After a renovation of the brand's image with a new logo, which you can see here, the British brand now presents a new automatic transmission, finally, with double clutch.
The previous automatic transmission used by MINI, the same used for years by BMW, was from ZF, with “only” six speeds, and although there are no faults, it was due to the speed of a double-clutch gearbox.
With even faster gearshifts, more comfort and better efficiency, the new seven-speed Steptronic automatic transmission will be available as an option to the six-speed manual transmission, and guarantees gearshifts without torque interruption.
The brand claims that driving pleasure is improved, while the driving comfort of an automatic transmission is maintained.
Accompanying this change is also a new selector which has the particularity of returning automatically to the initial position, after selecting the D, N and R modes, while the park position (P) is now activated via a button on the top of the lever. In practice, the system will work in the same way as in the models of the mother brand, BMW, with a joystick-type command. Sport mode (S) is activated by moving the selector to the left, as is manual mode (M).
The new selector will also improve comfort in day-to-day parking maneuvers.
What is this double clutch?
When one clutch is “active”, the other is “inactive” and does not transmit power to the wheels. Thus, when the order to change the ratio is given, instead of a complex gear system coming into play, something very simple happens: one clutch comes into action and the other goes into “rest”.
One of the clutches is in charge of even gears (2,4,6…) while the other is in charge of odd gears (1,3,5,7… and R). Then it is a question of the clutches taking turns in order to help the gearbox in fulfilling its function: to reduce the movement of the crankshaft and transmit it to the wheels.
The new transmission also includes functionalities that allow, through the navigation system, to automatically adapt the most correct cash ratio for the occasion.
To ensure that the gear in gear is always correct, the gearbox's electronic control system also permanently analyzes the road, the position of the throttle, the engine speed, the appropriate speed for the type of route and the selected driving mode, thus being able to predict the driver's intention.
In this way, the new box also achieves better consumption and lower levels of pollutant emissions.
The application of the new box is expected to be made in productions from March 2018, and for three- and five-door models, including the cabrio variant. Any of them will always be in the MINI One, MINI Cooper, MINI Cooper S and MINI Cooper D versions. The MINI Cooper SD and John Cooper Works versions will still have to make do with the eight-speed Steptronic automatic transmission.