Silvia Club of NSW

I didn't even know this car existed.

"FOR THOSE UNAWARE OF THE SPECIFICS OF THIS UNIQUE GT-8 MODEL, IT HAS THE 3.5 LITRE VQ35DE ENGINE WITH 8-SPEED TIPTRONIC GEARBOX THAT WAS ONLY AVAILABLE IN JAPAN FROM FEBRUARY 2002. THE SAME GEARBOX HAS BEEN HINTED AT FOR THE NEW GTR. "

http://www.prestigemotorsport.com.au/?/au/stock/details.asp?StockID=3564

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The Golf is like an 16-year-old girl with big boobs. You know it's wrong but you can't keep away from her.

Interesting...

Be a good daily driver, possibly too many gears, i'm sure Nissan gave so many for a good reason.

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Boost, the substitute for corner speed.

A little misleading.

The CVT auto transmission in actually the same design as that used in the old micra.
Its basicly the same set-up as used the a honda oddessy off road buggy thing.

You don't actually feel any gear changes what so ever when its in auto mode. However when in power shift mode there is 8 pre-set rations youy can choose from.
They are a pretty good auto. The New Z50 murano has the exact same transimission as the V35 and they feel kina weird on the street. Ill dig up the training bulletins I have and they will give you a good idea how they work.

I looked at buying a V35 before purchasing the maxima but was really scared off at the idea of buying a car that could potentially cost thousands if something went wrong, as opposed to the factory warranty of the J31.

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To live your dreams you must first face your fears...........

yeah thats right it IS misleading, its not really a gearbox, however is does 'gear' the output. weird, but a great design!

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/

are we really surprised, seeing where the info came from? (as in prestige, not you BT)

haha I'm glad you added that last bit.

I guess my main point in posting was to question how you would use or why you would need 8 gears, or pre-set ratios as Brad has now informed us.

Brad - Explain how this thing works!

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The Golf is like an 16-year-old girl with big boobs. You know it's wrong but you can't keep away from her.

ill put the bulletins up tommorow. Its a fairly simple transmission if thats what you want to call it.

Nissan will be using it extensivly in the new vehicles as it offers flawles shifting (as there really is no shift)

Think of it like driving an auto vehicle with a slipping transmission thats the sort of sensation you get with the CVT.

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To live your dreams you must first face your fears...........

in the mean time here is an explaination that is part of a tech release but is also floating around on auto tech at the moment


Simplistic in concept, modern CVT's are a marvel of materials and engineering technology. Several different designs have been used over the years. The "toroidal" design uses a moveable roller between two curved metal plates. One plate is the input and the other plate is the output. By changing the angle and position where the roller touches the plates, the gear ratio is varied. Another CVT uses a rubber belt that transfers power between two variable width pulleys. If you have ever driven a snowmobile, you have used this type. The most common CVT today uses a steel push belt running between two variable width pulleys, similar to that snowmobile.

Nissan's new Murano SUV uses a steel push belt in its CVT. The belt technology is what makes the high torque transfer possible from Nissan's 3.5 litre V6 engine. The belt is made of a series of small plates held in position by a cable. When torque is applied to the belt as it comes off the drive pulley, the plates lock together so the belt acts as a solid link. As the belt starts to rotate around the driven pulley, there is no more torque on the belt and it becomes flexible again. Imagine trying to push a rope. Every time you push it, it turns into a stick, but pull on it and it becomes a rope again. Sounds like magic. The oil used in this CVT is part of that magic.

Nissan is using a special oil that helps lock the steel belt to the pulleys but it also lubricates and cools the transaxle. The best way to describe the oil is that it contains "rubber molecules" that provides the grip between the belt and the pulleys. As pressure is applied to the oil, the "rubber molecules" compress, turning into a crystalline form that locks the belt and pulley together. Relax the pressure and the oil returns to its original state.

Heat is a major concern with a CVT design. The Nissan CVT can operate at 200 degrees C, so a special oil is needed that will not break down at these high temperatures. The Murano also incorporates three transmission coolers to prevent the oil from overheating.

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To live your dreams you must first face your fears...........

I remember reading about when people first test drove CVT cars, and it sounded like they were burning the clutch.

The CVT lets the engine hit a certain RPM, and then varies the ratio between its input and output shafts to hold the engine at that optimal RPM while increasing the wheel speed.

So it means you're tooling up the road and your engine note doesn't change. There's no aural sensation of speed, so it can confuse some drivers.

Those pseudo gears are to workaround to that. By holding a certain ratio in the CVT and letting your engine RPM rise and fall, it becomes more familiar to your driver. It makes things like engine braking more intuitive since the driver can select the resistance.


On a performance basis a CVT means that you could just hit peak power or peak torque from just off 0 velocity (assuming you had traction to match) and keep your engine there all day.

I remember bench engineering with some friends, and saying that you could use it as an awesome traction control. If you were to break traction, instead of cutting power and / or grabbing the brakes you could just vary the ratio and reduce your tractive effort.


It would make drag racing a contest of the better programmer (which of course means its still a matter of a bigger budget), since you could basically program your CVT sit the power delivery right at the limit of traction with a seamless surge of thrust.

The better coders would write more efficient algorithms for detecting wheelspin and holding it right at the edge, gently feeding more power as your speed picks up, so the driver just has to put his foot down and hang on.

There'd be no issue with losing boost (like on traditional TCS') since, by only varying the gearing, you can have your engine sitting at the RPM of your choice no matter how fast your tyres are going.

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Tips for being fooli sik:

Go chrome or go home
Sneezin's Pleasin'
Da flutta is bred and butta
NOS is boss
Try to be different, just like everyone else
No boost? Ya just loost

Very interesting. It sounds a lot like the power delivery and exceleration of an electric car!

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The Golf is like an 16-year-old girl with big boobs. You know it's wrong but you can't keep away from her.

Or a turbine-powered vehicle.

Just imagine a car that accelerates with no lurch for gearchanges. Just pulls smoothly from idle up until it can put down its programmed amount of torque without wheelspin, and holds that acceleration until you hit your chosen speed or it runs out of power.


I reckon they're a great idea for a commuter car. If it wasn't for Australians' obsession with 4WDs, I would love to own a Smart ForTwo with a CVT equipped turbo diesel as a daily driver.

The CVT could work with the ECU to keep the engine at optimal load to balance the boost and control my required power / economy compromise.


In a sports car I'd choose a traditional gearbox though. The rise and fall of revs, engine braking, and everything else is a part of the experience. Its like horse riding. Its an outmoded form of transport that you'd never commute with, but its a much more enjoyable experience than sitting on a bus passively.

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Tips for being fooli sik:

Go chrome or go home
Sneezin's Pleasin'
Da flutta is bred and butta
NOS is boss
Try to be different, just like everyone else
No boost? Ya just loost

Just wondering, does The 'CV' part in CVT stand for "constant velocity?"

constantly variable i think

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M35 Stagea.info @ http://www.m35stagea.info/

sounds like an oxymoron if ever there was one!

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[≡≡≡≡≡] \silvia/ [≡≡≡≡≡]

I first experienced CVT in a Honda Jazz and it can be quite deceiving as the engine note stays the same as the speed goes up so you really have to keep an eye on how fast you're going on the freeway.

I thought it was some kind of new technology but my girlfriend bought a 1990 BMW 525i about 6 months ago and that seems to have it too.