Flappy Paddle 'feel'

J

jimmybell

Veteran
 SW London
So having sat in ~20+ supercars at Goodwood, something that really struck home for me was how bad most of the paddles felt to use. Most were soggy, soft and un-rewarding to use, a bit like a mouse button but with food stuck underneath it so it never clicks, or a crappy laptop keyboard on it's way out. As a person that works in tech and values things like mechanical keyboards and decent mice, this really bugged me.

I noted the Merc AMG GT S had a great click to it, which is how i expected it to be. Aston's V12 Vantage S was pretty good, but not perfect. Porsche and Audi? Nope. BMW and Jag? Nope. I watched the mclaren videos and saw theirs is actually a rocker switch connected to both sides, so when you move one side, the other moves in the opposite direction, and it's definitely mechanical.

Also, another point - motoring journalists talking about the speed of shifts. For me, the speed of shift is largely irrelevant (it's under a few hundred ms i wont notice), it's the speed of response from my request to being given the gear to continue pedalling on that matters... Having driven the DCT M4 recently, i could barely tell when the gear changes (other than the noise), but by no means is it immediate.

Any opinions or similar experience?

2014-F-TYPE-paddle-shifter.jpg
 
You know my feeling - whilst I have a working left leg, I will have a manual.

I have two cars at the moment with flappy pedals. The X5 (automatic) and the Abarth (manual flappy). The X5 drives identical to the E89 with flappy pedals so after a week you will leave it in full automatic mode. The click is definitely there though when changing gears with it.

The Abarth with the flappy does have a definite feel to the click though but the delay is feel-able and does not feel very smooth.
 
Good topic and I agree, a good solid clunk paddle change is very satisfying, it's a great pity the E89 has'nt got it. To be fair it's better than some others I've tried, eg, an Audi A4 Quattro estate, that's not as good IMO, but it could be much better and the paddles themselves are not protruding out enough or long enough like for example a modern Ferrari. The actual DCT is very good but could do with more aggressive paddles. It's something which is taking the edge off the car, that and I'm missing a proper shift change and is making my mind wander to a manual Boxster,
 
pvr said:
I have two cars at the moment with flappy pedals. The X5 (automatic)...... The X5 drives identical to the E89 with flappy pedals so after a week you will leave it in full automatic mode. The click is definitely there though when changing gears with it.
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I don't know if the X5 is the same as the X3 but the times I've bothered using the paddles I've felt as though the positioning/sizing is slightly off. It's almost as though I have to stretch my fingers to reach them rather than just flick at them which would feel much more natural - I accept that they have to cater for a range of hand sizes but I don't think I could be bothered to drive using them for any significant time
 
I think you bought the new X3, right? My X5 is the E70 which may be different. The feel in your hands is fine as such but it feels a little redundant with an 8 speed gearbox as such as each gear change hardly does anything.

At least the pedals left and right do different things.
 
pvr said:
I think you bought the new X3, right? My X5 is the E70 which may be different. The feel in your hands is fine as such but it feels a little redundant with an 8 speed gearbox as such as each gear change hardly does anything.

At least the pedals left and right do different things.
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Yes, we've got the F25 and, yes, the ratios are very close - but we both have diseasels, I think the manual mode is probably more suited to petrol engines anyway

I don't object to the concept of steering wheel mounted gearshifters but I think I'd prefer it if they were adjustable and also had up/down shifters that you could operate with your thumbs (up on one side, down on the other) - I think some of the Porsche PDK wheels had something along those lines.
 
8 speed auto, but felt / behaved identical to the E89 DCT I borrowed for the afternoon.
 
Identical ?

A dual clutch manual gearbox and a torque convertor automatic gearbox feel identical ?
 
Stuart Truman said:
Did they give you a 3.5 or 3.5iS? I thought they were the only DCT cars.
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3.5 DCT for the longer loan, the IS for a 30 minute drive. They both (X5 and E89) shift seamlessly, no loss of acceleration and both have a mind of their own on roundabouts when using the manual gears. Porsche PDK bit better but not enough for me to have that either.
 
Agree re the Jag paddles. They [on XF's amongst many] are made of a cheap tacky 2 part plastic moulding that's not even bonded together and don't add the right 'feel' to a £50k -£100k+ car. Lots of owners replace the paddles.

Actual gear changes are very good , especially in sport modes.
 
I have a Leon DSG which I hardly ever drive on the paddles - its a sporty(ish!) mile-muncher for me.
My Z4 SMG is always driven on the paddles in sport mode.

I think the beauty of these systems is that they give you almost two cars in one, e.g. I pootle along on my 35mile A/B/C road commute each day.... But can attack the twisty bits with the FR170's torque if the mood takes me.

So for those reasons, if I'm driving using the paddles, its pedal to the metal and I'm not thinking about the feel of the clicks or shape of the paddles.
 
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