The Flappy Paddle Gearbox

The gearbox was invented and integrated into automobiles to deliver the power from the engine to wheels efficiently and to maximize speed and torque. However, there was from the start a major flaw in how the interior of a car was designed. The gear shift lever was, placed between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat. To change a gear the driver had to take his hands off the steering wheel, press the clutch, change the gear (which in itself was an effort) and then put his hand back on the steering wheel. This whole process was tedious and unnecessary and so came the automatic gearbox.

All the driver had to do was put the car in drive and his job was done. The car would shift up when he pressed the accelerator and shift down when the car slowed down. The automatic gearbox though had its own problems. The biggest problem that it had was that it wasn't responsive enough. There was generally a delay between the time the gear change was needed and the time when the gear change actually happened. This was completely acceptable to the petrol head community at large and so the car companies went back to the drawing board.

The flappy paddle gearbox was born, One of the first working models was deployed by Ferrari for use in their F-1 car and surprisingly it won the championship in its year. This prompted other F-1 teams to start using flappy paddle gearboxes as well and the rest is history. Today, flappy paddle gearboxes can be found in most high-end production cars. Probably the best version of the flappy paddle gearbox can be found in the Ferrari 599 GTO which is capable of changing a gear in 60ms.