BMW's new seven-speed manual transmission patent design

When the BMW 1M Coupe was introduced with a manual gearbox, enthusiasts wept for joy. As good as modern double clutch gearboxes with launch control and different gearshift settings may be, the pure joy and feel of an old school manual provides a different kind of high to petrolheads. 

The trouble with manual gearboxes in high performance cars today is that there are too many gears. Higher gears like 7 and 8 are designed for cruising, increasing fuel efficiency. Too many gears increase the chances of drivers engaging the wrong gear which causes the engine to over-rev or stall, this can harm the engine.

BMW’s solution to this is magnetorheologic or electorheologic fluid that can be made to change its viscosity by applying a magnetic field or electric charge. The gearbox is monitored by various sensors and block off gears by thickening the fluid and blocking gates of gears that are not safe to be engaged. 

For example, if the driver wants to downshift from fifth to fourth gear, there is a chance that second gear might be accidentally engaged causing the engine to over-rev or stall resulting in the vehicle slowing down drastically all of a sudden. 

This technology will allow petrolheads to drive hard and fast on the edge without having to worry about engaging a wrong gear while pulling off neat powerslides. 

There is also talk about a shift-by-wire system in which the manual gearstick will be used to shift gears but there will be no clutch pedal. The system will work on the principal of a Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG), a system that is very common on high performance automatic sports cars, that allows the driver to shift gears manually. 

As of now it is not clear as to when the technology will hit the market. But enthusiasts eagerly await the return of the old school manual gearbox in a better and safer avatar.