telll me about tiptronics

I have used a tiptronic before, that car was both auto & tiptronic.

Are all tiptronics both?

share your knowledge petrol heads

Tiptronic is basically an auto that allows you to manually select what gear you are in.

"A Tiptronic transmission can operate just as the common type of automatic transmission, but it also allows the driver to override the automatic mode by moving the shift lever into a second (Tiptronic) shift gate and permits, for example, downshifting to increase the braking effect of the engine."

yup, its also pretty much a waste of time because tiptronics dont shift fast enough and the throttle response is an absolute joke, if you need to shift gears get a manual, otherwise most people who have tiptronics don't bother using it, My mum's had a tiptronic for a couple of months now, shes never used it, its just not nessessary, the dealership she brought it from (Honda) told her thats its really only any good in passing lanes, in reality when you put your foot down in an automatic they automactically go into 'power mode' anyway which means it will drop down a gear or 2 to give you extra power, you can't do it any faster in a tiptronic.

tiptronic started as a porsche brand name iirc. the preferred term today is 'flappy paddle'


and yes, all of them operate in manual mode, regardless of exactly what type it is.

most of them are simply auto's with a manual mode. anything you'll be looking at is one of them.

uber ones like BMW SMG and VAG's DSG are manual gearboxes with computer controlled clutches and shifters.

I run tiptronic in mine .. and its not like the jap ones which yes have given tiptronic a bad name. I get very quick changes on selection infact it works out faster than manual. Putting the car in this mode also tells the computer to change the gear changes into 'racing' like mode which mean you get very hard changes (not jerky, just hard). it also has a learning logic and adjusts for your driving style IE if you are using manual mode around town it will sofen the changes if you absolutly hammering it it will change very quickly indeed. It all depends on which car your really talking about. SMG and SMGII rule!

I use tiptronic often to hold a gear up a hill on over takeing and for down changes.

Nothing compares to manual! I've driven a auto most of my life and late last year choosing a manual was the best thing I've ever done.
Sometimes Auckland traffic annoys me with a manual, but in all honesty unless you've got instant changes from the real european tiptronic boxes I'd still stick by my manual.

Personally I'll own nothing but a manual, can't stand auto, tip tronic or whatever the fuck u wanna call it, I change gears when I want and if you dont have a clutch you have nothing to drop!

Tiptronic ... pfft whos wants tiptronic!



Sincerely,
Jeeves

Word, auto/tip + powerful car = lion without claws

good way to look at, I always get amused when you see these guys with there 297kw holdens wanking on about how fast and sporty the car is then ya have a look, 'its not even a manual man!'

You would hate SMG then .... thing is .. its the way the worlds going ..

It is the way its all going, and true that the more up to date systems shift quicker and more effectively than you can manually. For me it just detracts from the whole drving experience. It gives you less direct interaction with the car.

Yep, I can't see th epoint of not having a proper manual... even in the heaviest of Auckland traffic in a car with a heavy clutch it's never even bothered me for an instant.

There's not a single tiptronic type system short of possibly the best Porsche and ferrari systems that can compete with a well-driven manual in terms of efficiency and speed of shift. On the road, manufacturers will never be able to equal the control of a manual with a semi-automatic arrangement.

True.

No need for a heavy clutch, before I got my new one I had an Exedy 3 puck racing clutch, heaviest pedal I've ever pushed, my left calf muscle actually got a bit bigger than the right from the work out, I now run a Nissan 6 puck racing clutch (because I fried the 3 puck) and the pedal is no where near as heavy, nice and easy to drive

I was just speaking to someone who used to own a tiptronic. He says you have to use it on the motorway otherwise your car will not be economical.

is he full of shit? I don't see us ever using the tiptronic function.

he is a courier and his tiptronic died at 70,000ks. is this because he used it excessively?

Can we just run the car in the auto function?

you've seen how couriers drive right?


you've got a CVT - it's a different type of transmission to what you're used to. just driving it like an auto is fine.

haha the courier is full of it

I've got Hyper-CVT...whatever the hell THAT is

On a similar note someone told me that really steez drivers can stop faster without ABS (all other factors being equal), because they can get closer to the skiding zone?

Sounds feasible but I'm not too sure.

ABS was never really meant to make you stop faster, but to allow you to retain steering control. you want to avoid accidents if at all possible, rather than just slow down before you have it.


most recent stuff i've seen indicates that on a typical road, abs vs non-abs with a good driver is pretty equal.

most people believe non-abs to be better on gravel since the tire can force down to the solid surface, rather than rolling over the loose gravel.

of course, as technology improves, this changes all the time.

oh and http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cvt.htm

My opinion is on the road in a normal driving situation in a road car ABS will ALWAYS stop you faster, on the race track with a race car its a different story because you've got tires that grip a whole lot better and race drivers will not use ABS because it takes away control. I think the comments come from ABS in road cars always kicks in earlier than you want it to meaning you can't brake as deep but why you'd be doing this on the street I don't know (illegal).

The ABS system while braking brakes and unbrakes the car a whole lot faster than your foot ever could, if someone pulls out in front of you the first instinct is to jam on the brakes, no matter how good you are you can't pulse brake as fast as the ABS system, its just it kicks in too early for some peoples liking and means its impossible to lock up the front brakes unless you pull the abs fuse.

I've never driven one but a mate did and said it was really wierd first off but ya got used to it.

Moring Ma, mine is tiptroic and its done over 200,000 and shes still going ... and you know i dont drive it like a nanna. Also you can use it in the auto bay all the time if you want ... but its good to beable to change down a gear if your climbing a hill or over taking.

Sincerely,
Jeeves

thing is, they have no shift points, revs build and then slowly die - in fact some manufacturers program the computer to emulate fake shifts to make them seem the same. kind of defeats much of the purpose of them but hey.

I think it's great - you can't feel the gears change at all.

definately a good innovation, especially for the fuel economy and smoothness, if I wanted an auto i'd get one, Audi has it sussed.

It all comes down to this.......





Cant drop the clutch on a triptronic......YEEHAA!

<torque>

hehe ... nah .. you just foot it and the wheels light up

</torque>

whats torque? got none of it im my rotrie!!

Give me a gear stick and clutch anyday, period.

Word, driving experience is whats important, or would you rather plug a playstation controller in and go from there

Be safer to just play playstation In anything but a manual with clutch there are always electronics making some of the desicions for you, in this day and age we don't yet have 'intelligent cars' that can see your playing silly buggers and give you more control accordingly. With the use of a clutch you are your own launch control, plus theres always the compression lock up fun that you can't have without a clutch

flappy paddle will let you do any of this ... just need to know how.

launch = punch the revs in and out which will stop the clutch from engaging take it up to what ever range you want and just floor it to engage the clutch system. biiiig fish tail follows or a awesome launch on qauter mile.

They are not all that bad ... like I said eailer Jap cars give the rest of them bad name.

yeah but its worse on the car, especially considering the cost of such systems and still no compression lock up fun

I know of the DSG system and don't like it at all.. I've driven both a golf DSG and a TTDSG and both were about as fun to drive as your average auto.... their shift speeds are okay, but definitely not seamless. I've been in manual gearboxes that can shift quicker (and I KNOW that you'll come up with some statistic that the DSG gearbox can shift in 0.05 of a second or something, but the truth is that a slick manual can be just as quick OVERALL (from power off to power on) as a DSG... or in some cases even quicker.

There are a couple of manual gearbox advancements due for release in the next few years, watch this space.

hmmm I think we are confusing Tiptronic with Flappy paddle

those are just names.

wtf? but they mean different things.

luke means somehting different to kris, but they are both still just names

ahh *click*

debating the pointless