?s on 2014 8-spd Tran, Sport Mode and 2-spd Xfer Box

[danrhiggins]

These questions stem more from my curiosity than from any practical application. Since I am going to invest significant change in a '14 LR4 at some point I would like to understand as much as I can and there is a dearth of digestible info. So if any of you care and can point me to where this is more info than the owners guide I would appreciate.

First, does anyone know the transmission ratios for this 8-speed transmission. I understand that the auto manufactures have some flexibility in how it is configured when they source it from ZF. Below are the ratios for the 6-cyl used in the 2013 LR4. I'm curious what they did with the ZF 8-speed in the '14.
4.17 2.34 1.52 1.14 0.87 0.69
Those are of course the forward gears. Reverse is 3.4
And the transfer gear ratio for the 2-speed xfer box in the '13 is 2.93.

My curiosity here is whether I will get a lower low and a higher high or just smoother transitions between gears. I would think a high high might be good for fuel economy on long stretches of 75MPH freeway and a lower low might help given the lower torque of the SCV6? But not being a mechanically minded these might simply be dumb or irrelevant questions.

Second, in the write up I found for the 2013 they say the following about Sport mode.
"The transmission also features an intelligent sport mode, which can sense and adapt transmission characteristics to particular driving styles."

Can anyone explain to me what that really means and whether it carries over to the '14? I think I also read somewhere (Owners Manual?) that if I have engaged the paddle shifters in the '14 to be fully manual I can hold one of them down for a couple of seconds to revert back to "Sport Auto" mode - which does what compared to Drive mode?

BTW, we already covered in another thread that the paddle shifters will not work in Drive mode on the 2014 even though they do for the Evoque and RR but as I said, that was already covered.

 

[epiclr4]

I think the only thing I can add to your questions above is clarity around sport mode. And this is based on other vehicles I have had with a "Sport"mode.

Typically sport mode will just hold a gear longer than in normal driving mode. Giving you the ability to drive more sporty. Example being if you are normally in drive mode the transmission under normal acceleration would shift at say, 2800 rpm. If you put it simply in sport mode and don't play with the paddles the tranny will now hold the gears longer and shift at probably 4000 rpm or higher depending on how aggressive you are with the pedal. Thus it adapts to how aggressive you are when in this mode and will shift based on how you have previously acted when this is engaged.

I would think this mode is actually much improved over the previous transmission as the 8-speed ZF box is being used in some really great sports cars at the moment so it is clearly capable. Now, does that mean LR put a lot of coding time into making it great for the LR4 in comparison to the RRS? Probably not. But thats why they put the paddles there.

 

[danrhiggins]

Yes, epiclr4, that is my experience with Sport mode on my MDX. What has me intrigued is the phrase, "...which can sense and adapt transmission characteristics to particular driving styles."

I wonder whether there is actually some sensing and adapting going on and how that works. Maybe its just the geek in me but I like to have an idea of what my car is doing under the covers.

BTW, I use Sport mode in my MDX quite often driving through the mountains. Not that the LR4 will or should be driven like a curve-huggins sport sedan or an X5 or my MDX. But there are times when it is fun to "take over".