Entirely theretical question about Triptronic/Clutchless Manual:

Whappeh

Whappeh

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Aug 21, 2006
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Location
Seattle, WA
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05 Nissan Xterra 4x4
I did a search, nothing about this in particular came up, so hopefully I didn't miss.

Anyway, I recently bought an 05 RX8. My long time dream car (or at least for 2 years.. lol). I opted to go for the Automatic with the flappy paddle gear shifters for back up. I wanted the automatic because I hate the traffic in our area, and am not a huge car buff. I don't really care for the loss of performance, nor the feeling of "being in charge" of the gears that come with driving an actual manual.

The thing I noticed though, the biggest shortcoming in the whole system is an apparent lack of gears. The manual has 6, the Auto only has 4. What I was wondering is if its possible to go back and put in extra gears? Its probably not the most economic option. Granted, this entire idea is based in ignorance of the system to start, but it seems to me that would help?
 
Tough way to learn a lesson. Not all cars have the same # of gears regarding auto/manual. It's usually higher on the manual.

Adding extra gears is tough, the box is designed for a certain amount of gears. Might be better off looking at an entirely new box, but that's so much $$$$ my advice is to live with it or trade in the car. This isn't like adding a tach to the side of the A-pillar, it's a bit more intensive.
 
Samir said:
Tough way to learn a lesson. Not all cars have the same # of gears regarding auto/manual. It's usually higher on the manual.

Adding extra gears is tough, the box is designed for a certain amount of gears. Might be better off looking at an entirely new box, but that's so much $$$$ my advice is to live with it or trade in the car. This isn't like adding a tach to the side of the A-pillar, it's a bit more intensive.
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Yeah I figured as much, but since I like the automatic ease in the traffic, I was hoping it would be a relatively easy thing to have the automatic ease for the traffic, but the 6 gears and hopefully a bit more lively car when in the manual mode. An after market gear box may be what I'm looking for then, if its even possiable?
 
Better off just trading in for a manual. Probably too difficult to do it any other way.
 
FATMOUSE said:
Better off just trading in for a manual. Probably too difficult to do it any other way.
Click to expand...

Probably. Though I'm not looking for a manual. :shrug:

Oh well, was just to see if it could be done. Thanks for the info.
 
well theoretically anything is possible, but you would have to deal with the following problems:
-first of all there most likely simply isn?t enough room inside the gearbox housing for more gears
-even if there was, you would need all the mechanical bits that actually move the extra parts around to switch gears
-then you would have to develop a new software from scratch that actually controls all these things, and takes into account the new gear ratios to make smooth shifts when in automatic mode...

so in the end you would save A LOT of money if you just bought an additional rx8 with a manual gearbox :mrgreen:
 
Please don't mind the stupid question, but WHY THE HELL would you want an RX-8 in the first place if you hate the traffic in your area so much that you ruin in with an automatic?
Apart from that, the number of gears in autos doesn't really matter that much a) because you have shifts without torque lags and b) you wouldn't go fast enough to use the higher gears anyway. No you can't add more gears to an auto box, that would mean redesigning the whole box. Your options are:
1. do nothing
2. rip out the auto box and install a manual one (bit stupid choice)
3. sell your rx-8 and get a manual one
 
Or just learn to drive manual. :sleep:

Alternatively, save the RX-8 for weekends and buy a 1988 Toyota Corolla for $200 and drive it to work, that'll save you the frustration of not enjoying your shiny new sports car. The RX-8 isn't exactly the ideal commuter car anyway, I can't imagine it gets good gas mileage especially in traffic.
 
Buy a manual RX-8 and buy a $1000 auto crap box to drive to work in.


Same price in the end
 
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