F1technical.net

Just got reminded by the BAR cvt post about the revolutionary twin clutch set up Mclaren were looking at introducing in the last couple of years to shorten (or eliminate) gear change times. Does anyone know what became of this and whether it would contravene the CVT regulations?

I heard that they wanted to use it in the MP4-19A, but it was banned by the FIA before the start of last season.

- KJ

KJM3 wrote:I heard that they wanted to use it in the MP4-19A, but it was banned by the FIA before the start of last season.

- KJ

You are correct!

twin clutch AMT's (automated manual transmissions) are replacing conventional automatics in production cars.

Here's one from VW:

http://news.kak.net/bilder/vw/vw_dsg15l.jpg

http://news.kak.net/bilder/vw/vw_dsg14l.jpg

hey riff_raff,
thanks for the link but it wont let me access the jpegs.... that would be a very different setup to the Mclaren one thought wouldnt it??

KJM3 wrote:I heard that they wanted to use it in the MP4-19A, but it was banned by the FIA before the start of last season.

That is also what I heard. Someone offered me the following reason.
With a twin-clutch gearbox the operation is as follows (rather simplified):
Gear 1 selected and Gear 2 pre-selected -> CLutch 1 disengaged -> Clutch 2 engaged -> Gear 3 pre-selected .. etc
What McLaren did was disengaging clutch 1 and engaging clutch 2 at the same time. During this time and through the slip in the clutches the car was driven by two gears simultaniously between 'gearshifts'. With clever clutch control there was even an 'infinite' number of ratios possible during a gearchange. And so the FIA argued this gearbox was in effect a CVT and thus forbidden.

No word on their current gearbox though. Carbon or not?
There were a couple of guys on the atlasf1 forum who could have sworn they saw a titanium gearbox in a picture taken when Raikkonen stopped on the track. I blew it up in photoshop but it was, as expected, a mere trick of the light.
Does anyone at all have anything new on the issue?

No i havent come across any new information on the subject and not sure that i'm likely to at the race. Shame you didnt include the pic as part of your post bernard.