Ok i need someone who can explain things in dumb language as something has been buggging me for ages

Most of todays supercars lambo-ferrari etc all seem to have these f1 type paddle shifts thingeys..how do the fookas work though?..is there a clutch aswell or do you simply flick the paddle without touching a clutch?

What happens when the car is brought to a standstill at traffic lights etc as in a normal manual we would just simply press the clutch down how is the car brought to a stop without moving, without a clutch?

It may be a stupid question i know but ive always wondered how those paddle thingeys work

im bored,cant u tell

 

I've only driven one car with paddle shift (F355 GTS) and I didn't care much for it.

To shift, you just pull one of the paddles. The Ferrari system would upshift sometime after you pulled the paddle UNLESS you were absolutely flat on the gas and then it would upshift close to when you pulled the paddle, otherwise it seemed a bit random to me.

If you grabbed a downshift, the ECU would not let you mechanically over-rev the car and would wait until the revs dropped enough to go to the next lower gear. This didn't bother me as much as the upshifting.

I'm told they improved it on the 360's but I've not had a chance to drive one.

I've HEARD that the BMW SMG box is fantastic, but don't have any personal experience with it.

 

far as i know most (not all) tend to be auto boxes with a manual shift (paddles)

i know there are manual ones.....but im buggerd if i know how these work

if they are anything like a bike engine car then you just need to let off the throttle when you change up and bang it in but you still need a clutch when coming down the box.

 

im still no wiser

 

Instead of the gears and clutch being mechanically controlled by a human,
Hydraulic rams/actuators are used to do the same job.
(High pressure oil system)
These are controlled by electronic solenoids to provide a method of automation
wether this is from the driver clicking the paddles (electronic switches)
or the engine ecu requesting an up shift/or down shift.

 

Read this the other week - http://auto.howstuffworks.com/sequential-gearbox.htm

Mite be of some use

 

Moonie,
That is a good link but that is for a mechanical sequential gearbox
not a paddle shift type !!

 

are all paddle shift boxes auto's then? i thought you could get paddles on a manual

 

As electronics are used, the gearbox could either be auto or manual or both !!!

 

darren.cud
The new BMW M3 (E46) and M3(CSL) Uses a manual box but with Hydraulic shifters.

This is by far the best system on the market at present !

All the other Manufactures just seem like auto boxes in comparison.

Including Ferrari and the latest Audi's

 

Maybe the clutch is a conventional clutch but operated by solenoids etc, which would be controlled by electronics.... when you pull the shift up padle the electronics disengages the clutch then it changes the gear and re-engages the clutch??? It would also have to have some sort of speed sensor on the transmission input shaft to compare the engine to gearbox speed and therefore measure how much the clutch was slipping.

This bit of my above link explains a bit more...

Nearly all race transmissions use the sequential shift approach. The drum is rotated manually by a lever in the cockpit, or it is rotated by solenoids, pneumatics or hydraulics that are activated electronically. In the electronic case, the driver has a pair of paddle switches on the steering wheel to control the mechanism and never has to move his/her hands from the steering wheel.

Because of the advantages of the sequential approach, this type of transmission is starting to appear on cars in the high-end tuner market. A sequential manual transmission is not to be confused with a "tiptronic" sort of automatic transmission. The tiptronic system may duplicate the shift lever motion of a sequential gearbox. However, because a tiptronic transmission is an automatic transmission at its core, it still has the torque converter and usually does not shift as quickly.

 

I work for Volvo

On the Volvos they use a tiptronic system which is a conventional electronic controlled auto box with the ability to manully shift the gears, its quite slow in operation.

 

its justa gimmick in 99% of cars , its just an auto box as has been said , with the abiltiy to shift on a paddle rather than a stick in the centre console , and it dont matter what you do , it will always pull you out of the shit if you fuck it !!

 

not in the ferrari and lambo (egear) they have clutches which are controlled