Seven gears forward, two back

Snip 8<

Should burn well then.

Listening to Firestarter by Prodigy DD

Anyone else remember that scene from Hooper? "Unsafe backing..."

Lee

Nothing innovative there. Magnesium gearbox casings have been around since like forever.

"From as long as I can remember until the early 1990s, Formula 1 gearbox cases were made in cast magnesium." -

I also remember reading that the Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato (or at least a few individual vehicles) had a magnesium-cased gearbox.

Roy

I thought taking racing developments and bringing them to mass produced cars was innovative myself, by definition its something new, and contrary to established customs.

Can't say I've ever had a problem retaining traction in reverse, still, I'm sure its going to be good fun sorting it out when it all goes wrong :-/

Stunt drivers may get the most use out of it.

Why are transmission repairs so much more aggravation and cost than what seems like any other part of the car?

Why is AMG not getting the 7 speed? It seems to me that if you are going to spring for the hot AMG version you would want the best transmission and those extra gears would seem to be of more use too with the extra power.

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Found a link on the DC site:

The cost competitive biodiesel story looks interesting too.

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[snip]

Well, developments trickling down from racing cars is less innovation than it's business as usual IMO. That's the way it's always been done.

And there's no way I'll call it an innovation when it was used more than 40 years ago and is probably of pre-war origin. (Like everything else on cars, magnesium casings were probably used by aircraft manufacturers to keep weight down.)

Try half-molten snow on a layer of ice with an old S-class wearing studless winter tyres. Wheelspin in any gear, no traction whatsoever.

Good studded tyres and weighing down the back end will probably help. (And where can I get me one of those limited slip differentials...)

Aye, there's that. I'll keep my 5-speed manual, thanks.

Roy

Just because that's how it always happens doesn't mean it isn't innovative

At present you cannot buy a mass produced vehicle with a magnesium gearbox casing, in a few months you will be able to. Mercedes are offering you the opportunity to own a vehicle with a feature like this, which until now you would only have seen on a race track, that's innovation!

Not something that happens often in good old Blighty, what's a studded tyre? ;-)

I'm with you on this one, doesn't mean I'll get out of fixing someone elses though... :-/

Unless you are in Mexico (Where you can buy one now), but the Volkswagen Beetle uses a Magnesium case for the engine and transaxel. It has since the first one in the 40's. We used a welding torch to light one once. Was a bear to get started, but burned on it's own...

Lee

Indeed. Sorry, for brevity I left out some of the text. In fact Merc's claim is for the casing to be introduced in a normal road-going car.

DAS

--

You missed out strip down old gearbox, identify cause of failiure, rebuild old gearbox.

Without this info MB won't authorise payment of warranty claim.

To be fair, they don't often go wrong...

So you never had to repair real cars,only wannabees, really sad ;-)

More gears, more chance to get failure. I am a bit sick repairing MB. Jap cars today are more reliable and cheap here.

Keith Beast

"Dori Schmetterling" :3f055278$0$10631$ snipped-for-privacy@news.dial.pipex.com...

Some classmates of mine in a chemistry class one relayed that when they go riding in their dune buggies at night they bring along an old VW engine, shave pieces off, and light them for some midnight riding.