mynickers

The old fella just took delivery of his new A4 estate...

Company car, and went for a low spec to avoid silly tax, got the 1.9TDI 130.

Build quality, design and finish as you'd expect - very good, so no suprises there.

But I am soooo impressed with the coned - continous gearbox thing, it's smooth and seemless, just felt like constant power and torque on tap, no bumping about with kickback, no pulling off in low gears. At the a round about it pulled off in a ratio which felt like second / third, as he put his foot down it gently gave it a better ratio. I can see that system being adaptable for racing so much better power delivery without the cut off of clutch and gear change, and the ratio's can never be as close as one continous cone...

Very clever...

jjones

daihatsu had this in their charade in the 80s.

Reffro

Yep Audi's CVT gearbox is very good as you have discovered. Just don't tell your Dad its related to the little DAF rubber band car's gearbox. Same principle, but its been improved over time...

mynickers

He is an engineer has a head full of stuff like that, just been chatting about it, apparently he thinks it was to do with the patent, even though Daff cocked it up with rubber belts that stretched and failed, they had patent... Not sure if that's true or the old man speculating. But Audi and their electronic trickery seem to of made a really good effort of it.

jjones

the daihatsu you could **** in reverse hit 15mph then fire it into forward and it would slow the reverse and then start accelerating forwards. in the end the engine blew from constant abuse.

Reffro

Yes the main difference between the DAF and Audi product is that Audi developed the gearbox over time. The principle is the same, but obviously now the gearbox is electronically controlled, and the belts have been substantially improved, I think they closer to steel chains than rubber now.

Whatever they have done, instead of struggling and failing with 40hp, the Audi multitronic is good for 200hp and 250lbs ft torque. Oh yeah, for the moment, I'd avoid suggesting you Dad chips his engine, as the gearbox is only rated for a little more than the engine is knocking out right now.

mynickers

My dad has a beard, and goes to church every week, I don't think he'll be chipping it! He won't even let me drive it (although - I dont' really blame him), we just parked in halfords, and he parked miles away from the door, because he was worried someone might give him a parking bump! Bless his cottons, not sure why none of those sensiblities ever rubbed off on me, I am a menace! (highly skilled menace of course). He went for the SE this time, had Passat sport before, but the chassis still seems smooth and taught - not too much body roll and as you would expect - very good breaks.

That continuous gear box must give much better economy, it makes changing gear in an auto seem a bit ridiculous, revs dropping and or speeding up to make up for the change in ratio between gears. They claim it accelerates at exactly the same pace as the manual. Gotta be a good idea that you're always on the best possible ratio to get power when you need it. Plus you've got the 'virtual' gears should you want to throw it about. Slowly but surely I am being sold on the idea - still not for me - extra weight innit!

Had a look in the engine, can't see **** all these days, they have those posh branded engine covers - it's qutie a small engine unit though, the Petrol 1.8T passat he had before was sprawled out all over the engine bay in comparison (although I am working from memory here). Have seen a photo of the wire meshed chain type thing they use on gear box, all looks very clever.

Tiggs

is this the same as in the TT 3.2? if so im surprised because that was rubbish and promted me to order a Z4 3.0 with auto instead.

Simon S3

The TT is DSG not multitronic, totally different gearboxes.

mynickers

Evo thought that DSG was close to genius, just a bit fiddly to get the hang of?

But you shouldn't be driving a TT anyway or a Z4 for that matter, pull yourself together man and get an S2000