He makes it look easy, effortless. I know that it's not. Cool vid.

Wow. I'd like to give it a go...

Those paddle shifters have made it somewhat easier for the drivers I'm thinking. There would be a lot of manual shifting going on during that race.

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Paddle shifters allow the driver to concentrate a bit better since your hand doesn't come off the wheel (one less thing your brain has to do).

Paddle shifters are faster than a stick shift because solenoids are doing the shifting. And depending on the trans type, you don't have to use the clutch (a dog ring trans vs one with syncros).
If the rules allow it, there can be a "shift without lift" feature so your right foot stays flat on the gas.

You don't realize how many shifts take place in a race until you see the numbers. I don't have the figures for the 8+ mile lap at Lemans but at Monaco's tight track, a F1 car (7 speed) does 50-60 shifts per lap, that's 4680 shifts in a short race.

Is the transmission still a manual transmission that has paddle shifters? No clutch required? What's the deal?

I was told that they are not like the automatic 6 speeds that come in the grand sport with paddle shifters. So I guess that means no torque converter etc. How does this work?

My Malibu has the six speed transmission with paddle shifters and its pretty nice.

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Well, since you asked.

The C6R uses a Xtrac 303 Sequential NON synchromesh transmission (so does the Caddy racer & the GT40). sequential shifters have a straight line pattern (not a H pattern).

Yea, it is a manual trans and nothing like the Malibu. it's actually a transaxle.

If you've seen the older 4 speeds apart, they have cone shaped, brass syncros with marching surfaces on the gears. when you start to shift, the syncros push into the gears and slowdown/speed up the gear you're going into to make gear speed on the countershaft the same as the engine.
This makes for a nice, smooth shift. It also makes them crappy for racing.

The Xtrac is a dog ring trans. The dog ring is the piece that fits on the shift fork. Both the ring and the gears have dogs on them, they are squared blocks that inter mesh when you shift. There's no slowdown/speed up of the gears like a syncro.
They make shifts extremely fast.
This is also where "clutchless" shifting comes in. All you have to do is lift off the throttle and shift, the trans will go into the next gear easily.
"Shift without lift" is when the computer recognises the paddle movement and momentarily cuts the spark so the shift can be done.

This is what a 3rd and 4th dog ring gear looks like (out of my tranny). The dog ring is the one in the middle.

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BTW, you can get an Xtrac of your very own for your C6 for only $22,000 , uninstalled of course.

Well, that was my next question... Why don't they just start putting these kind of transmissions in cars and do away with the whole Automatic / Manual debate? Personally, I'm about fed up with automatic transmissions. Sorry Pete, nothing personal.

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Dog ring trannys don't work well on the street. The dog rings are maintainence items, their life depends a lot on the skill of the driver.

But, at least on my racecar, they are easy to change.
I can pull the gearbox, change a dog ring or 3rd gear ratio and be back running in 45 minutes.

I know you could hear a clunk sound when they downshifted into a corner. Not on the upshifts though. I thought you could anyway.....

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It's doughtful that that was the trans, the dogring setup won't do that unless the driver really screws up .