Surprisingly, I love, love, love, the DCT. My other 427 Corvettes are 700R4 and six speed manual. DCT is the perfect blend.
But I have a few questions. There are a few corners on my daily route that are third gear corners. In my six speed I would downshift to third, (heel toe) blip the throttle to rev match, release the clutch using engine braking and braking, accelerate to redline in third and upshift. With my C8 DCT, in auto mode, I simply pull back on the left paddle to 3rd, add brakes to enhance the engine braking, and accelerate to redline out of the corner. Great!!! The DCT will not shift up to fourth automatically. I'm still in automatic mode. When I pull on the left paddle, does the DCT go into full manual mode? I have to pull on the right paddle to shift into fourth, and the DCT goes back to auto shifting eventually. What am I missing? I hate the rev limiter in the C8. It is punishing. I go to Ron Fellows in October, but I would love to understand the DCT. Isn't it supposed to be the same as PDK, Porsche Dual Klutch?
Sorry ahead of time if this has been asked and answered, but search turned up nothing.

 

If I followed what you said - yes - that is how it works. In automatic mode, it goes into temporary paddle shift mode. And while in temporary manual mode it will not upshift automatically. It's all in your owners manual. Page 198 and 199 in the 2023 manual.

 

OK, thanks, so after downshifting to third, I need to floor the pedal to get it to shift up to fourth. I will try that tomorrow. Flooring the 427 C6 in third would break traction. I hope the C8 doesn't.

 

I looked at the post of the manual section on automatic paddle shift mode and didn't get that at all. Where does it say flooring the pedal will cause it to shift up to fourth? I believe it will just accelerate until it hits the rev limiter. The manual says to pull and hold the plus paddle to get it back into automatic mode - at least that's how I read it. Did I miss something?

By the way, if you do floor it in third it won't break traction.

 

using the paddles, will put you in manual mode during that time you will need to shift gears if needed until it goes back to automatic mode. it takes a few seconds of not using the paddles to go back to automatic mode on its own.

 

I thought (but don't remember for sure) that when you put the car in "temporary" manual mode using the paddles that the DCT will switch to the next gear at redline. However, in "permanent" manual mode it will just bounce off the redline.
To get it back into auto mode pull and hold the upshift paddle.

 

How do you interpret the very last sentence of what I posted in post 2. I did not know that either, but it seems to say that.

 

Wow - I didn't read that far. It does seem to indicate that you can floor it in automatic paddle shift mode and it will upshift by itself. I didn't know that, but don't think I will test it either.

 

One of several reasons I use Z Mode and NOT Manual Mode, which I did for the 1st month getting over my 62 years of ONLY having standard shift DDs.

I face the issue you raise IF I'm in MY Mode when I come to a rural road on my way to town from a 4 lane ~70 mph traffic highway. I'll explain:

If in Z Mode even at 70 mph it's in 5th gear. No need to pull the downshift paddle for the turn. I just brake aggressively prior to the turn and it downshifts to 4th then 3rd in the blink of an eye. Rev matching in each. That road has farm fields both sides so if no traffic I just accelerate to whatever speed.

However, if little traffic on the 4-lane highway I may be in MY Mode. BUT the car is then in 7th or even 8th so I downshift to 3rd by pulling the downshift paddle. Then I accelerate as I would in Z Mode but sometimes, forget I'm stuck in Manual Mode for 5 seconds! Where I'm expecting the car to shift as I'm not at WOT it stays in 3rd until I pull the upshift paddle. Not my usual which is Z Mode where it will shift if I'm not at WOT or lift the throttle slightly. I just have to remember to upshift!

SIDEBAR
Quoting one of a 9 bullet DCT operation I made:

• The C8 has two manual modes. If you pull a paddle while in Drive, you get a temporary (5 seconds) manual mode, which automatically times out, or can be exited sooner by holding the upshift paddle. In this mode, the car will automatically upshift at redline. If you press the M button in the center console, you get full manual mode. There's no time out, and the car won't upshift at redline. (An interesting issue, IF in My Mode and downshift with the paddle, for 5 seconds after it's in Manual Mode I MUST upshift! When in Z Mode, no need!)

FOR THOSE INTERSTED THESE ARE ALL 9 POINTS:
This DCT operation summary includes comments from GM’s DCT Controls Manager, a C8 form post by Tadge Juechter (Executive Corvette Chief Engineer) and a very interesting comment by then Chief Corvette Engineer Ed Piatek (no Exec in front- lower pay grade!) Pretty impressive options.

1. The C8 DCT transmission has different automatic shift strategies for the various drive modes, which adapt in real time. The more aggressive, the more spirited you drive, the more aggressive the car's responds, -start to relax, the car starts to relax.
2. The DCT uses latitudinal and longitudinal accelerometers and looks at information like throttle position and steering angle to gauge how the car is being driven and reacts accordingly.
3. In Track mode set to automatic, the car will downshift aggressively when the driver is braking hard into a corner, and hold upshifts until corner exit (My note same in Z Mode power set to track, which I find a great feature so don't have to use the downshift paddle when making turns. Can but no need.)
4. The C8 has two manual modes. If you pull a paddle while in Drive, you get a temporary (5 seconds) manual mode, which automatically times out, or can be exited sooner by holding the upshift paddle. In this mode, the car will automatically upshift at redline. If you press the M button in the center console, you get full manual mode. There's no time out, and the car won't upshift at redline. (An interesting issue, IF in My Mode and downshift with the paddle, for 5 seconds after it's in Manual Mode I MUST upshift! When in Z Mode, no need!)
5. Pulling both paddles at the same time is equivalent to pushing in the clutch pedal on a manual car, which allows you to rev the C8's new V-8 as much as you want.
6. The paddles are directly wired to the transmission control module (TCM) for quicker response times. This doesn't mean the paddles will give you a downshift that over-revs the engine—the TCM prevents that.
7. You can avoid V4 mode using the “M” manual button or temporally for 5 seconds after pulling the last shift paddle.
8. The new "Z" mode comes from the factory set up as an extra sporty mode including shift schedules pulled from the "Track" mode, so that will be V8 only. You can customize "Z" mode any way you want, so if you elect another shift pattern, V4 mode will return.
9. An addition item with no details but is very interesting was made by GM’s Chief Engineer, Ed Piatek: “We found that during very aggressive launches we can drive torque through both shafts/clutches simultaneously which improves the 0 to 60 times.” Road and Track interpretation of that statement was: "With the C8's Performance Launch mode, the car will actually use the inertia of the engine coming down between revs to propel the car forward. Chevy calls these "Boosted Shifts," and they're only used with a Performance Launch."

 

Thanks JerryU.
Some more info, when you pull on a paddle, and you are in manaul mode, the D gets small, and the gear indicator is large. The car won't shift itself if you have that momentary configuration.
Bee Jay