I’m a GM fan. Have been since I was a kid and currently drive a C6 Corvette as my daily. I’m also a manual transmission guy so automatic transmission really aren’t a preferred option. Of course the new Corvettes has paddel-shifting which is state of the art, but what do I do with my left leg???!!!!
DETROIT – The all-new, GM-developed Hydra-Matic 8L90 paddle-shift eight-speed automatic transmission offered in the 2015 Corvette Stingray and Z06 enhances performance and efficiency, while delivering exceptional refinement and world-class shift responsiveness that rivals the world’s best dual-clutch transmissions.
In fact, in the 2015 Corvette Stingray, it enables a class-leading 29-mpg EPA highway estimate – a 3.5-percent increase in fuel economy over the previous six-speed automatic – and a quicker 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds, all while delivering wide-open-throttle upshifts quicker than those of the dual-clutch transmission offered in the Porsche 911.
“GM’s new 8L90 eight-speed automatic represents a rare win-win-win scenario for customers,” said Kavoos Kaveh, global chief engineer for eight-speed automatic transmissions. “It offers greater performance and efficiency, while weighing less than the transmission it replaces. That’s a rare accomplishment in the industry today – and one for which GM has been awarded more than two dozen patents.”
via New 8-Speed Enables Quicker, More Efficient Corvette.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
I was a manual trans only guy for years. I shunned the ‘slush box’ and believed at the end of the day it was worth the $1500 every 60K miles for a clutch replacement. That was until I read a Car and Driver article from the early 1990s. They took a stock LT1 Camaro Z28 with a 4 speed auto and a 6 speed manual, and got Emerson Fittipaldi, Jeff Gordon, and several other professional race car drivers on both the oval and 1/4 mile drag strip. Each took three turns in each vehicle comparing their manual vs automatic times. In the 1/4 miles the times were very close, but the automatic won most of the time by 1, or 2 tenths of a second. On the oval, it was no contest as the automatic clearly outperformed all of the other cars using ‘professional’ drivers.I have wondered why we don’t see automatic transmissions used in NASCAR and INDY?
I also live in a city of over 1 million people without an Expressway, or Interstate highway that runs through the town with an average posted speed limit of 35MPH and rocking chair commute speeds of 15 to 55 to 15 MPH. That fact alone keeps a manual trans off the shopping list forever.