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      06-06-2012, 08:37 PM   #54
jphughan
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Drives: '16 Cayman GT4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Remonster View Post
I don't understand why they don't just make 6th gear longer? Take this 7 speed they have been developing, get rid of its 6th gear and end up with 4 accelerative gears, a 1:1 and a long over drive for gas mileage. Do we really need two separate over drive gears?

We have an F10 with the 8 speed auto and while it's a fantastic transmission, I've always thought it would be better if they got rid of 7th which is truly useless.
I wondered this myself -- then I realized that people lucky enough to be able to drive on the autobahn can actually redline 5th gear (~165 MPH) and continue accelerating, so those people probably don't want to drop from a gear that still offers pull down to a super sluggish gear that puts the revs way underneath the engine's power band when they want to continue accelerating.

But yeah, those of us in the US and most other countries where redlining 2nd is basically the speed limit and redlining 3rd risks your license could easily get by with just a taller 6th gear -- but think of the whining from enthusiasts if the 7-speed wasn't offered in their countries, never mind that it truly wouldn't make sense with the speed limits in those countries (there aren't even very many TRACKS in the world where any BMW would be able to exceed 165), plus they would hit the speed limiter before they hit redline in 5th anyway.
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'16 Cayman GT4 (delivery pics, comparison to E92 M3 write-up)

Gone but not forgotten:
'11.75 M3 E92 Le Mans | Black Nov w/ Alum | 6MT (owned 5/2011 - 11/2015)

Last edited by jphughan; 06-06-2012 at 09:10 PM..
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