Quote:
Originally Posted by darcane
While you could "get away" with one gear, you need to make compromises that may be undesirable. Either acceleration will be severely hindered, or you need to have a very loose viscous coupling to allow the engine to get up to speed (which reduces efficiency) or you need some other power source to pick up the slack.
Your Viper in 3rd gear would be able to accelerate, but not rapidly until maybe 30-50 mph.
Powerglides (2-speed GM tranny) are often used in drag racing because they are light, can be made to be robust, and only one shift tends to improve consistency. With a loose torque converter, acceleration is still excellent, but you wouldn't want this combo for commuting to work every day.
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I agree, the Viper example does bring a lot of required compromises. That 0-100 pull is probably on the flat. You might get away with it in hilly E TN, but pulling away from the uphill stop sign would be accompanied by the delicious smell of deep fried clutch.
The loose torque converter is what really makes the low gear counts work. It makes the tranny behave as a sorta-kinda CVT when pulling at low revs.
Frank's statement that you spend most of your time at speed is a good one, but dang it now I have to confess that it's unrealistic to expect a manufacturer to build one car that is suitable for someone like Frank, happily cruising the midwestern steppes and another car just like it, but with a transmission for someone like me, cruising just a few miles and then cut-and-thrusting through downtown stoplights.
Hang it all, CVTs really are the best option. Or the best of what's currently available. Is anybody building a toroidal unit yet? Besides Nuvinci, that is.