A shifty idea
My first car, manufactured a mere 44 years ago, had a two-speed automatic transmission. Eight-speed automatics are now available. What’s next? Follow the Fibonacci sequence:
“Most people remember Fibonacci numbers from 8th grade math. But in reality, they are proving to be a useful guide in figuring out how many gears to put into our next generation of transmissions,” said Elgar Loveless of Borg Warner’s Ithaca, NY facility.
According to Wikipedia, Fibonacci’s sequence of numbers is formed by starting with 1 and 0, and generating the next number by adding the two before it. Therefore, Fibonacci numbers include 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 and 34.
So we should be expecting a 13-speed slushbox shortly.
Although it won’t be from Nissan:
Spokesman Trent Capone told MetaCars that “We already have a continuously variable transmission. That means an infinite number of gears. And you know what? Infinity is more than 8. Or 34, or whatever the hell else they come up with. Nothing is bigger than infinity. Holy crap…! We have a brand called Infiniti too. It all makes sense now.”
Curiously, no current Infiniti model is fitted with the CVT.
Jeffro »
3 January 2010 · 8:50 pm
CVTs haven’t changed in concept from the old variable speeds on equipment – a belt between two sheaves. They’ve certainly been fine tuned but I understand even the current designs are still to weak for serious horsepower.
It will be interesting to see how the designers squeeze more gears into those boxes – the big rig thirteen speeds are basically five speed main boxes with two speed auxiliary (with a slight overdrive as well) mounted on the rear.
CGHill »
3 January 2010 · 9:00 pm
There’s serious, and then there’s serious. The current Nissan Maxima comes only with a CVT, and it has 290 hp. Not enough for a Kenworth, obviously, but several ponies up on the usual family sedans.
Then again, Audi, which had CVTs in the past, seems to have decided that the dual-clutch manual with automatic shifting is preferable, perhaps for reasons like this.
Kirk »
5 January 2010 · 3:20 pm
Does Robert Langdon know about this?