The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1's 10-Speed Auto Laughs In The Face Of Your Porsche PDK Gearbox
When news of Chevrolet’s new Camaro ZL1 dropped earlier this year, one detail stood out: its optional 10-speed automatic gearbox. Now we’ve gotten over all the Vin Diesel and ‘lol it’d be a mountain bike if it had any more gears‘ jokes, General Motors has decided to tell the world just how fast its new 10-speeder is.
It actually shifts quicker than Porsche’s super fast twin-clutch PDK gearbox on certain changes. It’s 36 per cent quicker when shifting from first to second, 27 per cent quicker from second to third and 26 per cent quicker for the third-fourth upshift. What GM doesn’t say is how it compares to PDK on the remaining upshifts, or any of the downshifts, but still - that’s an impressive claim.
The speed is all down to clutches. While it may have a torque converter, this is no ordinary slush box. Why? Because it’s rocking six clutches: two brake clutches and four rotating clutches. And despite having an extra clutch and two more gears than GM’s eight-speed ‘box, clever packaging means the overall size is about the same.
Other fancy features include a new low viscosity transmission fluid to reduce friction, and an “internal thermal bypass” which allows for shorter warm-up times.
It’s worth noting that this gearbox won’t be restricted to fancy schmancy GM products like the ZL1 - it’s set to appear in eight of the firm’s cars by 2018, and as it’s been co-developed with Ford, will also be installed in Blue Oval machines like the F-150.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Porsche’s engineers be like
That’s a good comment might make it on top comments of the week
I think Chevrolet has seen too much F&F
Porsche guys be like
Are 10 gears really necessary?
No, but you gotta meet these stringent fuel economy standards somehow.
Hell why not. Can keep less powerful engines in their powerband for longer. Or just go electric and have a wide powerband and better efficiency.
The more gears, the better you can stay in the power band, it’s just the time to shift that makes it bad, but now they shift crazy fast. Only down side is reliability
Nice, can they make one that doesn’t rattle like an old tool chest after 10k miles?
Otherwise i am certain i would still prefer the porsche..
Your camaro rattled after 10k?
So it seems as though the ZL1 probably only has an advantage through the first 3 gear changes, and with a 10-speed, how often are these changes likely to be made?
Much more often then the rest of the gears. every time you pull away from standstill.
But does it have a name like this?
Clutchy McDoubleclutch
doppelkupplung just means doubleclutch
it should be… by the time the porsche has done one gear change this must need about 3…
I was going to say exactly that.
Comment of the week
Vin Diesel Approves this camaro.
What everyone seems to forget is the weight. A six speed gearbox is already much heavier than a five speed gearbox and I really don’t wanna know how heavy a ten speed gearbox is.
and complexity and cost…. for ever decreasing gains
The front air inlet looks like somebody messed around with the AutoSculpt feature in Need For Speed.
lol so true