Thursday 7th June 2012

Seven-speed manual for BMW?

Patent drawings reveal Munich's plans for trick seven-ratio gearbox

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A German patent office drawing leaked online indicates BMW is working on a seven-speed manual gearbox, following the lead of Porsche's seven-ratio transmission in the 991.

The BMW fiends over at Bimmerpost discovered a patent filed last year that details BMW's exploration of a manual transmission with seven - or potentially even eight - ratios.

Now, before you start to mentally panic at the idea of so many ratios to deal with, BMW - and most other car manufacturers - tend to agree with you, conventional industry wisdom suggesting that six gears is about the most that a driver can comfortably handle without risking a catastrophic mis-shift. BMW itself describes the issue like this: "An 8 speed manual transmission would need four shift gates for the 8 gears alone."

BMW plans to get around these issues by surrounding the gears with magnetorheological or electrorheological fluid (the sort of stuff you get with adaptive dampers) that would prevent drivers from accidentally shifting into a gear that would do the engine harm. The idea is that, as in adaptive dampers, a magnetic or electric charge is applied to change the viscosity of the fluid should the engine's sensors deem it appropriate.

BMW seems to be working on two versions of this transmission, one with a conventional three-pedal layout, the other a shift-by-wire clutchless manual - kind of like a super-sophisticated SMG system.

BMW might not be the only manufacturer following Porsche's seven-speed lead, either; word is that Lamborghini is working on its own seven-speed manual, although there is a possibility that this is actually Sant'Agata's own take on the seven-speed twin-clutch transmission that's known to be going into the R8 this autumn.

[E38Ross]

No doubt they'll be people saying its too many but it's not.... 6gears for acceleration and 6th maxes out at peak power and top speed, then a tall 7th for cruising. Ideal.

[Guvernator]

7 gears you say? That's too many

[kambites]

E38Ross said:

No doubt they'll be people saying its too many but it's not.... 6gears for acceleration and 6th maxes out at peak power and top speed, then a tall 7th for cruising. Ideal.

That's pretty much what everyone said about sixth, and fifth,... personally I don't even really see the point in six-speed boxes, especially since modern cars tend to have so much torque.

[Limpet]

Time for the BL switch operated overdrive system to come back, then. :-)

Seriously, 7 gears? Why? I've never felt short of ratios, or been unable to find one perfectly suited to what I need to do in a car at any given moment with a six speed box.

An answer to a question nobody is asking, IMHO.

[kambites]

Limpet said:

Time for the BL switch operated overdrive system to come back, then. :-)

I'd like to see that - a close ratio five-speed box for hooning with an adjustable final-drive ratio for cruising would be perfect for me. I always preferred my MG's four-speed with overdrive to any of the five and six speed boxes that I've driven since.

[E38Ross]

Limpet said:

Time for the BL switch operated overdrive system to come back, then. :-)

Seriously, 7 gears? Why? I've never felt short of ratios, or been unable to find one perfectly suited to what I need to do in a car at any given moment with a six speed box.

An answer to a question nobody is asking, IMHO.

People are asking questions though, but not the consumers.

It's for emission regulations, don't you all realise that? You guys who love manual boxes should be thankful people like porsche and bmw are still designing these so you can stick you your manual gearboxes. Instead you complain saying its too many. Well, if 7 is too many, you won't be forced to use 7th gear. It's a manual after all

[Veeayt]

Bring on sequential gearshift, no matter how many gears, just a long shift lever popping out of the floor like in racecars. If they say that conventional manuals are obsolete then why do they develop these.

[davepoth]

Limpet said:

An answer to a question nobody is asking, IMHO.

The question they're asking is "How do we get another few mpg on the EU economy cycle?" and this is probably the answer.

[Johnboy Mac]

kambites said:

That's pretty much what everyone said about sixth, and fifth,... personally I don't even really see the point in six-speed boxes, especially since modern cars tend to have so much torque.

I agree, but it's all about emissions I guess, nothing to do with actual performance as in speed.

[arkenphel]

This is a sure sign for tr extinction of the manual box, IMO. It's trying to keep up with the efficiency of the DCTs but in the process it's making itself overly complicated for the average user. This makes me sad.

[V8Triumph]

kambites said:

Limpet said:

Time for the BL switch operated overdrive system to come back, then. :-)

I'd like to see that - a close ratio five-speed box for hooning with an adjustable final-drive ratio for cruising would be perfect for me. I always preferred my MG's four-speed with overdrive to any of the five and six speed boxes that I've driven since.

I love my four speed with overdrive 'boxes

[DoubleSix]

E38Ross said:

People are asking questions though, but not the consumers.

It's for emission regulations, don't you all realise that? You guys who love manual boxes should be thankful people like porsche and bmw are still designing these so you can stick you your manual gearboxes. Instead you complain saying its too many. Well, if 7 is too many, you won't be forced to use 7th gear. It's a manual after all

+ 1

I for one am grateful they are bothering at all, as they could easily just ditch it all for a double clutch set up.

[philmots]

I'd happily have a 7th overdrive in my 197.. It bloody well needs it

[anonymous-user]

All a 7-speed manual does is make the case for an auto!

Accelerating manually through 7 gears would give very slow acceleration times. So you cut some of them out. Which means you didn't need them in the first place!

[psymonr]

I think it opens up the option of close ratio gearboxes with tall 6th and 7th, I think this solution looks better than the porsche solution too:

[kambites]

philmots said:

I'd happily have a 7th overdrive in my 197.. It bloody well needs it

Does it? Or does it just need 6th to be higher?

[Mark-C]

I don't think I've ever driven a manual car where I haven't thought at some point on a motorway that another gear to keep my speed but drop the revs wasn't needed.

So for the old switch on top for overdrive from me as well.

[DodoRacing]

Can the position of the 7th gear on the first drawing be correct? How do you shift to the right?

[suffolk009]

When I first bought a Caterham Superlight I thought six gears was just plain silly. Then I drove it and loved it.

[sumpoil]

Working on the same theory as the designers of Gillette razors, i confidently predict that my patent on this design will net me a fortune .....



..... and it definitely has a MASSIVE future in Hollywood car chases!