I have inside info about GM as a Joint Venture with Ford is making a 6spd automatic for fwd and rwd cars. From looking at the inof that I have seen and recieved they are rated for 7.0L engines producing a max of 550lbs. of torque. I hear that they have sectioned off a part of GM's Powertrain Assembly plant for a new plant that will be called Ypsilanti Transmission. It's pretty exciting information, I just cant' wait to see what aftermarket trans. companies do to make them hold more power and maybe flatten out the shift curves with gearing and so for.. It seems to me that this would make a great addition to any f-body out there! Anybody else hear any info on this???

 

not that i know a lot about auto trans, but how is a 6-speed more efficient thatn a 4 speed?

 

RWD 6speed is 6L60-E I believe. It is not a joint venture between Ford and GM. Only the FWD one is. The 6L60-E is suppost to the used in the C6 corvette and I would put money on it being spread through Holden's lineup as soon as they could.

 

Better selection of gears for a given cruising speed. 4-speed transmission may have the engine run at 2300 RPM at 60mph, whereas 6-speed will have it run at 1200 RPM, hence less fuel consumption. In theory.

 

550 lb feet of tq?! Nice!

Would this be able to be used in the light duty trucks? It would be nice so you can have the high rearend gear ratio in the back to help out with some occasional heavy towing/hauling, but then still have the ability to loaf around the low rpms for unloaded highway cruising.


I wonder if it would be a simple conversion from the 4L60-E to this new 6L60-E. Sounds likea nice swap for auto 4th gen f-bpd's for the extra gears and better durability...

 

I thought that the new C5 Corvette had the trans. in the Rear End.. At least all the ones that I saw running around GM was, and I am pretty sure that both the FWD and the RWD Trans. are a joint venture, thus the Complete changing of the name to Ypsilanti Transmission from GM Powertrain, I have heard that they are slated to be in SUV's and Light duty and heavy duty trucks, and cadillac and jag are probably going to be getting the FWD models..

 

hmm. insider information eh...

first search result in google for 6 speed automatic transmission

http://www.auto.com/industry/speed11_20021011.htm

and look at the date

and it's FWD only

and the corvette tranny isn't in the rear of the car, never was. Same tranny that the camaro has and numerous cars use. Your "insider" information is badly misinformed.

 

Nope. The Vette transmission is in fact mounted right in front of the rear axle, to improve weight distribution.

 

Correct. Its called a transaxle.

 

The story is and isn't new. It had been discussed here before that GM and Ford are doing a joint venture for 6-speed FWD transmissions only.

RWD is GM's own thing, based on the thread we had going here a while back.

As had been said, Corvette uses the same transmission as F-body (rather, the other way around), except it is mounted in the back for improved weight distribution.