Between downtown Pontiac Michigan and Detroit houses General Motor’s battle ground for its manual transmissions. Completed in 1909 was the world’s first concrete highway and since 1967, GM engineers have been taking their vehicles to Woodward Avenue for real-world testing. If a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission was able to make it through the Woodward gauntlet, then it can make it anywhere. Test drivers and engineers purposely expose vehicles to the most grueling circumstances that they could encounter such as high rpm shifts, launches and basic hooliganism.
“Of course we encourage safe driving, but we know burnouts and quick shifting are the reality. We have to design and engineer our transmissions to succeed in every possible scenario, including the street,” said Brad Bur, GM assistant chief engineer for manual transmissions. The Woodward Avenue test simulates almost all situations involving what GM calls “worst-case shifting.” Through these tests, engineers can modify components such as clutches, shifter, pedals, and gear sets.
“We’ve been evolving the Woodward test to make sure our transmissions live through repeated performance-style shifting,” said Bur. So next time you’re traveling from Detroit to Pontiac and you see a Corvette followed by a cloud of smoke, you can rest assured. It is simply a GM engineer making your next manual transmission car even better.
Source: General Motors
