Nother CarGuy

Volkswagen has confirmed that it has dropped its plans of launching a 10-speed dual-clutch transmission. While speaking to Automotive News at April's International Vienna Motor Symposium, VW powertrain chief Friedrich Eichler confirmed the gearbox had been dropped. “Two months ago, I had the prototype crushed,” he said. The automaker originally intended on launching the transmission for high torque engines and announced its plan at the 2013 Vienna Symposium, the same location where Ford and General Motors confirmed their partnership to co-develop nine and 10-speed transmissions. GM and Ford's nine-speed debuted last year in the new Chevrolet Malibu and the 10-speed was first dropped into the Camaro ZL1 and Ford F-150 Raptor. Eichler failed to provide a reason why the project had been scrapped but said it was dreamt up during the company's outdated “bigger is better” engineering philosophy. While the gearbox is off the cards for the time being, Eichler didn'...

Proving that the horsepower wars are far from over, Chevrolet unveiled the new  2017 Camaro ZL1 sporting the Corvette Z06’s  supercharged V8 pushing out an estimated 640hp (477 kW) and 640 lb-ft of torque (868 Nm). That’s 10hp and 10 lb-ft short of the same 6.2-liter supercharged LT4 V8 found in the Corvette Z06, but a 60hp and 84 lb-ft leap over the  previous Camaro ZL1’s 580hp  6.2-liter supercharged LSA powerplant. Not only that, but the new ZL1 underwent a rigorous diet and lost 200 pounds (91 kg) over its predecessor.  While GM hasn’t shared any performance numbers yet, it’s not hard to imagine that the new top dog  in the Camaro’s lineup  will be faster than the old ZL1 that hit 60mph (96km/h) in 4.0 seconds for the manual and 3.9 seconds for the automatic version with respective top speeds of 180mph (290 km/h) and 184mph (296 km/h).  Speaking of transmissions, a six-speed manual with active rev-matching capability remains the standard op...