Assuming there IS a slow lane. On a rural highway, that underpowered car towing a boat is going to clog up traffic for miles on any kind of hill.
What nobody has mentioned here is that diesels (in cars, not big rigs) have all kinds of low end torque and higher end power. 1st gear in my Jetta TDI is almost too low, and I can cruise in 5th at 65 doing barely 2000 rpm. If I set the cruise, rarely does it slow down on a hill, and that’s staying in 5th obviously. Granted I can’t pull a large boat, but the concept carries through. I often skip 2nd and 4th gears when upshifting, there’s that much excess torque. This is a 1.9 liter turbo diesel in a 2500 lb car. Now put a 3 liter turbo diesel in a 4000 lb car, with a 5 or 6 speed manual transmission, and you can pull the boat and still get 35+ mpg when not towing.
Oh and oldwrench- electronically controlled manual transmissions aren’t all that new. The computer part is, but they’ve been in atv’s since at least 2000. It’s just a servo doing the shifting. Not all that high tech really. My 67 Ford f-600 dump truck had it for the 2 speed rear.
You are right Alaskabruce, it is older technology, but with newer advanced components offered in cars.
I never used the clutch on my old Dirt bike, after initial take-off.
F-1 cars have had this technology also
There was a Studebaker in the mid-50s that had a three-speed tranny in it but it also had dual gears in the rear differential. I think I remember that one of them was not quite 3:1 and the other one was over 4:1. You would use ‘power and muscle’ to get away and up to your cruising speed (altitude) and then shift it into a ‘more economical’ mode for maintaining this. Usually passing anything and anybody in the process. Memory fails beyond this, except that there was a ‘Silver-something’, and a ‘Golden- something’. Facts? … Please?
I don’t remember anything like this on the Studebaker, but starting in 1956 there was the Studebaker Golden Hawk and the Studebaker Silver Hawk. The Silver Hawk was available with the Borg-Warner overdrive which was a two speed planetary gear set behind the transmission. When one got up over 30 and released the acclerator, the car went from a direct drive (1:1 ratio) to an overdrive (1:1.3) ratio. I don’t remember a two speed axle as was available as an aftermarket on the 1946-48 Fords and is available on many larger trucks. However, Studebaker was very good at making options available and there could have been such a two speed axle.