NPC: The Next Big Thing - Direct Shift Gearbox
 

The VW/Audi Direct Shift Gearbox

All of the car magazines are raving about it because it's the first automatic transmission to get better fuel economy than a manual and it actually produces better acceleration times as well. Audi used it for the Pike's Peak Hill Climb back in 1985 but it's actually designed by Borg-Warner.

Here are some articles on it:

CarandDriver - The start of something big

Canadian Driver - Audi Direct Shift Gearbox

Funny, it sounds almost exactly like the PDK (Porsche Doppel Kupplung--Porsche two-clutch) transmission that was developed by our favorite auto company during the 80s... They even used it on some 956 or 962 racers at one point, because it let them make full-throttle upshifts. (Lifting is not good for turbo lag!)

--DD

Apparently it was used in the 962:

"Like so many good ideas that have come into production recently, this one is nothing new. It was first tried at Citroën more than 70 years ago, and it even saw duty in Porsche 962 and Audi Quattro race cars during the mid-'80s. But the primitive electronics of the day made the system difficult to tune for commercially comfortable launches and smooth shifting, and system reliability fell somewhat shy of the four-year/50,000-mile warranty target."

So I guess there is some Porsche content. :)