I only found out today that Alec Issigonis had designed a gear less mini.
I was wondering if this was a forerunner to CVT automatics ?
Anyone know how it works ?
Must have been economical. I could be wrong though
Google has plenty of pictures of the car but no details at all.
I believe the Heritage Motor Centre has one on display (bit far for me to drive to).
So why didn't the idea take off (possibly with some other manufacturer copying the idea) ?
Edited by Pugugly on 21/07/2009 at 17:50
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t wasn't 'gearless' as such or a CVT.
IIRC it had a four-speed 'automatic' box made by AP (Automotive Products) that, again IIRC, was developed from someone else's earlier design.
Just to show there is nothing new, the gearbox could be left in 'automatic' mode or you could change gear yourself, without the aid of a clutch.
I'm not sure how reliable it was but I would have thought an 848cc Mini would have struggled a bit with it.
Quite a few were made though - friend of mine's mother-in-law certainly had a pretty old one back in the early 70s.
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Mike, I believe I was refering to a prototype mini that really was gear-less not the automatic mini.
Sorry for the confusion.
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No confusion - there was a Issigonis came up with a prototype bigger Mini called the 9x - there was a gearless version - don't remember what the mechanics were though but certainly conventional it wasn't !
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There's a prototype Mini 9X Gearless at the Heritage Motor Centre:
archive.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk/exhibit_downlo...f
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Not sure about the Mini 9X appearance though...
www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?super9xf.htm
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Issigonis liked cheapness, efficiency and radical ideas. He was the modern motorist's friend, but the suits didn't let him fly free. He would I am sure have been keen on CVT.
The AP auto gearbox fitted to some minis, 1100s and 1800s was fairly efficient and worked with small engines, but it was unrefined, perhaps underdeveloped. Its jerky changes made it difficult to drive those cars, with their ultra-short rigid drive shafts, at all smoothly, and I don't think they were all that strong or reliable. The only car I drove with one, an 1100, wasn't very nice to drive at all.
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It was not an automatic because it worked on completely different principles from a geared car. It had no clutch, no gearbox and no variable ratio drive mechanism. It operated through a torque converter. Issigonis called it a 'city car' and adopted a prototype as his personal around town transport. Unfortunately, it was very sluggish at low speed, which rapidly became apparent during testing.
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