• Since a couple of replies in a couple of threads asked the question “how much can it possibly cost to offer/certify a transmission”, I’ll try to provide some perspective...

I’m a “watch guy”; I know that a substantial portion of what I pay for watches goes to “brand development” events like this...and I’m completely OK with that.

Need? No. I have a titanium hybrid Citizen EcoDrive that’s 21 years old, has been in twice for repair and it’s still a great watch. I do have, though, premium watches because I can afford them and they’re fun.

Based on my ECU work with OEMs experimenting with “camless” engines, a purely electromagnetic system would be much less reliable as coils don’t like high temperatures, temperature variation and vibration.

I’m going to vote CP largely because of the limited amount of build detail information. Why, for example, mention the rear differential is “built” and not show it. We get three pictures of the luggage compartment, and none of the underside.

Only on paper; the driving experience is very different between the two cars and I haven’t met anyone actually in the market that cross-shopped them. The C7 is a great car, but feels less exciting to drive than the Viper and I wouldn’t have bought a C7 Z06 at half the price of the Viper.

I’ve read a lot of posts asking what the attraction of the GT-R is and I can sum it up as “accessibility”. I’ve driven most of the other cars in this class (R8, ZO6, Viper, etc.) and this is by far the easiest of the bunch to get to 85% access point. Its neutral handling, driver aids and traction mean that someone…

Pro: I understand doing this for the trolling value. I’ve done similar things in the past, making cosmetic modifcations just to piss people off.

And my point is that the transmission in cars of any market segment is not the differentiation point that many Jalops would like it to be...irrespective of the age and affluence link that you’re suggesting. Most of the people that I know that have $75K+ performance cars like technology and aren’t looking looking for…

How about those of us that have cars of this type already and actually prefer DCTs? This has nothing to do with age or money...it’s that a lot of us, myself included, prefer DCTs. I’ll settle for a traditional manual if I can’t can’t get a DCT, but I think they’re a lot more fun and am actually considering trying to…

The ethical thing to do, irrespective of one’s economic philosophy, is simply to be honest. I would rather earn someone’s trust and buy something for fair market value than advantage myself from someone that isn’t armed with all of the facts; there’s no challenge, no sense of accomplishment in that.

They were just old cheap tires that gave out

Auditing by the EPA, or an EPA contractor, would (IMO) reduce a lot of these shenanigans.

1st Gear: The Plot Thickens

Cool, more awesome toys for rich people to hoard.

Came here to say this. Some debate whether the fuel-hose incident in the same race had more impact than the Piquet’s intentional spin, but clearly this was a factor and had at least a one-point impact on Felipe’s finish.

I’m working on this with several organizations, including the DOT, and it’s a combination of through-put (which can be roughly correlated to bandwidth, though this is protocol-dependant) and latency. Latency is a significant issue in current V2V programs as there is a lot of time-dependent communication taking place,…

The input shaft and clutch stack are nested, which is common on planetary-step automatics. The reason for using this configuration is to keep reduce the overall length of the transmission; it’s often easier from a packaging standpoint to go ‘wider’ than it is to go ‘taller’.

You make a lot of emotion-based assertions about transmission buying preferences, and one of the mostly poorly-supported is that people that have had ample exposure to manuals prefer them.

5th Gear: Hellcats Are Basic