I like the 8 speed idea. You will never be out of your powerband and your mpg will be better.

W

 

Is this 8-speed a dual-clutch transmission?

 

I like the looks of the Challenger more than the Camaro or the 5.0 mustang. But if I am going to spend 45k+ on an srt8. Then I would just buy a base model vette for the money.

 

Surprised nobody has made comment on the fact this transmission is good for 900 lb-ft of torque. Its made by ZF but Chrysler purchased the manufacturing rights and will build it in the US.

Its going in the Cummins Rams and SRT cars. Units will also be sold to BMW and Audi. (Already being used in the 7 series).

Being good for that much power I can see it quickly becoming the modern day 4L80E that eventually gets swapped into every muscle car.

 

Just because it has 8 gears doesnt mean that it has 3-4 overdrives. It probably only has 7th and 8th as overdrives leaving the rest of the gears able to be set tall for acceleration or even closer in ratio as it steps down. Numerically steeper gear rations from a stand still will multiply more torque, improve mpg by requiring less effort from the motor at low speed and improving performance at WOT.

Some of you sound like tin foil hat people with this thing. Jealous since your outdated auto trans only has 4 ratios and has a brutal drop from 3:1 to 1.63:1 first to second? Look at it this way. The GM 6 speed auto eliminated the M6 40 roll advantage. An 8 speed will shift advantage to the auto for rolls.


Mark them thar words.

 

Oh I like that.






You do raise a great point about the highway roll thing...back when my Vette made similar power to my Z28, it's A6 was WAY better from a roll than the A4 was so an A8 might improve on that even further.

 

Those changes sound fine, but what they really need to do is decrease the overall dimensions of the car and drop about 500 lbs.

 

I can understand an 8 speed.

I'd believe that not all 8 would always be used, aka when one is driving in normal traffic it will skip gears for gas mileage (from 2nd to 4th to 6th, etc) and would use different gears when going WOT.

It makes it more complicated, but I can see what they are trying to do, possibly.