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      04-14-2008, 08:41 PM   #10
Minimization
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Drives: 2006 BMW M5 Sedan SMG III
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA

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People do not get it. In a perfect world, a transmission would have an infinite number of gears. The problem with this is the finite time it takes to shift between gears and the finite room in the housing that each gear takes up. As technology progresses more gears have become standard. CVT are trying to achieve infinite gear ratios but they are only currently available for low torque/rpm applications.

I remember when people were claiming that 6 speed manuals were overkill and 5 speed manuals were just fine. They were not, actually. My '86 Scirocco GTX 16V cruised at 4,000/min at 80 mi/hr in fifth. It could have used six or seven gears back then.

You have lots of gears to optimize acceleration and a couple of overdrive gears for minimal fuel consumption in the 60-100 mi/hr cruising range.

Sportiness is not necessarily lost with eight gears. The M5 has 7 in the SMG III now, it's very sporty, and could probably use an eighth gear. They could crowd the first seven together to enhance accelerations all the way to Vmax (not just for 0-60 mi/hr) while putting an eight gear in to replace the existing top gear for cruising. I think ideally a car should redline in top gear right at the speed where it gets drag-limited (Vmax).
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2006 BMW M5 Sedan
SMG III
Silverstone Metallic/Black Perforated Merino/Aluminum,
X2/4MA/610/322/453/655/416/465/261/496
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