By Backlicker

I have driven a lot of cars. Not just for MSiMA, but in general. I don’t tend to notice much in a car, I could not care less about engine noise or ride quality, but a bad transmission will drive me insane.

1. SP Precision O2Q XP1 Series

After I killed my GTI’s original transmission, I shoved this beast into it. You might ask, “Backlicker, if you’re going to spend immense sums of money on a custom transmission, shouldn’t you at least get custom gearing?”. Maybe. Maybe.

But I didn’t know what gears to change so I stuck with what worked. Instead, this transmission was nearly indestructible. I launched that car regularly, jumped it, and almost exclusively power shifted it. This bastard did not give a shit. Best of all, it always just felt like a regular O2Q.

2. VW O2Q

The transmission of the FWD Volkswagen, I had this in a 2015 Golf GTI. It got great fuel economy, it was easy to use, even shifted smoothly. It was the first transmission I was able to drive a car well with. It was also a bit delicate, as after a year and a half of owning it, I had put a tune of questionable quality into the car and broke several components attempting to launch from 7000 rpm.

3. Tremec TR-3650

Gear soup is not the right word, its more of a stew. I have never driven this transmission on the open road, only during autocross events. I used it in a 2005 Mustang GT, which remains the most fun car I have driven to date. Sitting in grid, getting ready for a run, I would play around with the shift to make sure I knew where to put everything. I was accustomed to my GTI with its custom shifter and reinforced transmission. The mustang had a nicer shifter, but it was still very loose.

4. Ford 6F15

Yet another Focus, but this time an automatic SE. I don’t know how many gears this thing had. Wikipedia says 6, but I never felt it shift more than once. Normally I’d assume it to be a CVT or 2 speed, but 6 gears was the only thing produced. The car itself was miserable, but the fact I could not feel the shifts is generally a sign of a very good automatic.

5. Toyota C56 Transaxle

One of the other most fun cars I have driven has been the Toyota MR2 Spyder. The engine could use a supercharger, and it could maybe use a roof and some more tires, but I love it anyways. It also desperately needs a different transmission. It works for this car in theory, and the way it is geared allows for some insane engine braking, and it can even tow (sort of), but I cannot shift it for my life. Every time I want to go to 2nd, I cannot quite get it right. It just doesn’t seem to like the force I use in a shift.

6. ZF 8HP75

This transmission may have actually been good, but had the misfortune of being put into a truly wretch inducing truck. I am not sure if this transmission was poorly geared, poorly maintained, or if the motor just couldn’t use it with multiple cylinders not firing.

7. Ford MTX-75

The Tremec may have been gear stew, but this was true gear soup. This one came out of a 2013 Ford Focus Titanium, with a manual. In 3rd, you could easily touch all 4 walls of the shifter column. Every shift was a guessing game as to where to put the shifter, because it would go in. It always went in. Just not always to the right place.

8. ZF 948TE

Never have I seen a transmission so ill planned. I had this in a Jeep Cherokee, and it was a nightmare to drive. 9th gear was set up so the theoretical top speed of the car could have been over 300 mph. Unfortunately, a V6 Cherokee lacks anything remotely closed to the amount of power needed to use that gear. 6th, 7th, and 8th were much the same, as the car would never use those gears unless manually selected. This resulted in an astounding 14.7 mpg on the highway, as the engine would sit just around 2800 rpm to attempt to stay at speed. Both my 300hp GTI and my 5300lb Grand Cherokee could both easily manage over 20 mpg, the prior doubling the economy of the Cherokee on Pilot Sport 4Ss.