Chrysler Talks to Dealer Network: Next Gen Viper Looks Like an Alfa. 9-Speed Automatic For FWD Vehicles.

This is surprising. The only 9 speed auto I knew of was in development by MB and that was never confirmed; it was just a rumor I heard. I would love to know the specs on that gearbox. Some say/think 8 speeds is too many but I know the ZF unit has lees planetary gearsets than the Toyota unit. It will be interesting to see how this unit works.

GM is going to get left behind if they don't get on the ball soon!

9 speeds? that's getting rediculous... whatever car that has that is gonna spend more time between gears than in gears!

Take a look at the Devon Motorworks GTX (sans wing), a viper based "super car" that shares a resemblance to the 8c (not as sexy as the 8c in my opinion, but still smoother than the current Viper). http://www.devonmotorworks.com/supercars.php

Oops, almost forgot. A 9 speed Italian automatic transmission? Hmm, lots of gear hunting, lots of parts, lots to go wrong. Sounds risky for those of us that want average modern reliability.

Also, at what point do the number of gears equate to an overly complex CVT?

At some point, enough is enough with the gears.

9 friggin' gears? I hope those manuel-loving blowhards will enjoy shifting through each and every stinkin' one of them, in an H x 3 configuration no less!

This is getting ridiculous. 9 speed automatic. They better optimize it so I don't have to wait for the transmission to switch gears just so I can accelerate. They better have the kickdown feature where it can skip gears too, say going from 9th to 4th.

@sara. Unfortunately, manual is stuck at 6 speeds.

Wow, someone who has their name as "sarahpalin" obviously goading people on a car enthusiast blog to dislike him/her. That's original.

I agree with gregnv... at some point it's just too complex and fails to reach any goals that cannot be reached by a good CVT.

I once drove a tour bus with a 10 speed automatic. It starts in 2nd and skip some gears upshifting. Some buses have 12 speed automatics. If you want to get technical about it, it was a single clutch automated manual. But as far as the DMV driver licensing was concerned, 2 pedal = license restricted to automatic.

Most trucks have at least 9 gears these days. It isn't that complicated--just a 5 speed with 5 low range gears and 4 high range. There are also 18 speed trucks, which is basically a 9 speed with direct and overdrive on each gear.

For the sake of fuel efficiency, a small engine needs multiple ratio transmissions to achieve adequate performance. I would like it if my car has a 8 speed manual instead of the ubiquitous 5 speed, with lower gears to concur San Francisco hills and a higher gear for cruising.

A 9-speed automatic, much like a CVT, is only as good as the engineer that paired it with the engine. Anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle will know that your power production sweet spot is fairly fixed at a certain rpm. A road bike might have two chainrings on the crank and ten cogs on the rear cassette, giving the cyclist a possible 20 ratios (18 of which are actually usable due to chain crossing).

CVTs and automatics with many ratios just permit engineers to start an engine design with a focus on efficiency, emissions, and torque performance from the ground up. If a particular engine design yields great efficiency but poor low-end torque, a CVT can be programmed to start at a particularly low drive ratio, revving the engine to the sweet spot and then gradually reducing the rpm, and provide a modulation not possible with fixed gear ratios.

Basically, there's a reason why CVTs are banned in F1.

yeah, for normal cars, might as well go CVT

do CVTs still have the problem of slipping when there's too much torque?

"Oops, almost forgot. A 9 speed Italian automatic transmission? Hmm, lots of gear hunting, lots of parts, lots to go wrong. Sounds risky for those of us that want average modern reliability. "

I doubt the tranny will be engineered by an Italian company. The 8 speeed chrysler will offer is designed by ZF, not Chrysler or Fiat. BMW and Audi use transmissions from suppliers, they are not designed in house. GM and ZF make BMW trannies.

chunky_azian makes a good point. However, the reason for so many speeds in large trucks and busses is the narrow operating range of the engines that power them. We're talking between 1000 and 2800 RPM at the extremes, versus maybe 1500 to 6000 RPM for an average car engine. First the extreme weight means you need a very short 1st gear. After 1st, you need a ton of gears in a big rig just to match the speed of the vehicle to the total operating range of the engine, or you'd have a very hard time accelerating.

For a car, 4 gears are generally more than adequate. 3 used to work fine for basic forward momentum. Anything more than that is just trying to match car speed with efficient engine operating ranges. More gears = more ability to keep the engine in the sweet spot. But completely unnecessary for actual forward movement.

The question I haven't been able to answer is whether a dual clutch tranny with 6 speeds is more efficient than a torque converter automatic with 8 speeds.

"I doubt the tranny will be engineered by an Italian company. The 8 speeed chrysler will offer is designed by ZF, not Chrysler or Fiat. BMW and Audi use transmissions from suppliers, they are not designed in house. GM and ZF make BMW trannies."

Audi and BMW are both now using the 8 speed auto supplied by ZF. I hope GM will soon also as that tranny has been proven to help maximize performance.

Were not talkin bout basic forward movement Pirdeon stop sound so damn lame! U want basic forward movement go buy a Toyota. THat is basic transportation at its worst.

"For a car, 4 gears are generally more than adequate."

And that's what they've given you. Except then you'll complain that it's "old" and "outdated"....so they go ahead and develop a 9 speed automatic....and now it's "too much".

The question is: What's going to make anyone happy? Seriously. I mean heres a company that's been treated like an alien, beat down and driven into a pile of nothing, and yet when they totally leapfrog everyone (including the Asians) it becomes "too much".