If you have ever ridden a motorcycle, you know that the manual transmission in a motorcycle is nothing like this. On a motorcycle, you shift gears by clicking a lever up or down with your toe. It's a much faster way to shift. This type of transmission is called a sequential gearbox or a sequential manual transmission.
It turns out that most race cars use sequential gearboxes as well. A sequential gearbox gives the driver several important advantages that are very useful in a race car. We will discuss these benefits later in this article.
In this article, you will learn how a sequential manual transmission works and why this type of transmission now appears on so many high-performance vehicles.
The "H" pattern allows you to move the shift rod between the control rods for the three forks and move the rods back and forth.
A sequential manual transmission works the same way. There is still a set of gear selector forks that move collars that engage gears. The only difference is how the control rods are manipulated. The "H" pattern is eliminated and replaced with a different motion.
In a race car, the movement of the shift lever is either "push forward" to up-shift or "pull backward" to downshift. If you are in a gear and you want to go to a higher gear (eg from 2nd to 3rd), you push the shift lever forward. To go from 3rd to 4th, you push the lever forward again. To go from 4th to 5th, you press it forward again. It's the same motion every time. To drop back a gear, say from 5th to 4th, you pull the lever backward. In European mass-produced cars, the shift lever moves forward and backward to shift into higher and lower gears, respectively. In Formula One cars, there are actually two paddles on the sides of the steering wheel, instead of a shift lever. The left paddle up-shifts, while the right paddle downshifts. On a motorcycle, you do the same thing, but instead of moving a lever back and forth with your hand, you move a lever up and down with your foot.
What these motions are doing is rotating a ratcheting drum. The drum looks like this. You can see that there are grooves cut into the drum.
These grooves can do one of two things:
So, when you move the lever, it rotates the drum one increment (for example, 50 degrees). This rotation causes the rods or forks to move according to the grooves in the drum, changing the gears.
Nearly all race transmissions use the sequential shift approach. The drum is rotated manually by a lever in the cockpit, or it is rotated by solenoids, pneumatics or hydraulics that are activated electronically. In the electronic case, the driver has a pair of paddle switches on the steering wheel to control the mechanism and never have to move his / her hands from the steering wheel.
Due to the advantages of the sequential approach, this type of transmission is starting to appear on cars in the high end tuner market. A sequential manual transmission is not confused with a "tiptronic" kind of automatic transmission. The tiptronic system can duplicate the shift lever motion of a sequential gearbox. However, because a tiptronic transmission is an automatic transmission at its core, it still has a torque converter and usually does not shift as fast.
It turns out that most race cars use sequential gearboxes as well. A sequential gearbox gives the driver several important advantages that are very useful in a race car. We will discuss these benefits later in this article.
In this article, you will learn how a sequential manual transmission works and why this type of transmission now appears on so many high-performance vehicles.
The "H" pattern allows you to move the shift rod between the control rods for the three forks and move the rods back and forth.
A sequential manual transmission works the same way. There is still a set of gear selector forks that move collars that engage gears. The only difference is how the control rods are manipulated. The "H" pattern is eliminated and replaced with a different motion.
In a race car, the movement of the shift lever is either "push forward" to up-shift or "pull backward" to downshift. If you are in a gear and you want to go to a higher gear (eg from 2nd to 3rd), you push the shift lever forward. To go from 3rd to 4th, you push the lever forward again. To go from 4th to 5th, you press it forward again. It's the same motion every time. To drop back a gear, say from 5th to 4th, you pull the lever backward. In European mass-produced cars, the shift lever moves forward and backward to shift into higher and lower gears, respectively. In Formula One cars, there are actually two paddles on the sides of the steering wheel, instead of a shift lever. The left paddle up-shifts, while the right paddle downshifts. On a motorcycle, you do the same thing, but instead of moving a lever back and forth with your hand, you move a lever up and down with your foot.
What these motions are doing is rotating a ratcheting drum. The drum looks like this. You can see that there are grooves cut into the drum.
These grooves can do one of two things:
- If the drum is located away from the transmission's gears, the grooves control standard control rods.
- If the drum is located away from the transmission's gears, the grooves control standard control rods.
So, when you move the lever, it rotates the drum one increment (for example, 50 degrees). This rotation causes the rods or forks to move according to the grooves in the drum, changing the gears.
Because of the drum, you have to shift in sequence. There is no skipping, for example, from first gear to third. You must always go through the second gear to get to the third gear. It's the same when downshifting. The advantage of this system is that shifting errors are impossible. You always go to the next gear.
Nearly all race transmissions use the sequential shift approach. The drum is rotated manually by a lever in the cockpit, or it is rotated by solenoids, pneumatics or hydraulics that are activated electronically. In the electronic case, the driver has a pair of paddle switches on the steering wheel to control the mechanism and never have to move his / her hands from the steering wheel.
Due to the advantages of the sequential approach, this type of transmission is starting to appear on cars in the high end tuner market. A sequential manual transmission is not confused with a "tiptronic" kind of automatic transmission. The tiptronic system can duplicate the shift lever motion of a sequential gearbox. However, because a tiptronic transmission is an automatic transmission at its core, it still has a torque converter and usually does not shift as fast.
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