Originally Posted By lowebird
Chaps,

Please correct me if I am wrong but aren't todays auto boxes merely "robotised" manual boxes unlike a true auto box like the Hydromatic etc? confused

Here is a Wikipedia photo of a ZF auto gearbox showing the internals and the planetary gears. If I understand correctly the gears are constantly in mesh but the different ratios are actuated by hydraulic controls. According to Wikipedia it can shift gears in 200 milliseconds!!!



It uses fluid coupling to the engine instead of a torque converter. The torque converter in itself is a variable transmission which allows a reduction in the number of gear ratios in the box itself. A lot of the early autos using torque converters had fewer ratios in the auto version as against the manual version of the same car.

Peter

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