waremark wrote:titian wrote:zadocbrown wrote:But in an auto you are mostly having either brake gear overlap or acceleration gear overlap. So how are you justifying that in terms of the system? The whole way of thinking is absurd and modern vehicles are showing that up.
OK, just to put some flesh on the bones, I am approaching a blind bend because the road follows, to the left, around a country restuarant, no pavement, the road meets the walls of the building.
To gain more controll of my automatic car I am going to use the paddles to activate manual override in order that I don't get the "pulling" effect of the automatic once I lift off the brakes at walking pace.
I am planning to be off the brakes say 15 yards before the blind turn and then to paddle select the manual gear - which at that speed I expect to be 2nd gear. So I travel a few yards, in gear, before the bend , under balanced neutral acceleration to the point where the limit point runs away and I accelerate and either continue to use the manual box or slip back into auto.
That procedure ensures I'm off the brakes before I select the gear for the bend, perhaps not classical IPSGA but as close as is possible in an automatic car - and is a darn site better than wallowing around the bend in the auto gear that the vehicle would have selected without manual intervention.
Depending on the particular gearbox, you might get a smoother or more pleasant result by paddling down through the gears sequentially while braking. Otherwise you are leaving the auto box to make its own decisions about how many gears to go down through before you interfere manually. Like to suggest possible advantages and disadvantages? (I could justify either technique, depending on car and circumstances. I am confident that either could be compatible with getting a Distinction in an IAM Masters test).
A distinct advantage is that control is under my right foot rather than me being pushed around the bend by the constant push of the auto drive even when off the accelerator, which then requires constant braking around the blind bend, a far from ideal situation.
So far as "paddling down" is concerned, experience has shown that the auto box
almost matches the reduction in speed by changing down such that having achieved the entry speed for the bend one click of the downshift paddle gives me 2nd gear; I am using the auto box as it was designed to be used then taking manual control at the last moment. To paddle down through each gear would add complexity to what is a simple process.
So far as disadvantages are concerned, other than making use of the manual side of an auto box, a concept that may be alien to many auto car drivers, I can't really suggest any.