Internets_Ninja

You know if you hold the left paddle for 2 seconds it will downshift to the lowest safe gear and let you do the same thing while keeping manual mode on.

ImpliedConsent

Source? Z06 with A8 are being ordered everyday. My source? chevrolet.com

Thunder22

wait... what? This is the first I'm hearing of this. I don't think that this is true at all.

Patman

I think you guys are misunderstanding Perry. I think he's saying that Spring Mountain is discontinuing the use of Z06s on their track with the A8 in the hot summer months so that they don't have to deal with overheating issues, not that GM has stopped production of them.

vettenevodrvr

pkincy

Can you imagine running a race there in a car without AC and with a nomex suit, head sock, and gloves on at that temperature. Talk about a need to hydrate! Gotta love running in the heat in shorts/tee shirt and with the AC on.

vettenevodrvr

Skidplate

In Oct '15, I was in the first group to drive the C7 A8 at Spring Mountain for the 2 day class that GM partially sponsors.
We were firmly instructed to drive in M mode during class sessions with the instructors calling out the gear changes during the early runs.
I'm not sure that rule still applies today.

vettenevodrvr

Bigfoot16

I just finished the course yesterday. I was in a group with 2 ZO6's, I was in a GS. Both had issues with overheating, one worse than the other and losing power. The other one just had his A/C shutting down.

proeagles

I just came back from the COS at Spring Mountain, and not to keep beating this already dead horse but as promised I asked the instructors at Ron Fellows why they recommend shifting the A8 manually. It has nothing to do with over heating or wearing out the transmission or any of the other "issues" involved with the debate over whether auto or manual mode is easier on the transmission. It is all about control of the car and keeping it in the right gear at the right time. If left in the auto mode it could shift too early or mid corner and upset the car. It was built and sold as a performance A8, just drive it anyway you want.

pkincy

I have the highest regard for the COS instructors but that answer is simply not true if you know how the A8 is programmed in the Corvette. Take a look at page 197 of your owners manual. At least on the 2016 manual and read the information about Performance Algorithm Liftfoot (PAL) and Performance Algorithm Shift. PAL is engaged in S and PAS in Track. As you run in Perf Track 2 at COS the A8 would be operating in PAS. You should try it sometime. I did not at COS as we were instructed to paddle shift and short shift at 5500. But just for stuff and grins I did get on a fun road and put the car in track and activated PAS once. Lordy, does it wind the motor. Kinda like GM wanted to think it had a Ferrari or Maserati engine buzzing up front. Very high revs all the time. High, near 6500 shift points with never being below 5800 whether you had just shifted or were decelerating and braking for a corner. The temps would go up very quickly and that is why you can't run an A8 on track in D. PAS or PAL takes over unless you run in Tour.

I would encourage everyone to try PAS once just to see how it operates. Now the manual simply states that PAS is on in Tr and in D. I really don't know if that is true. Someone had posted a thread on here on how to get in PAS which is when I tried it. Likely that is just patting your head while rubbing your tummy and twisting and pressing on the round **** 3 times while stating the Lord's Prayer. And all those instructions may simply have been what it took to get in Perf Trac 2 or 3 or 4. But after following the instructions, the A8 programming was a beast with high rpm holds. And clearly you would see why a combination of Perf Trac 2 (which you run at COS) coupled with the A8 in Drive is a non starter for both the health of their A8s and the heat build up on their cars particularly in the hot desert.

I have a friend with an ATS-V with an A8. Although that manual doesn't talk about PAL or PAS anywhere, when he runs in Track mode (he is an instructor in the Audi Club in the Pac NW) the car quite obviously has the PAS programming also. But in the ATS-V there is enough cooling that he can run in that mode without overheating either the engine or transmission. His normal instructor car is the caged 98 1LE with a 402 LS2 and T56 I sold him, but as that car does have some foibles he will occasionally instruct in the ATS-V. His take on that is that it is amazing to be able to concentrate on the accelerator and the brake and never having to think about what gear you should be in as the A8 is always right where you want it to be. We have that same programming but can't use it due to lack of cooling.

Bill Dearborn

Not sure what you mean by Perf Trac 2. After selecting Track Mode and pushing the center button twice the display only shows Wet, Dry, Sport1, Sport2 and Race.

Bill

pkincy

The manual calls Track Mode, Dry; Perf Trac 2. Literally in that truncated spelling.

PS: I download the manuals on my cars to a pdf that I read with Adobe Acrobat on the computer. The biggest advantage with that is Adobe has a great "Find" function that will quickly search the whole document for a word or group of words.

Bill Dearborn

I agree this is an issue. At the NCM VIR HPDE I had a student with an A8 GS. The student didn't want to manually shift the transmission and it was always shifting at the wrong time. Try to roll onto the throttle coming off the apex of a turn and it would suddenly downshift causing too much acceleration which the student reacted to by lifting off the throttle. This lifting off the throttle did as much to unsettle the car as the unexpected downshift. I really wanted the student to put the transmission in M mode and choose a gear like 5th which I think is similar to 4th gear in an M7 (1:1). Any Z06 has great throttle response from 1000 rpm on up so you don't have to worry about lugging the engine, if you are worried about lugging the engine you aren't going Wide Open soon enough or long enough. Personally, I have an M7 Z and it requires very little to no shifting to run around a track like VIR and run laps in the 2:06 to 2:07 range. It is much easier for somebody to learn how to drive on a track if the transmission isn't changing what they are trying to do every time they start to roll onto the throttle or off the throttle. That is a very good reason why automatic mode is discouraged at Spring Mountain. I can't imagine how the section of the track that is set up to demonstrate trailing throttle steering would work if the driver is in Auto Mode and the transmission basically goes to neutral when the driver is instructed to lift off the throttle to get some turn in to bring the car into the cone on the right after the dip. The dip lightens the front end of the car so the steering is less effective and letting off the throttle a little moves weight to the front wheels by using compression braking thus getting the car to turn toward the cone before moving back to full throttle.

Bill

pkincy

GM has an easy path to fix this. Simply reprogram the A8 in PAL and PAS into a less aggressive program so that it short shifts a bit and doesn't hold rpm quite as high. Would cost next to nothing and we could pay $250-350 like with the MRC reprogram. They should easily be able to get us a program that would work up to 90 deg or so. Assuming that PAS won't work at over 80 degrees with a competent driver due to heat build up.

proeagles

This is exactly what I was talking about and their point at the school.

fsvoboda

Manual mode is one notch below (behind?) auto. That is, pull the gear selector all the way back. You get an "M" display in the IP to confirm you're in that mode, and then use the paddles. I believe it's set up so that you can't over rev as would be possible if shifting a manual into too low a gear at high speed. Description is on page 191 of my (2017) owners manual, but it's not terribly informative.

Carvin

I have seen videos of guys on track with an M7 and I was surprised at how little shifting they were doing. I watch too much F1.

breakskeet

Callaway recommends an A8 with their package be driven in manual mode all the time.

​​​​​​Driving Tip – Callaway Corvette with 6 Speed paddle shift transmission
Owners of automatic transmission equipped Callaway Corvettes should implement this technique as a standard part of their driving routine.
Perhaps you’ve discovered this already, but if not, try this the next time you drive your car:
Put the car into paddle shift mode.
To do this, simply select “S” on the gearshift and initiate one paddle shift event at the beginning of every drive cycle.
This forces the gearbox to remain in the selected gear even when full throttle is used.
As the primary driver, you probably already know that a sudden full-throttle application, while in the full automatic mode, will incur a downshift, and sometimes a ‘double downshift’. This results in too much power and an unpleasant drive. Putting the car into paddle shift mode prevents the downshift altogether.
It’s better to have the car stay in the selected gear, and use the boost from the supercharger to feed in the power with your throttle foot, as you wish; not as the gearbox wishes.
All potential drivers of the car should also be informed: especially the driver new to the car.