Hydraulic gearchange first used?

[PorscheFanNo1]

Hi all,

Anyone know the history about the hydraulic gearchange? When was it introduced, by who, in what car? When did it become standard in F1 and Sportscar racing? Maybe theres somewhere I can read more about how it works?

[knighty]

I seem to remember that Lotus trialled a pneumatic air based system in the mid to late 70's in the ronnie peterson JPS days.......then I read recently that Ferrari also dabbled with it in the late 70's too, but never raced it........it was only when John Barnard designed Ferrari in the late 80's that a true hydraulic system made its debut........there was a good feature on it in a recent race car engineering issue a month or so back........Barnard was pushing it hard as a big design revolution as it simplified the chassis a great deal as you didnt need to package the cumbersome gear linkage........but the Ferrari team hated the idea to the point that both parties got their contracts of empoyment out and had solicitiors present for a big ding-dong........but all the BS was dropped after Mansell tested it, he felt it was quicker and wanted it on the car, end of discussion!!

[PorscheFanNo1]

Thanks for the reply! That would make it around 89/90

[The Shrew]

Ok so this isnt cars however if your looking to find out a bit more info how it works etc they fitted a pneumatic / hydraulic gear change on some of the DAF 95 series trucks in the mid - late 90's pretty certain it was made by ZF

As far as i can remember the system was the normal box just with a differnt selector housing. Pretty stright forward system.

Might give you something to look for if you want to see how it works.