You can see what Nordschleife means when you look at the new cars coming up. Nissan GTR has DSG, Porsche is bound to have it, as well as the new M3. VAG has announced that they will have a new box for longitudinally placed engines, which will make it possible to put into cars like the RS4 and R8.

Eventhough I enjoy the ease of use and advantage of paddles in hard driving and have sympathies for people who select such a system for their car, I truly believe that the same people are taking a short cut of sorts. Sure, they may feel quicker compared to the same car with a manual shifter, but is that really what it´s about? Sure, for some it is and I don´t want to blame them here.

But, shouldn´t we all instead enjoy the wonderful challenge of going fast and still be on top of the car while changing the speeds the old way?

I admit that if I were in an Alfa 8C, for example, which is being introduced exclusively with paddles, I wouldn´t discard it only for this reason. However, if I had the chance to choose, I wouldn´t want to cut corners myself and would always have to get a manual box to have a clear conscience.

The street is no racing circuit, where we would be chasing every tenth-of-a-second advantage and racing the other guy. Here, the quickest-shifting system makes perfect sense. On the street, I see us as trying to perfect ourselves, and that is where paddle shifting is cheating of sorts in my view.

 

LOL, Robin I don't know what you have against our Dutch pride. Keep in mind that one of the huge advantages of the CVTwas that the Daf could go just as fast in reverse as it could go forward. For those that have never heard of DAF, only old people in Holland would drive DAF's, and by old I mean, you had to be at least 65+. Since their used values were about 2 to 3 Hundred guilders ($150-200) since nobody would be caught dead driving one of them, people started buying them up for racing in reverse. Imagine grids of 50-60 cars, painted in horrible colors, all pointed in the wrong way. About 1/3rd of the cars would crash and flip over by the first turn when the cars were doing about 50 mph in reverse. We got rid of a lot of DAF's in a very short few years, and were loosing them so fast, that the racing stopped after a few years, not because of lost interest, but because most cars had been crashed and totaled.

 

what Erik didn't say was how CVT worked on the DAFs -

in the middle of the rear axle, was placed a cone, (bigger diameter one end than the other), they put a rubber band round the cone and attached the other end to a driven pulley on the rear of the engine. When you wanted to change gear, you poked at the rubber band with a stick to push it up or down the cone, I think one of our lawn mowers works the same way, it also has a more powerful engine.

R+C

 

No, shaving is something I have to do. Or going to the dentist. Or paying taxes. But shifting is something I want to do!

Shifting is not about the shifter, it's about the clutch. The footwork involved in coordinating clutch, brake and throttle is a major part of driver involvement. A perfect heel-toe downshift, or a nicely finessed upshift... they make me smile. And the fine control I have with a clutch simply cannot be replicated with paddles. But as I said earlier, I'm a dinosaur and headed for extinction.

 

Actually its about clutch and the gear shift. Far too many people are mechanically insensitive when it comes to manipulating the gear change. Many people don't even hold the gear lever properly. Grasping it like a todger is not the way to hold it, place the palm of the hand over the crown of the gear shift and close the hand. Make sure your arm is not tense and be aware that the gear lever only moves in a straight line from engaged gear to neutral and from neutral to the gear selected, it does not move from gear to gear directly. To slightly copmplicate matters, the position of neutral depends upon which gear you are coming out of and then which geat you are moving the gear to next.

Ignoring the importance of holding and handling the shift lrver properly is one of the most common faults I come across. Rushing the gear change is the next most common fault.

R+C

 

All i can tell you is that after using the FERRARI paddles for a while, reaching for a shifter feels like reaching for a crank to roll the windows! Ferrari has achieved enthusiasts nirvana with the latest F1 SuperFast....

 

Nirvana for who? The service guys who get to service the tranny after 3000 miles for
a bazillion bucks? or for the Enthusiast who waxes his car every week cause he cant put miles
on it for fear of rapid depreciation?

 

I just turned back a lemon E60 M5. So much preproduction hype about the exclusive SMG, I will admit it was a novelty for the first month or two, after that I slowly started to hate the trans more and more annoying as time went on herky jerky feel, as for involvement it was similar to changing a radio station.

Not sure technically about DSG or the others but the point is if the only advantage is miiliseconds and there is still no clutch I can not see how it will differ in terms of involvement.

 

Nirvana for the driver. as for reliability, it seems to be ok. they said the same stuff about electric windows too. porsche is going to have to do something about the shifting or they will become "OLD GUY" s!!! lol

 

I, for one, am bored when driving an automatic car. It's simply not as enjoyable. A semi-automatic gearbox is a little more fun, but not quite enough, IMO. They're good for multiple quick, hard laps on a track.. more consistent and less tiring. On the road, however, where prolonged high speeds are not possible, just pushing the throttle and steering is not involving enough for me.. something's definitely missing.

If I could have multiple high-end sports cars, I would have one with a paddle tranny, but never in place of a manual. Choosing one or the other may depend on one's driving career. If you were exposed to manual transmission vehicles early on (motorcycles, first cars, etc.) you'll likely miss shifting for yourself. To you, that's part of the enjoyment of driving a motorized vehicle. If you've always had auto cars, and have reluctantly driven manual only sports cars, you probably love the paddle car.

I just hope the manual tranny hangs around...

 

+ 1 for that ^...I love shifting so much that my choppers have suicide clutches and jockey hand shifters on them....I just love that "hand in motor" feeling; as though I am directly linked to the mechanicals of the machine itself.....I'll get paddles when I can't press a clutch down any more....for me; paddles = tiptronics....boring...

 

my sentiments also.

 

F430 paddles are fun; I still prefer a manual for most cars. Unless you are racing, driving is an emotional, not technical experience. Paddles are great b/c they eliminate a pedal and you do unbelievable shifts under threshold braking. But, imo, they aren't as involving or as fun. For trackdays, I'd still prefer a manual.

 

+1

If I'm driving a truck or an SUV in a stop & go traffic I very much prefer the automatic but if it's a sportcar, I like the manual. I've once driven on a track with tiptronic and even frankly, it sucked big time.

On couple of occasions when I had to drive namual without the clutch (I had old VW bus and the cable broke fairly easily...), I in a way enjoyed the "art" of shifting without the clutch and once you did it for few hours, it went pretty smoothly. Starting from the traffic light with the starter wasn't so smooth, nor enjoyable though...

I've driven Ferrari with paddle shift and when driving in a fairly spirited, I actually liked it although it was more just because it was a new thing and sort of "playing" kind of fun (downshifts in a tunnel sounded pretty damn cool) and would not want to have it in my car. And if given a choice, I'd rather have sequantial with the stick that the paddle shift, somehow IMO that's more appropriate for a sportscar.