DB11 has 8 gears!?

  • Thread starter AlexDB9
  • 32 comments
  • 2,505 views
AlexDB9

AlexDB9

500
Greece
Salonica
So I took the Aston Martin DB11 for a ride (awesome acceleration, braking and looks, including cockpit view) and was stunned as to how the car has 8 gears.
Is this the deal in real life too? I decided to check its top speed at the Mulsanne straight and while it's an impressive 340 km/h, the revs don't even reach half way point during 7th gear.
So why is there a 8th gear needed?
 
AlexDB9
So I took the Aston Martin DB11 for a ride (awesome acceleration, braking and looks, including cockpit view) and was stunned as to how the car has 8 gears.
Is this the deal in real life too? I decided to check its top speed at the Mulsanne straight and while it's an impressive 340 km/h, the revs don't even reach half way point during 7th gear.
So why is there a 8th gear needed?
Click to expand...
Yes that's accurate it uses a 8 speed ZF gearbox
 
It gets worse... I beleive FCA have some 9 spd cars and I think even back in GT6 there was a 10 spd car?

A Lexus I beleive? I personally cant handle more than 7 gears, it just gets too confusing.

The W08 I already treat as a 7 speed car with a final 8th gear that goes nothing but reduce the revs and noise a little.
 
I grew up in an era where it was normal for cars to have 4 spd manuals and 3 spd autos.

Some sports cars had 5 spds and that was it.

Come the mid 80s and a 4 spd auto was the space age.

Then I bought a car with a 6 spd manual and my parents at this point went to autos and they asked... "what is the point of a 6 speed? who are you racing? takumi?"

Right now I feel like for super sports cars 6 speeds can be argued is the miniumum.

If you take a McLaren F1 then the 6 speeds has to get you from 0 to 354km/h so you need them.

The Porsche 911 7 speed manual? yeah sure... why not?
 
Yep, it's an 8 speed, but only in automatic guise in real life. There is no manual option. The only vehicle I've personally seen that has a manual trans ABOVE 6 gears, was when I worked for Chevrolet, and that was the new C7 Corvette "Stingray" Z07 with 7 gears.

This is one of the first ones delivered across the country. It was number 8 (or something) off the line.

20150423_143423.jpg


20150423_145609.jpg


20150423_161209.jpg


20150423_161232.jpg



TonyJZX
It gets worse... I beleive FCA have some 9 spd cars and I think even back in GT6 there was a 10 spd car?

A Lexus I beleive? I personally cant handle more than 7 gears, it just gets too confusing.

The W08 I already treat as a 7 speed car with a final 8th gear that goes nothing but reduce the revs and noise a little.
Click to expand...

True. As an FCA tech as well I can confirm all new Jeep's (minus the Wrangler) and some Chrysler's now come with 9 speed gearboxes. But again, their all automatics. And it's strictly for emissions (less fuel burned at speed.) ZF makes an excellent automatic transmission.. but the electronics involved?

More work for me :/
 
Last edited:
Hoopzah
Not for a performance car.. or anything that requires a heavy load.. or anything with a V8.. or anything that wants to go offroad.. or anything where high rpms are needed.. lol
Click to expand...

So basically if you need a daily runabout in urban areas then a CVT is perfect. A good idea of how prevalent CVTs are/will be is that Toyota has moved to CVTs for their Corollas and such.

On that vein, has there been any CVT car in GT? I beleive maybe one of the various JDM Nissans?

Also for a bit of trivia... the Williams F1 team back when Mansell was around tested a CVT and it was markedly faster than a conventional gearbox. The FIA banned them.
 
The Lexus LC500 has ten gears but good luck using more than seven or eight even with full power. Sadly, any car with more than seven gears gets reduced to a seven speed when you put on the racing gearbox. Except for the W08, and a few odd Group X VGTs which already come with fully customizable 8 speeds. Also, the '17 NSX has a nine speed gearbox. With full power going down the back straight at Le Sarthe (or maybe Tokyo Expressway) you can actually get some use out of ninth gear.

TonyJZX
It gets worse... I beleive FCA have some 9 spd cars and I think even back in GT6 there was a 10 spd car?

A Lexus I beleive? I personally cant handle more than 7 gears, it just gets too confusing.

The W08 I already treat as a 7 speed car with a final 8th gear that goes nothing but reduce the revs and noise a little.
Click to expand...
GT6 didn't have any cars with more than 8 gears. The Lexus IS F has an 8 speed gearbox and the RC F on GT Sport has the same drivetrain as the old IS F. And besides that car and some of the VGTs, there's the Nissan Skyline 350 GT-8, a GT4 holdover that also has 8 gears, though with that car I'm pretty sure it's just a CVT operating in "sport mode" like the 7 speed Subaru Pleo back on GT2. The IS F and RC F both have actual 8 speeds.

TonyJZX
So basically if you need a daily runabout in urban areas then a CVT is perfect. A good idea of how prevalent CVTs are/will be is that Toyota has moved to CVTs for their Corollas and such.

On that vein, has there been any CVT car in GT? I beleive maybe one of the various JDM Nissans?
Click to expand...
Yes. Besides the Toyota Prius, GT4 had the Honda Fit, Mitsubishi Colt, the Mitsubishi i concept, and probably some others. The Subaru Pleo that was in GT2 had a CVT in real life but in game it has a 7 speed gearbox to simulate the car's "sport mode" (Which many CVTs have, proving a few fixed ratios instead of the infinite range of ratios that's the real advantage of a CVT), and the Nissan Skyline 350 GT-8 in GT4 has an 8 speed gearbox that I assume is also simulating the sport mode of a CVT.

And on the note of real cars that aren't in GT, I've heard Honda tested an 11 speed triple clutch gearbox in the Civic (The Accord has a 10 speed gearbox now but that's already pushing the limits of sensibility and the base engine has a CVT anyway) and I've heard Ford considered a 13 speed gearbox for the Ranger but it has "only" 10 gears.
 
Japanese manufacturers LOVE the CVT. Nissan uses them in almost everything that I'm aware of. Minus trucks and sports cars, although I could be wrong in that.

As coryclifford pointed out they're not as bad as I made it sound. Lack of mechanical moving parts = greater reliability (in theory) and less prone to failure. Keep up on the fluid changes (if required) and they're good to go.
 
Hoopzah
The only vehicle I've personally seen that has a manual trans ABOVE 6 gears, was when I worked for Chevrolet, and that was the new C7 Corvette "Stingray" Z07 with 7 gears.
Click to expand...
Porsche 911‘s have a 7 speed manual, too
 
Hoopzah
Japanese manufacturers LOVE the CVT. Nissan uses them in almost everything that I'm aware of. Minus trucks and sports cars, although I could be wrong in that.
Click to expand...

Jatco is a Japanese company that makes like 99% of the world's CVTs. They are owned by Nissan.

I cannot comment on the JDM market but they put them into SUVs as big as the 4,400lb Pathfinder and small hatches to medium sedans etc.

If you got to the point that Toyota is buying Nissan CVTs then the reliability thing is over.

I have been looking at CVT fails on the big Pathfinders and Xtrail Rogues and they are rare to non existant.

To the avg. Joe a CVT is just a more efficient automatic.

I dont like them but I respect intelligent engineering. They arent sporting but if you can get an SUV to do the economy that you get in an Nissan SUV without moving from PFI motors then you're probably doing ok. You can also tow to a certain degree.

They're also completely non sporting and bloodless.

Anyone with ties to Nissan would be looking at using CVTs in their small hatch etc.
 
The slight inaccuracy I've noticed is that when you're driving the car in cockpit view, the dashboard displays the gear you're in when using the paddle shifters. When in Auto mode "P R N D" will display in the centre, when in paddle mode it just has the gear number. However the "PRND" buttons will not light up when in paddle mode and GTS has the D button illuminated.
 
"Audi, Honda, Hyundai, Subaru, and Toyota all make their own CVTs. Nissan owns a controlling interest in JATCO, the firm that supplies 49 percent of the world's gear-free transmissions to Chrysler, GM, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki. In addition, nearly half of Nissan's current U.S. models offer a JATCO-supplied CVT."

Googled. Bolds must be my key words...
 
Some of the modern auto gearboxes are capable to shift gears just at the right times like a racing driver would (up and down), so not even using paddles gives you a real advantage anymore, especially when you have 8 or more gears.

Sadly, the logic of those auto gearboxes is not really implemented in GTS, so you’re much better off doing it manually or putting the fully customisable one in.
 
I have a ZF 8AT in my diesel 3 Series. It works especially well for diesels, since the party is over at 3,600rpm anyway. Having 8 gears keeps it in the power band all the time. That doesn’t mean it’s fun, though. The first time I tried manual mode with 8 gears, I couldn’t keep up, and have left it in full auto ever since. (Disclaimer: I actually love manuals, heel & toeing, etc)
 
snowgt
Some of the modern auto gearboxes are capable to shift gears just at the right times like a racing driver would (up and down), so not even using paddles gives you a real advantage anymore, especially when you have 8 or more gears.

Sadly, the logic of those auto gearboxes is not really implemented in GTS, so you’re much better off doing it manually or putting the fully customisable one in.
Click to expand...
No dct in auto mode can predict a shift better than a driver, and especially on corner entry and mid corner.
 
The 1965 Cooper S has five gears in GTS but there is no way you can get a 5th gear inside the transverse, underslung A series gearbox.
 
Prediction, maybe not.
But at pure speed, it's been proven that the current gen of TCM's, even on dual clutch trans, shift waaay faster than a human being.

But in terms of prediction as you said.. the tech just isn't there yet. Which is why F1 and every other Motorsport out there still uses some form of a manual trans. I can't even imagine the number of sensors and computing power needed to predict corners lol.. that's years and years off. Hopefully.
 

Latest Posts

Back