Manumatic

Manumatic, a portmanteau of the words manual and automatic, is a term referring to a class of automotive transmission.

Manumatic refers to an automatic transmission that allows convenient driver control of gear selection. For most of automotive history, automatic transmissions already allowed some control of gear selection using the console or column shifter, usually to limit the transmission shifting beyond a certain gear (allowing engine braking on downhills) and/or locking out the use of overdrive gears when towing. Manumatics enhanced such features by providing either steering wheel mounted paddle shifters or a modified shift lever, allowing the driver to enter a "manual mode" and select any available gear, usually in a sequential "upshift/downshift" manner. Different car manufacturers use a variety of labels for their manumatic transmissions, such as 'Tiptronic', 'Geartronic', 'Touchshift', 'Sportronic', 'clutchless-manual' and others.

Some manumatic and semi-automatic transmissions allow the driver to have full control of gear selection, though most will intervene to prevent engine stalling and redlining by shifting automatically at the low end and/or high end of the engine's normal operating range. Hydraulically-coupled Manumatics and most semi-automatic transmissions also provide the option of operating in the same manner as a conventional automatic transmission, by allowing the transmission's computer to select gear changes. A few manumatics also allow an alternate automatic mode, often called "sport" mode, where gear selection is still fully automatic but the transmission will favor higher engine speeds (at which the engine will produce the highest horsepower and/or torque) by upshifting later when accelerating and downshifting earlier when slowing.

The Automotive Products Manumatic and Newtondrive systems are also known as "two-pedal transmissions". They relieve the driver of the need for skill in operating clutch and engine speed in conjunction with the gear change.

A clutch servo powered by the vacuum at the induction manifold operated the automatic clutch - a conventional clutch incorporating centrifugal operation. A switch in the gear lever operated a solenoid valve so that when the gear lever was moved the clutch was disengaged. A control unit made throttle adjustments to keep the engine speed matched to the driven clutch plate and also varied the speed of clutch operation appropriate to road speed.

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