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Erik
August 11th, 2005, 12:07
Jay Leno's Thoughts on Semi-Automatic Transmissions... :)

"I have been reading in certain American car magazines how some people have been attacking the new Porsche Carrera GT clutch as being too hard to use. I mean, GROW UP. Try any vintage WO Bentley or try a car with any of the great gearboxes of the past. It is an art to master any of these. And when you execute a smooth change, you feel as if you have actually accomplished something.
Let's face it, no one can go 200mph on a public road, with maybe the exception of the Autobahn. The real joy of high speed vehicles is operating them properly and nothing satisfies like a well-executed gearshift. With paddle shifters, by the time you have any sensation you are doing 180mph, you are in jail. There is a real choreography in learning how to execute a wonderful shift quickly.

Cars like the Maserati Quattroporte and the Aston Martin Vanquish I would not even consider because they don't come with a manual 'box. I would have paid anything to have got a manual in the Mercedes-McLaren SLR. It is really almost a perfect car, except I don't feel as if I am involved with it as with the Ford GT or Carrera GT.

If I choose to downshift at the wrong time, that's MY choice. I'd like to be able to do that! It's like you don't always eat healthy. I know and apple is better for me, but sometimes I want a slice of pizza. If I see a patch of sand and there's no-one around, maybe I want to punch it, get a little sideways as I come out of the turn. I know it is juvenile but it's what I like to do.

The other annoying thing about these electronic gearboxes is that they are better than you are. You can pretend when you paddle shift manually that you can do it better than the electronics. Maybe Michael Schumacher can, but you really can't You can play with the paddle shifter but you are really only playing with it and the electronic brain is saying "Are you through fooling around now?"

Cars like these don't NEED you.

To me people bonded with their cars in the early days, especially with things like the MG's or TR2's or 3s. You found what we used to call the "sweet spot": You'd reach a certain rev and know you'd only have to apply the most minimal amount of pressure and the lever would move forward. There was a great deal of pleasure and accomplishment in doing that.

Sometimes you can improve a car's gearshift. I have a Citroen SM. It had a very nice plastic gearshift knob on it but the thread wore out. So we made and identical gearshift knob out of solid aluminum, the exact same shape, polished it and had it anodized black and it has a wonderful feel. It's one of those things you either get or you don't. It sits perfectly in the palm of you hand. You move it around forwards and back, left and right and there's a wonderful mechanical feel to it.

As supercars become more and more practical, people buy them for more practical reasons. Buying a car should be a rational decision made irrationally.

A friend of mine wanted to buy a Porsche but he said: "I'm going to by the automatic because in traffic..."

AARGH!!! It's like having a mistress who can cook. I don't want to eat dinner. I'm not going there to have dinner.

In terms of most pleasurable gear-change, the McLaren F1 is definitely up there. Just take a look at the Driving Ambition book and you realize the amount of effort that went into getting the proper gear-change, literally that rifle-bolt CLICK-CLICK. You feel it click in, you know it's in. You've heard it. You've felt it. That's probably best gear-change ever made.

The Porsche Carrera GT is probably the modern version of that. The Carrera GT gearbox is pretty amazing. You realize that you are seeing the finest incarnation of a gearbox there can be. The fact that they only have this clutch, which is ceramic and is good for 40,000 miles of hard burnouts, is an amazing feat. Because one of the big failings of most supercars is you are not going to risk a $5,000.00 clutch just to beat a kid in a GTI. Or maybe you are, but it's still going to cost you $5,000.00.

But Porsche has solved this problem with the ceramic clutch. No longer do you have the embarrassment of some spotty teenager blowing you off at the stoplight. I want to thank Porsche for letting me keep my immaturity."

7:53 RS6
August 11th, 2005, 12:26
Leno is Cool, but hey what kind of driver nead a patck of sand to make a PCGT go sideways:D

And its much moore to driving than change gears, i would say on track its easyer to go fast if you focus on the rest. You dont go fast around just beccuse you can change a manuall box faster than no other.

And PCGT would had an Electronic box if they had the tecnologi for it. Porsche dident at the time.:D But its comming.

In the future my guess Leno is driving vetrans(and thats nice) beccuse the future is SMG, DSG and what ever its called. :D

bilbozilla
August 11th, 2005, 18:26
I love the gearbox in the Quattroporte. It is rewarding to hit your upshifts and downshifts properly and everything works as it should.

I have yet to drive it in automatic mode.

Benman
August 11th, 2005, 20:03
Originally posted by Erik

AARGH!!! It's like having a mistress who can cook. I don't want to eat dinner. I'm not going there to have dinner.

:applause: :applause: