![]() "We’ve had a strong heritage with BMW from the 1960s onwards as our systems integration partner. ![]() The BMW M2 and M3 have a stick shift for the purist at heart. "But one mustn’t forget we still do manual gearboxes. "I wouldn’t say it was accidental but obviously, we are happy the tendency went in that direction," he says. I ask Manning if his employer had forecast an upward curve in the demand for autos on the horizon. ZF 8-speed Back then: Across ZF’s home market, manuals still dominated and the only excitement around auto shifters concerned the recent dawn of dual-clutch units – DSG having just launched to great acclaim in the VW Golf R32 and Audi TT 3.2. ZF’s now ubiquitous eight-speed automatic launched in 2008 via its debut in a new generation of 7 Series, but its development process started several years earlier, amid an automotive landscape that was quite different. It's now into its fourth generation, with numerous evolutions during its 15-year life helping ease it into a new era of electrification. ![]() We’ll be the first to point out that ‘8HP’ is a very underwhelming name for a gearbox that’s been adopted with such breadth you’ll find versions of ZF’s blockbuster hit in a relatively cheap BMW 1 Series, a silky smooth Rolls-Royce Phantom and a number of Dodge’s unhinged Hellcats, plus all manner of cars that squeeze into the ginormous gaps between that trio. He drives an X5 daily yet despite its eight smartly stacked ratios – and shifting speeds similar to those of the ZF 8HP’s dual-clutch rivals – he feels little need to get too involved himself. "I don’t change manually, I have to admit!"ĭidier Manning is one of ZF’s chief engineers as well as its key liaison with BMW, a major user of the German company’s transmissions. ![]()
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