Stop calling a PDK an “automatic”

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Sorry, man. How something works doesn't change what it is/does. That's just a fact.

 

Nothing is worse that searching for the perfect stick shift car on the big used car web sites (by selecting MANUAL TRANSMISSION), and seeing that most of the cars listed don't have a clutch pedal.

 

Woke comes to the transmission world....great

Alot of discussion for an automatic transmission, so much so that one might think it shifts itself.

 

It’s a manual that can mimic an automatic.

That’s why they called it SMG.

 

True, same with searching for automatic and CVT. My niece has a Honda CRV, very nice car for what it is, but the CVT is godawful to drive - one of the worst cars I’ve driven, but an excellent car other than the transmission.

 

So it's ok for automatics to identify as manual, as long as they stay out of manuals' spaces?

 

I don't think they should identify as a manual until that have had a "addasticktome" performed .

 

The obvious moral of the quotes above is that there is no situation where "dumbing down" the description under the umbrella of an ambiguous term is effective.

It doesn't even work on an auto search site, where they are intentionally trying to dumb it down to simplify things for their typical non-car-people audience. Given that, why would anybody argue for using that same extremely ambiguous terminology in conversations among car enthusiasts??? Especially when the issues are so painfully obvious and frustrating every time you are forced to use the exact terminology you are advocating for to find a car.

The terminology drastically fails the most basic test possible.

 

There are a number of 599s (and even a 612 or two) which have had that procedure!

But in this case, the 599 F1 is an automatic, when it is converted to a manual, then it is a manual.

A PDK is an automatic... period, end of story.

 

Post #108 should have ended the discussion.

It doesn't work. Period. It fails the most basic test possible.

 

Are you joking? Post 108 is why I had to point out that a PDK is an AUTOMATIC. I'm sorry you are so defensive about the idea that you drive an automatic! But live in the real world.

 

Automatic is definitively not a sufficient term to mean anything. If you look for "automatic" in a car search, you will get the following types of car/transmission types:

1) Traditional automatic cars;
2) CVTs
3) F1-type transmissions
4) EV's

Why would you try to use a word that is very, very ambiguous, and has several interpretations, as a single word to describe a transmission? It's senseless and confusing.

Not sure why you keep saying over and over again I'm offended by F1 being called automatic when I've said over and over again that I'm not -- we use our Macan PDK in automatic mode 100% of the time, how could I possibly be offended by it? The offense is to the English language to try to use an adjective that describes only one facet of how it can optionally operate as the name for the object.

 

You certainly seem to want to convince us that the PDK is not an automatic... when, obviously, it is-- by definition! It shifts gears automatically! So yes, it appears you are very defensive about the idea that it is an automatic.

 

Lost track of how many times I've asked, what is the definition of automatic. Still no answer.

Not sure how someone can so adamantly state a transmission -isn't- automatic if they are incapable of defining what that is.

 

Because PDK is NOT an automatic transmission. It is a manual transmission that can operate automatically -- that's why BMW calls it SMG (sequential manual gearbox). You are trying to use an adjective (how it can optionally operate) as a noun (what it is). You can't call it "automatic", as a single word, because that adjective describes only one facet of how it operates. You can't call it "manual", as a single word either, because there is no completely manual shifter -- but internally it's far more manual than it is automatic. If you're bent on using a single word, "F1" works -- neither "automatic" nor "manual" is valid.

Counter example: Many modern fluid-based automatics have paddle shifters. We should call those F1 transmissions. If it shifts by paddles, it must be an F1. That makes about as much sense (which is none).

 

Transmissions that are "automatics" (the noun) have fluid coupling and losses of averaging around 20% in wasted power (https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/ccrp-0311-drivetrain-power-loss/)

F1 transmissions that can operate automatically (the adjective) are manual transmissions internally and have virtually no power loss.

 

Very easy-- an "automatic transmission" is one that can shift gears automatically.

 

Claiming your own post should end a discussion while losing the argument.......LOL

 

Can’t believe this topic is still going, but for what it’s worth…

https://motorsportexplained.com/f1-gearbox/

Good explanation in the link above:

Formula 1 cars use a “semi-automatic sequential gearbox. Automatic gearboxes were banned in 2004.

Stick shift manuals were made obsolete 31 years ago by Ferrari (1992).

All Ferrari gearboxes and Porsche’s PDK can probably be best described as semi-automatic.


Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat

 

So Mercedes MCT is not an automatic because there's a wet clutch in place of the torque converter?

 

Apparently ALL automatics are manuals since a human has to MANUALLY select Drive , Neutral, and Reverse .
Case solved

 

My '59 220S Ponton had Hydrak transmission....just saying