Yes, i know that gearbox designer was thrown out even before we could put engines into actual cars…
Story behind the idea - BMW (<3) had only 3 manual gearboxes on the E36, Getrag that would fit any petrol engine and 2 ZF units that would go diesel and petrol respectively… and 3 final drive housing sizes, small for anything up to 2.0 i6, medium for 2.5-2.8 i6 and diesels, and a large one for M3 only
My idea - Gear spacing, if left unchanged between the trims and engines would count as a mass produced gearbox for the current model or even multiple models that use the same gearbox, same goes for top speed (could be named final drive for the purpose of the post) and all that would count toward -% for the production cost, as the parts are interchangeable
That is an interesting idea! However, how would you account for gearboxes that come with multiple gearsets?
The Ford AOD-E and 4R70W are basically the same transmission, albeit with slight different ratios (gear spacing).
The Tremec TR6060 is another example. Same gearbox, multiple gear sets.
i don’t account for every gearbox ever made, but if the use the same housing and they are interchangle, that means, that the production of them is quite a lot cheaper, because you won’t have to retool the production line
as far as i know, the gear cutting machinery just has to be adjusted to the new gears, no need for molds etc.
The gearbox scales automatically in weight with the torque of the engine, so only if both gearbox setting and engine are the same would this work. Our systems are not really compatible to this idea.