Chevy & ford collaberate on 9 & 10 speed trans

[1963c-10]

Just read an article on yahoo that Chevy & ford are collaberating on 9 & 10 speed transmissions. Has anybody else read the article? I know they worked together on the 6 speeds, but are 9-10 speeds really practical for cars/trucks? I see an advantage for fuel mileage, but does 9-10 gears seem overkill to you guys? Would you install a 9-10 speed trans in your truck? Just interested to see what you guys feel on this.

[1963c-10]

Heres a small part of the article
"Generally speaking, transmissions with more gears allow vehicles to use less gasoline. Gasoline engines operate most efficiently within a certain narrow speed range, as measured in revolutions per minute or rpm. Different gears allow the engine to operate, as much as possible, within that speed range even as the vehicle itself speeds up and slows down. The more gear choices the transmission has, the less the engine has to vary its own speed.

The new 9-speed transmissions will be designed for front-wheel-drive cars and crossover SUVs while the 10-speed transmissions will be designed for large rear-wheel-drive SUVs and trucks"

[markeb01]

Unless it’s an automatic transmission, it doesn’t seem very marketable to me. That many gears would allow keeping the engine in a very narrow power/torque range for better efficiency I suppose, if the engine was designed around the transmission.

If the vehicle was geared to top out at 200 mph it might make sense, but most people would never use half of the higher gears. And if it was designed to use all the gears by 70 mph, that would be a lot more shifting than the majority of people would tolerate, since most prefer not shifting at all.

9 or 10 speeds might allow some very tiny engines to hit the market. That’s why the European cars had 4 speed manuals when America was predominantly 3 speed sticks or 2 speed automatics. They really needed extra gearing for the pint size little motors to move the cars along.

[1963c-10]

I agree with you Mark, Im not quite sure the application for it as far as engine wise, just seems like way to many gears in my opinion. For that matter, 5-6 gears are too many for me. Im a 3-4 speed trans guys myself.

On the other note....the article didn't say wheter it was a manual or auto trans that they were designing, not that it makes a difference in my application. If I ever plan on running the salt flats, I think I'd invest in one.

[Shorty63]

I would put my money on it being an automatic. They wouldn't put that much money into someting only a handful of people could even use. The whole piont of the many gears is to keep the engine in a specific operating range. This allows them to make the engine efficient in a very small RPM range rather than making an engine efficient throught the entire RPM range. This is probably to do with smaller engines being the new trend as well. I'm also fairly certain top speed would not be their goal and it would have maybe 2 overdrive gears with the majority being underdrive.

If it was easy to swap one into my truck i think i would try. Wouldnt it be cool to have a 60s beast making amazing mileage?

[Rufton]

Something tells me it won't be as easy and cheap to rebuild as a 60's 3 speed.
If it is count me in.

[BR3W CITY]

these 7+ speed trannies in late model cars (automatics) just seem to hunt back and forth too much. From what I understand the luxury brands have worked it better, but the ones I've felt from Chrylser and Hyundai were pretty poor.