"Fredxx" wrote in message
...
On 26/05/2021 14:30, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

snip

One gearbox has the odd gears, the other the even. And changing
between say 1st to 2nd is done by swapping the clutches. When the car is
in 2nd gear, the other box has selected 3rd, and the process repeated.
This arrangement can give a virtually seamless power flow under pretty
well all conditions.

A friend of mine remarked how dangerous these were.

Lets suppose you want instant power, with a manual you can anticipate how
long it takes to go from say 3rd to 2nd gear.

On one of these the gearboxes the parallel box will be sitting in 4th
gear, and so has to make the relevant movements to go into second before
operating the clutch. Thus maybe sitting on the wrong side of the road
whilst wanting to pass a slow vehicle for much longer than expected.

In that situation it usually makes more sense to apply the brakes than
go for instant power because you have much more braking power
than acceleration power available at those speeds when overtaking.

This was his take and I confess not to ever having driven one.