flappy paddle gears in a lotus?

[Scotty C]

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2010 ... ssion.html

[Shug]

Inevitable if they are going to sell more in America. At least it's not a torque converter slushbox.

[Scotty C]

Evora or Esprit?

[Shug]

You'd have to think both?

[BiggestNizzy]

It makes sence for them to create their own not just for lotus cars but for lotus engineering as I can imagine it will fit in well with there consultancy work just a swell as it would for evora/esprit variants.

I await the CVT box

[Mikie711]

Reading in some car mag that twin clutch GB's will be the death nail for the manual box. Every manufacturer is developing the things.

[Coopers]

I like the cars i've driven so far with flappy paddle gears and would love my next lotus having that option.

Wonder if you'll be able to retro fit

[tut]

Can appreciate the use of a paddle box for racing, I am sure that Scotty would love one if he was sponsored for £20K, but for road and track use in an Elise, I would stick with the gear lever.

However it would suit a car such as the Evora or new Esprit.

tut

[Scotty C]

the sequential gearbox box for the 2-11 is not a paddle shift its a stick.

Still not driven one yet

[tut]

Has anybody designed a paddle shift yet, ie Scuffers, as I presume a stick shift is still a half way house in that you can not keep both hands on the wheel for an even faster shift?

tut

[Wallsy]

http://www.vimeo.com/5999276

[Mikie711]

tut, these are not sequential gearboxes, they are completely different animal altogether. These boxes give you the option to either change gear manually or automatically, but that's not to say they are automatics either more akin to having 2 gearboxes in your car at any one time.
As for retro fitting one, that could be problomatic due to the complex electronics that control how it selects the next gear. I know the Audi Elise guys are/were wanting to try and shoe horn one in but no one has done it.....................yet!!.

Good site about them here

[thinfourth]

Still want to know if it is down entirely down to software to stop it selecting 2 gears as once


As i can imagine that would make a very big bang

[robin]

You could have a mechanical interlock on the clutches, so that only one can be engaged at once. But I think for race use you would have to get rid of that to minimize shift time. Also note that the hydraulic ("wet") clutches probably can withstand a good deal of enforced slippage when both clutches are engaged at the same time. To get smooth gear changes in normal road use you would also want both clutches to overlap while slipping.

So I would guess there is no mechanical interlock - there may be an electronic watchdog in the ECU (i.e. some simple timing circuit that is outside of the normal s/w control) that limits the time period that neither clutch is in the freewheeling position, though.

Cheers,
Robin

[smee]

Having never driven one of the flappy doo dahs at the limit, cany anyone confirm that if it goes wrong you can't dip the clutch to get out of it? Scary?