i.g.batten

> Semi-auto options remain
> (and grow in popularity) 'cos in auto mode they generally
> do better than manuals and in semi-mode they allow the proud
> owner to pretend they're the Stig (I speak, here, of
> cars of course..)

Except the Stig himself knows that electronics do it better. The only
reason F1 cars have flappy paddles is because the full-auto option is
banned. Barnard did the semi-auto for his Ferraris in the late
eighties, because powered shifting and automatic clutches were enough
of a problem, but rapidly other teams realised that the real win was a
full auto, and Benneton and Williams were both running fully automatic
gearboxes by the early 90s.

Remember, the great F1 car that never was: the Williams of 1993 with a
CVT gearbox, tested by Hill and others. It was two seconds a lap
faster, straight out of the box, with the engine not yet tuned to take
advantage of the fact that with CVT a power-band 1 rev wide is just
fine. It was banned instantly, and criminally, mostly on the grounds
of the bizarre noise it made and a fear of a transmission arms race.

Full-auto gearboxes were banned in the post-Senna hysteria, and hence
the rise of the flappy paddle. But it's bollocks to think that's a
good thing for your Stag about town: it's a regulatory issue, which
stops the teams doing the faster thing.

ian