Woodward Avenue in Detroit is one of the most hallowed spots of ground for gearheads like us. It was literally the scene of the musclecar crime in the 1960s with roaming bands of factory engineers in hot cars racing anyone who dared step forth. While factories cannot send car out street racing (at least as blatantly as they did 40 years ago), they can simulate the experience on their test tracks and GM has released video proving that it does. Is it a coincidence that this video came out at about the same time as the Mustang manual transmission problems surfaced? Hmmmm.
Outside of the video, GM put out a press release talking about how they hammer on their stick boxes. GM assistant chief engineer for manual transmissions, Brad Bur said, ” “Of course we encourage safe driving, but we know burnouts and quick shifting are the reality. We have to design and engineer our transmissions to succeed in every possible scenario, including the street.” It strikes us a kind of neat that a tight assed company like GM would acknowledge, complete with a wink and a nod, that people pound on these cars be it on the street or the strip.
The Woodward Avenue tests replicate, “elements of the worst-case shifting style of some manual transmission customers, including repeated high-torque launches and high-rev shifts.”
That rules!
Here’s the video of the test in action!
Brutal? He lifted his foot off the accelerator in that test when shifting. 😉
BTW, this just reinforces how much our everday jobs suck compared to this.
yeah, the Woodward Avenue old lady transmission test more like. Somebody teach this guy how to powershift.
Supposedly you cant power shift a hyd clutch
With a title like Assistant Chief Engineer, you can bet that this guy sets through mind-numbing meetings and pours over Microsoft Project plans, spreadsheets and other documents related to stuff that gearheads don’t care about. He was dying for a chance to beat on a car again.
Show of hands…if GM told you to go out and beat on a new Camaro, who would shift like somebodies grandmother? I thought not. You could powershift a Cobalt SS or HHR SS at full throttle without lifting. For some reason the salesman would not allow me to test that feature.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D-AMVChm9w&feature=channel_video_title
lol, I like how he was driving around with those “GM” parts handy in the car. Although, I’m not sure I follow. Don’t Dodge, GM and Ford all use the Tremec TR-6060 in all of their pony cars? What is unique to each company’s version?
i’m living proof you can powershift a gm hyd clutch. 1 sec faster through the 1/4 in a c5 vette then anyone else who could drive it. hit the 6200 sweet spot just before the limiter and you’re flying