted an in-depth look of the new cog-swapper if you want to geek out over its engineering.
GM claims the new autobox will increase fuel economy and performance with a wider overall gear ratio spread of 7.39, a short first-gear ratio of 4.70, a tall top gear, and shorter jumps between gears. GM also states the new transmission shifts quicker between the first four gears than Porsche’s much touted PDK. (I still haven’t driven a 911, in case you were wondering.) We’re more than willing to test that claim, GM (and Porsche).
Think 10 gears isn’t enough? Ford has a patent that cranks transmission development up to Spinal Tap-approved levels, but we haven’t yet heard how FoMoCo will apply that development.
[Image: General Motors]
All Hail CAFE!
The 8 speed, 9 speed, 10 speed, 14 speed, 21 1/2 speed, and ultimately, 164 speed transmissions will buy the earth time until fully automated, hydrogen fuel transportation pods (driving & flying – Jetson’s style) arrive.
p.s. – Post-warranty transmission shops rejoice, also, as do the automakers themselves, as the cost of fixing this post-warranty probably will rival a new subcompact car purchase.
Boo efficiency and performance! Bring back the 3 speed auto from the late ’90s Neons.
Maybe Elon can transform the transmission:
Step 1 – Unveil transmission that can’t be built but looks great (have fake prototype)
Step 2 – Crowdfund hundreds of millions from Kool-Aid cultists
Step 3 – Announce technical challenges in finalizing concept but in confident tone that it will be done
Step 4 – Remind investors that the Tesla transmission cures cancer
Step 5 – Have Lotus design the transmission, but re-brand their work as ‘Nicola Certified’
Step 6 – Deliver Job 1 two years late, at which point GM has already gone bankrupt
I feel like there is some sort of reasonable middle ground between a 120hp 3-speed car and a 640hp 10-speed one.
400HP, 6-speeds.
*Peter voice*
Everay-boday happay!
“Slip n slide” Powerglide. 2 speed still a good choice in drag racing.
Hah! Powerglide and a 283 in my lightweight, 3800 lb. ’65 Impala was good for 12 MPG on the freeway! It may be great for high torque drag racers, but for street legal cars, it sucks.
Forget the neon, where is my 2-speed Dynaflow! Featuring purely hydraulic propulsion and and full lockup, but only in park.
“Boo efficiency and performance! Bring back the 3 speed auto from the late ’90s Neons.”
*shudder*
My wife had one of those. And it was purple.
I had a red one AND I paid list. My only defense is that at least I got the stick.
Tesla did them one better, and brought back the one speed.
Elon’s Makita powered wonder, is pretty much an 80K fixed gear! No wonder the hipsters are lining up.
Nothing magical in here to repair/replace.
Planetaries, clutches, hubs, and shafts, just more of them.
Being a Chevy there will be plenty of parts long term.
It’s not like a CVT where there is no availability of internals for rebuilds.
@Deadweight – I was there in the thick of it when the 1st “Overdrive” automatics came out. Whoa!! I stayed out of that madness, hanging on to my 3-speed with both hands. Mine was $325 to rebuild, while the insane “1st adopters” were hit with up to $1,200!!
They were saying they saved ‘that’ on gas or something.
You were gonna lease that ZL1 anyway. But it’s always came down to “hard parts”. Does a 10-speed have much more hard gears and planetaries? Or just more clutch packs and brakes?
But eventually the rebuild price will ease up, and ‘used’ units will be poping up too. At least it’s a Chevy, not a BMW or some crap. Heck, it might even be *reliable*
And you’re gonna get a manual trans anyway, ya madman.
The two good things GM has historically done well DESPITE their overall, massive ineptitude & incompetence are transmissions and small block V8s.
Unless you’re talking about the late ’70s and early ’80s, with the THM200 and THM200R4. Absolute garbage.
After 1986, The 200-4R and 700-R4 were pretty much bulletproof.
My BMW has a GM transmission. I figure it is the part of my car that will give me the least problems.
*Shakes head*
Just getting into an unusable number of gears. The transmission spends so much time hunting around for fuel economy that you’re never in the gear you want.
Next step after this will be a HD CVT they can use in truck applications, when they get it figured out.
Amount of gears doesnt really bother me, the fact that the computer tries to use all of them all the time.
If I request a downshift, and you jump from 9 to 5, and were accelerating, hold 5th! Dont do a million calcs and think well darnit, 6th would have been better and while the driver seems happy I think Ill grab the “optimal” gear anyways.
NO. Just grab a gear and use it! I maintain that programming is the issue in modern transmission.
Heck, if you consider a 10 speed as two 5 speeds, you could have a light duty and heavy duty gearset. Have a light load kick down gear and heavy load kickdown gear. Shifting one gear only is not allowed!
Simple programming rules like that might make things better. The ratio spread is there, its just less annoyingly utilized.
Take this trans on a shake down run from Flagstaff, AZ to Santa Rosa, NM on I40 – set the cruise control at a little above 80 mph.
I doubt even the computer will be able to keep track of the number of shifts based on elevation changes.
The computers are too smart for their own good. Modern engines have better power bands than ever. No [email protected] need to shift so much.
They need to benchmark the 3800 Series II and 4T65E for driveability.
“Heck, if you consider a 10 speed as two 5 speeds, you could have a light duty and heavy duty gearset.”
Well, it sounds more like a 5 speed + a 2 speed heavy/light duty selector, essentially the same as a bicycle front chain rings + rear cogs–one smaller chain ring for off-road and one larger chain ring for on-road. All 5 rear gears would be used with both chain rings.
I agree with the notion that this may actually be too many gears and the transmission programming is a serious issue. It seems that the best use of 10 speeds would be a dual-range setup for trucks.
Wingnutty as that may sound, there is a non trivial probability that the only place a passenger car 10 speed provides meaningful benefit over an 8 speed, is during artificial mileage tests. More speeds, turbos, multiple fuel systems etc., does provide a few more degrees of freedom, that can be used to hyper optimize for EPA tests.
And in totalitarian dystopias, government tests will always trump the real world, since no dude named “real world” has ever hired a lobbyist, nor set himself and his social circle up for a pension paid for by others at gunpoint.
That sounds like the same sort of reasoning that had people circumventing the skip-shifts in the early GM 6-speed manuals.
Maybe the aftermarket will find a way to lock out a few gears, so the computer doesn’t waste time deciding between 5 & 6.
Once again, youve figured out that it has major drivability issues before the first one is out of the factory! Great job! Can you also see lottery numbers in your magic crystal ball?
It would be helpful if TTAC could gain access to the GM-Ford contract for transmission development. This way, we will know whether Camaro or Mustang has the right to ask the other to step outside.
It was developed primarily by Ford (GM did most of the work on the 9 speed FWD auto).
Camaro and F150 get it first for MY2017, then basically everything Ford or GM with RWD will be using this transmission for the 2018 model year.
Throughout history, who has done automatic transmissions better (meaning reliable, good transmissions), Ford or GM?
They could sure build one during the Jin Dynasty.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/jin_dynasty/
Probably GM. Ford has had some poopy transmissions, especially FWD transmissions. Working with GM on their last 6-speed really helped.
I was considering how many years the bad AOD was used (?) and also the CVT woes of the Freestyle era.
The 4R70E had terrible shift quality but lasted a long time in very severe use (F150s, Crown Victorias etc). If that transmission needed a motto it would have been: Shifts like $hit for Hundreds of Thousands of Miles.
Among the horrible Fords I’d put the CD4E, AXOD/AX4S (and the slightly better AX4N), AOD, the LS/Tbird/Explorer 5R55/something or other. The Freestyle/500 CVT was a cost prohibitive unrepairable horrorshow (ZF sourced if I remember correctly). 4R70W is so so,
I would argue GM, since they always seemed to be the first to drop the manual option in any particular segment (the full-size pickup, for an example off the top of my head).
Hard to say. In a GM product the motor breaks before the transmission. Ford, the transmission goes first. Who knows how long GM transmission will last.
Transmission version of variable valve timing. They might as well design a HD CVT and be done with it.
My opinion is the CVT will never be good enough.
That’s why you haven’t seen them moving very high on the torque ratings.
One big problem is the failure mode is catastrophic.
In a conventional auto you can slip a range clutch inadvertantly and live on.
Get metal-to-metal on the chain to pulley in a CVT one time and it’s big trouble.
Damn you! I now have to get through the day with a coffee stain on my shirt after laughing so hard at the first sentence that I choked, well done!
As for the transmission, I also think the “gear wars” is getting ridiculous. I think the sweet spot for optimum drivability (and likely, long-term reliability) is probably 6-7 gears, though I have yet to drive an 8-speed. The 7-speed boxes in Infiniti and Mercedes products work very well in my experience, and I don’t think either would be improved by adding more ratios.
Torqueflight 8-speed
Nothing else even comes close.
10-speeds sounds nice, but when all you’ve got is less than 707 HP, it’s just not AS nice.
+1
I wonder if there exist any comments that you have made that DO NOT in some way reference your ownership of some Hellcat-badged product, its magical 700+ hp, and/or its superiority to any other product on the market. Is it even possible for you to make such a comment?
Also, by the Torqueflight 8-speed, I suspect that you mean the ZF 8-speed that’s used by everyone and their grandmother, right?
If you think I’m bad now – wait till I get the Trackhawk and my vanity plate says RLNGTRR
The eight speed in the Hemi Powered SLT Ram I just rented wasn’t the best.
It appeared that when I feathered the throttle to maintain a constant speed either the computer or the transmission found it hard to determine where it should be.
There was a graunching sound and sensation from the transmission in many of these situations.
So, when you are driving thoughtfully and attempting to maximise engine speed/torque for better FE the transmission was half in and out of gear.
This is not good.
The eight speed I found to be wanting. Under full throttle the transmission/computer could manage and “read” what was required of it.
Is this a great transmission?
Not.
Are you sure you’re not feeling the effect of the cylinder deactivation in Hemi Rams? Or maybe even that wonder tranny, can’t quite cope with half the engine switching on and off at weird intervals.
AFAIK, the Torqueflite 8 is just the old ZF8 produced on license by FCA. And that ZF8 has been, in my experience, as good as modern autos get. To get better than that, you have to step out of the toy store, and get a real tranny.
“Are you sure you’re not feeling the effect of the cylinder deactivation ”
Cylinder deactivation/activation causes a shudder, not a confused transmission.
The confused transmission is caused by the throttle-position sensor that instructs the engine-management system to match available torque to demand and maximize fuel economy.
My son’s early 300 5.7L had the same issues. It can be disconcerting until the driver gets used to it.
It feels downright weird when driving the mountainous twisties where throttle position is constantly changed.
FCA’s ZF-clone 8 speed automatic is an excellent transmission, among the best I’ve experienced.
(The 9 speed is just bad, with no caveats.)
Yup. Fiatsler’s 5-speed, 6-speed and 8-speed were all good. The 9-speed not.
Talk to livery companies about how poorly the lockup torque converter and its torsional dampers perform after about 100k in Chrysler 300s. Its like being in a stick shift car with someone who doesn’t know how to properly operate a clutch or when to shift. Then ask them how the 6F in the XTS or the MKT is doing. I don’t think you’re going to like what you hear. Also, could you check the level and condition of the fluid in that transmission for me?
You beat me to it. I was thinking the same thing.
But hey, then there is the other side of the coin, right? Did you hear about Victor Sheppard of Houma, La, and his million-mile 2007 Tundra pickup?
Toyota swapped him a brand new 2016 Tundra for it. The whole story is on pickuptrucks dot com.
At least Toyota still makes decent vehicles these days. It just reinforces my faith in Toyota. No shuddering. No shaking. Just decent vehicles.
I’ve yet to experience a single Ford automatic that snaps off shifts as crisply or timely as the aforementioned Chrysler ZF-Clone 8 speed.
I’m not about to go and “ask a livery driver with a 100,000 mile+ transmission” how it feels nor am I going to check the trans fluid level.
Ford makes some awful auto slushboxes, whether straight up conventional or, even worse, dual clutch abominations.
Ford’s current traditional automatic transmissions are good transmissions (the DCT is terrible). 6F and 6R are some of the best automatic transmissions that Ford has put in cars. Are they as crisp as the FCA/ZF 8-speed? No, but 6F has been around since 2006 and 6R since 2005. I wouldn’t expect either to be as crisp or timely as the ZF unit, which has been about as good as auto transmissions get. Also, 6R is only in one Ford vehicle that isn’t a truck.
Where are you going to find a livery operator that has a 300 and even if you did where would you find someone stupid enough to have kept patching it together for 100k. Fact is that police agencies mostly dumped their Chargers by 60K due to the problems they were experiencing. Look at PublicSurplus.com and you’ll find that many of the Chargers that trickle through there are either 60k mile examples and if they have mileage much in excess of that they have an announcement that there are either engine or transmission problems.
Try Logan Airport. The 2014 XTS I’m sitting in right now has 123505. Apart from a pair of rear hub and bearing assemblies it’s been pretty much flawless. It’s comfortable, handles well, not a squeak or rattle to be found, and this is true of the rest of these in the fleet. Clients are impressed with it.
The 300s let you know about every bump in the road, are ponderous to drive, require constant attention to keep on course, the front ends make all sorts of noise (ball joints, bushings, stabilizer links), and the ZF 8 speed (sorry big trucks, but I knew torqueflights, and this ZF is no torqueflight) is a letdown. It does get better fuel economy (typically 27 vs 24) than the XTS, and the pentastar is outstanding, but given the choice the Cadillac beats the 300. I don’t know the price difference but this is no contest in my opinion.
You’re a liar, sensory deprived or plain stoned.
A 300 rides better, has a much better transmission, has better steering feel, and is quieter than any XTS.
I’ve driven many copies of each.
As an “ex Ford tech,” you’re pretty clueless, which is consistent with nearly every one of my interactions with Ford Stealership “technicians,” who were mainly highly churned and burned flunkies.
I’m with Deadweight on this one.
I historically lean towards preferring GM products, but when I was shopped the Lacrosse (which is what the 300 really competes with) and Epsilon Impala against the 300 and Charger, the driving experience of the FCA products had the General covered easily. Honestly, I came away not understanding why people were so impressed with the new Impala. The GM offering I liked the most was the Regal, but that has it’s own set of issues.
Now the build quality of my Charger is Daewoo-level terrible so as the miles roll up the GM stuff might start to compare better while the ChryslerCo car falls apart, but when new the LX wins.
Wow. I’m lying about my opinion. Sorry but spend 300 to 500 miles a day in them and you might have a different opinion. Clueless about cars? I doubt it. 40 years of wrenching under my belt. Probably forgot more about cars than you’ll ever know. And thanks for lumping me in with all your worst dealership experiences and assuming I was a thief. Is the XTS world class? Of course not and I never said it was. Just my personal opinion vs. a 300.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to put a silly 10-speed trans into a Buick or Cadillac, rather than a Camaro?
Aren’t we at a point that claiming a transmission shifts faster than a PDK is similar to once claiming you had more megapixels? Not to mention we are trying to compare apples to oranges?
Up to a certain point, high performance and towing applications can’t get enough gears/speeds. Pony cars and pickups are a perfect place to start. Maximum exposure/experience in the quickest time-frame too.
I wonder if it helps get rid of the gas guzzler tax on the car.
I beg your pardon, I have at least 11 teeth. Do I qualify for a special discount?
No. You will be charged more due to your privilege.
“It’s official: the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will have more gears than a typical IROC-Z owner has teeth”
Ouch! (It’s pretty funny though!)
And just think of how in the old days of 5 years ago. One of the biggest complaints GM had was having transmissions with to few gears. And making cars that were overweight compared to the competition.
Now the reverse is true. GM is making transmissions with to many gears. And cars that weigh less or are on pare than most rivals in regards to tonnage. And I don’t know what to make of it.
The problem wasn’t only that GM had too few gears in their trans…it was that their engines were POWERFUL and they were mated to trans that couldn’t take advantage of it.
NOW they’ve flipped it.
Their engines are weak. ALL OF THEM. Including the LT4.
They have BILLION SPEED transmissions but their engines are trash so the trans are programmed to jump as high on the gear list as soon as possible to make better fuel economy.
What they need is to use adequately sized engines: 4-cyl in the Cruze, V6 in the Malibu…and then add turbocharger options for the “sport” version.
V8 Escalade sounds good.
TWIN TURBO V8 ESCALADE – sounds nicer.
Listen to you talking talking crap about the mighty 6.2L GM Small Block. You should be banned from TTAC for such ridiculous statements.
It’s got a huge case – reminds me of the Dual-Range Hydramatic.
Personally I think its cool that these two giants work together.
I thin the work Ford and GM did on the F and T series, 6f50/55 and the GM 6T70, 6T75 and 6T80, were all pretty good transmissions.
I understand the need for better FE.
What I also understand the US pickup could be more aerodynamic in shape.
Wouldn’t this be a lot cheaper than the use of aluminium, zillion gear ratio’s?
aerodynamic = unmanly in the suburban pickup truck owner’s dictionary.
Pickup Trucks need a flat nose and all squared off. Not only does it make better, efficient use of footprint or ‘shadow’, with a rounded nose and tail, they would have to be longer, *except* air not slammed up and around will get hung up on the ladder frame, suspension, and box turbulence.
Might as well make them look rugged. The jellybean F-150 did absolutely nothing for its over all aerodynamics. It likely had to push harder.
“The jellybean F-150 did absolutely nothing for its over all aerodynamics. It likely had to push harder.”
Do you have any data (drag coefficients, for instance) to back up this assertion?
Ford ditched the jellybean look for a reason. As far as looks go, every following F-150 has been boxier, while actually improving aerodynamics, without the “jellybean”. It’s estimated 3.5 drag coefficient (CD) for the current F-150, since Ford hasn’t officially revealed its CD. The jellybeans have a 4.5 CD
GM followed up the next generation of GM trucks, 2000+, with an equal 4.5 CD, except too, without the “jellybean”.
But CD just explains the “frontal area”. What happens as the wind travels along the frame, suspension, T-case, windshield, huge tow mirrors, behind the cab, inside the bed, etc, etc, is different story, making nose, windshield CD totally irrelevant for pickup trucks.
They’re pickup trucks, OK? Their over all aerodynamics have to suck, until they become something else entirely.
cars.com/ford/f150/2000/specifications/
cars.com/gmc/yukon-xl/2001/specifications/
Incidentally, GM wont give up the CD specs of the 2000 generation of pickups, try finding them. The 2000 Yukon has the same clip.
I expected a comparison between the jellybean F-150 and an /older/ F-150 model, but okay. Or maybe I misunderstood your statement: “It likely had to push harder”–than what? To which model of vehicle were you comparing it?
You are correct that places other than the frontal area (esp. the tailgate area) play a large role in determining drag. But saying cd is “totally irrelevant for pickup trucks” is more than a little facetious. If it was, why does it decrease with every new generation?
Point is frontal CD improves with each generation, except without the “jellybean effect”. As BAFO suggests, yes they could further improve ‘nose’ CD, but I’m asking “why bother?”.
Never mind the nose/windshield for a second. Pickup trucks have is so much “drag” related to just being “pickups”, that by the way, no one is accounting for, (and you can’t truly change/fix anyway), that having a jellybean nose on a modern pickup would likely slow it down from extra wind striking all the things that make it a “pickup” more violently, vs a fairly squared off nose, like you’re seeing on current fullsize pickups.
Yeah it’s my own theory, but show me where your’s makes better sense. And where’s the modern “jellybean” pickup?
We may be having a misunderstanding here. I’m not necessarily disagreeing with any of your assertions, save one: “It likely had to push harder.” Did you mean push harder than the 1996 models? I’m asking what the aerodynamic comparison is between the 1996 and 1997 models, and it has yet to be provided.
Your general statements seem to be completely backed up by reality. I have no doubts that the 2004 F-150 was more aerodynamic than the 2003, and the 2009 more than that, and the 2015 more than that, even though the nose got more vertical. I’m aware of all the little tweaks done in the intervening years to improve aerodynamics (esp. the air dam and the tailgate spoiler). All I want to know is if the 1997 jellybean F-150 did have to push harder than the 1996, as you claim–or maybe that’s not what you claimed in the first place, and I just misread the question.
Not the ’96 and older but the ’04-’08 F-150 and 2000-06 GMs. The jellybean F-150 was needlessly “jellybean”. All those right-angle surfaces, air pocket, components, etc that followed it, pushing back air, over and under, are further, and needlessly exposed by the super slippery jellybean, compared to a slightly flatter nose.
It’s just a theory. No more no less. But why did the jellybean die off suddenly?
OK, so it was just a matter of miscommunication. And also “absolutely nothing” may have been a bit of an exaggeration, since there definitely was some improvement from ’96 to ’97.
Yeah I highly doubt any aerodynamic consideration went into the 1980 to ’96 design. Anything would’ve been a huge improvement. The 2000+ GMs proved they could be just as aerodynamic without the “jellybean”
Aerodynamics improves hwy mileage, but does little for city, much less towing.
Not sure where these extra 2 gear slot in. Having 36K miles on my 8-speed equipped Sierra, I’m hard-pressed to see the need for two more. 2nd gear drops about 300 rpm from first gear; 8th gear drops about the same amount from 7th. Most of that mileage has been towing a 7600 lb. trailer. Of course turbo-charging and variable valve timing both flatten an engine’s torque curve, reducing the need to keep the engine operating in a narrow rpm range (unlike, say, a diesel). The problem with my 8-speed is aggressive programming of torque convertor lock-up which sometimes causes harsh shifts under light load. I’m not sure how more gears would fix that.
So am I the only jagoff on TTAC that regularly uses paddle shifters, “sport”, or “manual” mode on his automatic transmission?
Back when I still had my 5-speed AT S40 I used them all the time during merging and overtaking. It really helped as I did not have to wait half a second after flooring it for the transmission to drop down that gear or two.
Then I tried to do that in the new, 8-speed XC90. Jesus, what a failure. In the sequential mode I never knew by how many gears I needed to drop down. In the automatic mode not only did the transmission hunt for gears but also you needed to wait about a second for the turbocharger to spool up before the car bothered to move.
I loved using the manual mode but I feel that this option is all but redundant in the new, billion-speed transmissions.
I have used mine twice. Didn’t like it, felt like I was forcing it to do something it didn’t want to do (sort of true).
I honestly forget it’s there.
That’s how I drove the smart car when I had it. The paddles make the Transmission of Infamy liveable, and almost enjoyable when you wind the engine out.
I do it as well, but my auto car only has 5 gears. Frankly, I think I’d have a hard time keeping track of 10 gears, and trying to find the right one quicker than the computer could do it.
The 8 speed on my 2013 Chrysler 300 with the 6 cylinder engine is probably the best transmission around. The car now has 112,000 miles and no issues. In comparison the 6 speed in my 2015 GMC Yukon has perceptible gear changes especially in the lower gears. It becomes smoother as it warms up. The Chrysler is buttery smooth even when cold.
Here is my only beef with ford and gm sharing cost building a component. They then make changes that effectively make them unique. The parts are different (more expensive than common parts would be), repair techniques and special tools are different. My wife’s Buick Enclave supposedly has a 6speed auto that was co developed for ford and gm. But the according to my mechanic (who specializes in fords) the ford version has no interchangeable parts and requires different tools. I can understand programming differences but why not make things easier and cheaper for all concerned and keep the parts, tools and procedures the same?
Mark, you’re killing me with the 911 disclosures. I’m about 3 drinks from a great time here. Thanks.
Given that these new transmissions have smaller gaps between gears, there are more times when multiple gears ought to be ‘skipped,’ such as multiple downshifts for acceleration or sudden changes in grade or upshifts after hard acceleration.
While modern automatic transmissions do a lot of things very well, they annoy me how they progress through gears rather than just selecting the ‘right’ gear as you would in a manual. When I had an RX-8, accelerating onto the freeway would be in 2nd, and that would get me up to the speed limit, and then directly shift to 6th. Going through each intermediate gear is stupid.
Do any of these new transmissions do that? When the computer decides a shift is needed, do they compute what the ideal gear would be and shift straight to it rather than move by one, check if it’s right, then move by one again, etc?
I can’t say where, but I thought I heard somewhere that the 10-speed is capable of skip-shifting under the right circumstances, and wouldn’t have to go through every gear.
You are correct. The 10 speed can skip shift.