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Sorry, my bad....... its on LSX TV.com/news/c7-corvettegetting placeholder-8-speed-auto.
Info was just received via cell phone message.
According to Motor Trend, GM has found itself in a bit of a bine regarging it's next generation transmissions for the up coming C7 Corvette. Their own in-house units is not quite ready yet, so the General has outsourced the work to Aisin.
Which is worse? A one-year Aisin eight-speed unit, or a one-year carryover GM six-speed unit?
.Jinx
Another GM screw-up that is a no-win situation. If the Aisin is fabulous, people will whine for years that they couldn't get it. If it is crap, people will whine for years that they were forced to get it. The first year whammy is going to last forever on CF!
As to the old C6 tranny, that assumes the existing tranny could be modified in time to fit the new engine, chassis, etc.
Neither option is good, especially from a marketing standpoint.
If the Aisin is fabulous, people will whine for years that they couldn't get it. If it is crap, people will whine for years that they were forced to get it. The first year whammy is going to last forever on CF!
I won't speculate on the future, but if the Aisin 8-speed is indeed the transmission used in the Lexus IS-F that I had, it was without question fabulous. As far as I knew, the 8 speed auto in my Lexus was "Lexus made" but I never looked into the outsourcing of it. This much I can say, Lexus only used that 8-speed auto in the LS series and the IS-F, the latter was tuned for performance with 100 ms upshifts, throttle matching blips for downshifts, it was very very crisp, slick and fast! The IS-F has a 5.0L 416hp V8, with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters. It was very very close in speed of shifts to the BMW M3 with its 6 speed DCT dual clutch transmission, yet retained nearly imperceptible shifts when in the "Auto" mode. I think the only tranny that could top it for all out performance would be a BMW DCT, Porsche PDK or GT-R, yet I'd bet the house none of those can approach the smooth shifting refinement, quiet operation or reliability of the Lexus 8-spd when in full "Auto".
Last edited by Reciprocal; 11-20-2012 at 08:59 PM.
By far my favorite aspect of the IS F however - and I can't believe I'm about to say this - is the automatic transmission. Not because it has eight gears - but because it's the closest thing to a dual personality gearbox currently available. Forget the sequential manuals. They're great in manual mode, but bad in auto mode. The dual clutch systems are better, playin' automatic very convincingly, but they disappoint in manual mode with a less-than-smooth getaway. The IS F gearbox utilizes its torque converter straight off the line for smoothness, and then locks out second through eighth gears to feel like a true manual. And its shifts in manual mode are amazingly quick, with an audible "beeeep" alerting you to pull the paddle back just before you tap into the rev limiter - very cool. This is truly one of the best gearboxes in the world.
The seven-speed manual shift pattern is that of a six-speed but with the seventh forward gear up and to the right; it is of no use beyond its function as a tall, fuel-saving ratio for highway cruising. The gates are very tightly spaced way over there, so Porsche blocks out seventh electronically unless you first select fifth or sixth. People will reflexively complain about electro-nanny tyranny, and some forum poster somewhere will surely tell you how to disable the lockout, but that would be silly.
That’s because, unlike GM’s one-to-four skip-shift, which exists solely to help the car’s fuel-economy test numbers, this lockout is for driver convenience. Porsche found in testing that it was far too easy to accidentally select seventh when you’re intending to upshift into fifth. As soon as you get fifth, the lockout deactivates. After probing its function a few times, we ceased to notice it. The Carrera S still accelerates up hills in seventh, but the base Carrera probably won’t do so much quicker than water.
By far my favorite aspect of the IS F however - and I can't believe I'm about to say this - is the automatic transmission. Not because it has eight gears - but because it's the closest thing to a dual personality gearbox currently available. Forget the sequential manuals. They're great in manual mode, but bad in auto mode. The dual clutch systems are better, playin' automatic very convincingly, but they disappoint in manual mode with a less-than-smooth getaway. The IS F gearbox utilizes its torque converter straight off the line for smoothness, and then locks out second through eighth gears to feel like a true manual. And its shifts in manual mode are amazingly quick, with an audible "beeeep" alerting you to pull the paddle back just before you tap into the rev limiter - very cool. This is truly one of the best gearboxes in the world.
One can only hope that the folks in Toledo, Ohio, will get their poop in a group and start producing the GM version sooner!
Corvette Store
C7 to offer 8 speed auto & 7 speed manual
