Re: Mercedes question
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Re: Mercedes question



At 09:47 AM 8/26/2005 -0400, you wrote:
" From: Matt Haas <mhaas@xxxxxxx>
"
" Fuel efficiency is why they're going with large numbers of gears in
" automatic transmissions. The goal is to keep the engine at peak efficiency
" as much as possible (which makes me wonder why CVT transmissions haven't
" caught on).

belt/pulley cvts are very hard to engineer for capacity, and if the
belts are rubber, for efficiency.  i don't know about hydrostatic
transmissions except they require extremely tight tolerances, and that
means expense - and then there's the plumbing, and maintenance.
electric transmisison has potential, especially in combination with
batteries, but i think weight is still a problem.

hydrostatic and electric do have interesting possibilities for all
wheel drive.

But with a hydrostatic transmission, you really could have stump pulling torque!


For those who don't know hydrostatic transmissions are run off of hydraulics. They're used in things like Bobcats and tractors. The lawn tractor I bought last fall has one of these transmissions and it will go from nothing to top speed (7.5 miles per hour -- weeee!) fast enough to chirp both rear tires on clean dry pavement. I don't know if I'd really want one in a car due to noise (it sounds like the power steering on an old Ford pickup) but the instant torque is a blast.

Matt


mhaas@xxxxxxx Cincinnati, OH http://www.mattsoldcars.com 1967 Rambler American wagon 1968 Rambler American sedan =============================================================== According to a February survey of Internet holdouts released by UCLA's Center for Communication Policy, people cite not having a computer as the No. 1 reason they won't go online.







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