CVT (was:Intake manifold construction, intercoolers)

[Craig Dotson]

> As for racers and automatics--you've obviously not been to the track...

What kind of racing are you talking about?

Some drag racers use automatics, but that's mainly because they are
consistent.  In bracket racing consistency wins, not ETs.  I've been to
autocrosses (SCCA Solo II) and the automatic cars pretty much suck.  NASCAR
series....don't recall seeing an automatic, not even at the local Winston
Weekly track.  I do admit in all honesty that IRL/CART/F1 never could hold
my interest more than a few minutes.  I can't remember the last time I saw a
Touring Car race, and Rally racing's just plain rare on TV here so I don't
have much experience with it.

Rockcrawlers seem to prefer automatics, but that's a whole different
ballgame.

Sure losses in the transmission create lots of heat.  Vehicles with
automatics that are used for heavy duty utility or racing duty more often
than not are equipped with auxiliary transmission fluid coolers for that
reason.  Remember your 300HP engine losing 75HP through the tranny only
happens to do so at a particular engine speed at WOT, the rest of the time
(normal driving) the power through the system is significantly less.  The
momentarily high heat levels in the transmission are possible because the
large fluid volume takes quite a bit of energy to warm up (my truck's
automatic holds somewhere from 10-14 quarts IIRC), and the cooler dissipates
that through periods of lower power.

Craig Dotson
crdotson at vt.edu
2002 VT FormulaSAE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from diy_efi, send "unsubscribe diy_efi" (without the quotes)
in the body of a message (not the subject) to majordomo at lists.diy-efi.org