Selespeed

Selespeed is the name of an electrohydraulic manual transmission used in Alfa Romeo cars, developed by Italian company Magneti Marelli. The Selespeed is a robotized manual gearbox with electronic clutch. In its current incarnation it can be operated via paddle shifters from the steering wheel or via a "joystick" like a sequential manual gearbox. The right-hand paddle shifter shifts upwards and the left side downwards. The gearbox also has a city-mode which self-shifts in a manner similar to a traditional automatic gearbox.

Selespeed was first introduced in 1999 in the Alfa Romeo 156. At that time it was the first car in its class with such a robotized gearbox. This first version had buttons on the steering wheel for changing gear. With the facelift of the 156 in 2002 these buttons were replaced by paddle shifters (first seen in the Alfa Romeo 147) due to a new steering wheel design.

During normal driving it is possible to use either the paddles or the joystick but if the driver tries to use paddles during joystick mode the joystick has higher priority. The speed of the gear change depends on the engine revs, if the engine has more than 5000 rpm and the throttle is pressed more than 60% the change is faster. The system also has a rev limiter to avoid over revving, (in GTA models this behaviour is removed). Downshift are accompanied with automatic rev-matching. This gearbox is made for sportive driving but the city-mode allows using it like an automatic gearbox in city driving.

The following Fiat and Alfa Romeos were or are available with Selespeed:

Other cars using similar gearboxes are the Ferrari F355 F1 and Aston Martin Vanquish. The base system is similar in all cars but the speed of operation is usually faster in higher priced cars. BMW's first generation SMG was also partly a Magneti Marelli system.

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