From: "Antti Kurenniemi" 

"Robert Comer"  wrote in
message news:4177d677$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> I'm not sure, that CVT is a special case, not really an automatic, and
> definitely not a manual -- never drove one to know how they react.

I had a '75 Honda Civic that had CVT transmission for a while, in 1993 or
thereabouts. They were called rubber band gears at the time, because unlike
todays models they were actually using a rubber band. I think almost all of
the CVT's today use a chain that is not actually pulling but pushing the
engine momentum to the wheels. I think Volvo and Renault used to make CVT's
in the 60's and 70's as well.

It is a really cool thing to drive (I've driven a new Nissan Primera with a
CVT), and are very fuel efficient, because the enginne can be kept at or
close to the optimal rpm at all times. I suspect that if they were more
widely used, it could be simple enough to even build (or tune) engines that
are "optimised" for a very narrow rpm area.


Antti Kurenniemi

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