I just got a G37S 7AT sedan. I do like the 7AT, and it's convenient for sharing the car with my wife.... but the paddles seem very slow to respond compared to the ZF8 transmission. Has anyone got anything like the Level 10 TCU tune? What are my options?

 

Typical drive by wire lag. I haven't heard of any fix for this unfortunately.

 

Upgrade your valve body and get a ECU tune by someone that knows how to adjust the acceleration to throttle profiles and also the torque demand (actual and filtering maps). All of these if tuned right can give a much better feel and gearbox response; it is night and day. Never driven a BMW so I can't comment on the difference between it and the ZF8 transmission but mine changes gears pretty much the instant I hit the paddle, with the exception being 1st I need to react about 500 RPMs earlier if at WOT.

 

I'm trying to get info from Level 10 but it's slow going. They did say a tune was required to "protect" the transmission.

 

Tuning the transmission control unit via ECUTek or UpRev can change how the transmission shifts but neither will change the lag from the moment you pull the paddle to the moment the transmission starts to shift. I'm tuned through Seb and if there was a way he could do it, I'm sure he'd be all over it.

I've driven a few dual clutch paddle cars and it's pretty much instant. You click, the car starts to shift with no perceptible lag.

 

people swear that adding a "grounding kit" helps with shift lag - i noticed no difference, but mine shifted quickly already.

i added it mainly for audio, and the fact that i already had most of the stuff needed, so it was just the price of the wire. can't hurt i guess, for $20-$30 if you do it yourself ...

 

My 7AT shifts rapidly as long as it is in gears 1-5 and the rpms are above 3000. If accelerating hard through the 1-2 shift, you must hit the paddle about 500 rpm early because the revs are climbing so fast that you will hit the rev limiter before the shift happens. If the trans is in gears 6-7, the overdrive ratios, there is a noticeable and annoying lag.

 

Same here. My 7at is rather quick. My baseline is a 2005 acura RL.

 

Funny, I think the 5-6 and 6-7 shifts are fairly quick. It's the lower gears that annoy the crap outta me.

 

I'll try and shoot some footage of my shifts. It's an easily discernible lag or latency for me. The actual shift itself, due to the line pressure increase, is worlds quicker. Just no comparison when up against a proper dual clutch though which gives you instantaneous shifts up and down as soon as you tickle the paddle. I'd like to try the new 10-speed Ford/GM transmission but I have no hope of piloting a ZL-1 any time soon.

I think anyone who senses the 5-7 gear shifts being quicker is because the engine isn't revving as high as in the first four gears so the engine itself isn't accelerating as quickly and it changes your perception.

 

The slushy shifts happen in the lower gears due to torque multiplication and need to protect the clutches and driver. Top couple of gears don't have to deal with that torque so they can be programmed to be quicker. At least in my perfect world that's the way it would be.