Re: Selespeed vs CVT (long)

[Nizam Zambri <nizam@domain.elided>]

Oy.

Before this discussion gets thrown off-course, please take a gander at 
this webpage.  It's a quick overview of Audi's Multitronic:

http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/lancia/58/technical_school/gearbox/
tech_gear.htm#Audi%20Multitronic

It also gives description (albeit in a simplistic manner) to other forms 
of CVT.  The Audi's CVT does NOT behave like "conventional" CVTs, such as 
the belt-driven one invented by Van Doorne.

If you have an Audi dealership close by, please stop in for a test drive.  
You'll see what I mean after that.  Audi didn't take the Subaru Justy's 
transmission and put it behind its 3.0V6!  The gearbox has two modes.  
Full auto - where it mimicks an automatic/slushbox quite well (even though 
it has a clutch).  The other is "Manual Mode", where you have six speeds 
and the revs drop and climb as a manual tranny car does.  No viscous lag, 
plus you have engine braking. It gives the driver much more control and 
feedback [That is, if you can even hear the engine.  I had to roll my 
window down to listen for the intake roar (very muted) and exhaust (almost 
nonexistent) ... but I wasn't talking about the engine, just the tranny.]

The closest it ever felt to the Selespeed (I test drove a 2001 156 2.0TS 
last year) was when you were parking the car.  Since it has a clutch, the 
system had to slip it to inch the car forward and backwards, as you 
negotiate your parallel parking spot, for instance.  At that moment, a 
driver with an awareness of the underlying technology will realize this 
isn't a slushbox.  It does lurch about a little, kinda like when you were 
six months into driving with a clutch.  Not abrupt, but there is some 
slippage.

On the other end of the scale, Audi's multitronic does NOT blip the 
throttle on downshifts which it otherwise does beautifully - imperceptible 
unless you pay very close attention to the tachometer.  The 156 Selespeed,
  as does the Ferrari F360 F1, will blip the throttle for you as you 
downshift - making intoxicating noises as it does so.

As a car, the new A4 is an excellent contender in the hot "sporty 4-door 
sedan" market.  The historically overpaid and image-conscious San 
Francisco Bay Area yuppies are eating them up; making raspberries at their 
less-imaginative peers who opted for the "I have arrived too" 3-series BMW'
s.

Is it an Alfa-beater?  Oh for sure - to the masses that is.  Not for me 
(and apparently some of you too).  I still have my Alfas, and until I can 
get my hands on a 156GTA, I'll just keep saving up.  Yes, even if it is 
only FWD, even if it has the potentially more problematic Selespeed system,
  and even if it costs as much as an Audi S4.  Now let's see where my map 
of Mexico's toll roads was ... ahh, there it is ...

Nizam, in the SF Bay Area
88 75 3.0V6
94 164 Super 3.0V6 24v
97 155V6 2.5

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