Is GM’s 8L90E Eight-Speed Automatic Enough or Not?
Back in 2015, Jay Heath, a writer for Corvette Magazine, published a piece titled “Eight is Enough” about the Chevy Corvette’s brand-new eight-speed transmission. His evaluation of the transmission was performed while driving a 2015 Z51 Stingray at GM‘s Milford (Michigan) Road course. His review of this transmission was not only favorable, but he argued that the transmission was more capable than any manual transmission in terms of acceleration and overall performance.
This image is of the Corvette that Jay Heath, a writer for Corvette Magazine, used when evaluating the 8L90E transmission for his article “Eight Is Enough,”
Since its introduction, however, Corvette’s eight-speed automatic has garnered a variety of responses – a few very favorable but a good many more not so much.
What Makes the Eight?
The 2015 (and later) C7 Corvette’s eight-speed transmission, formally referred to as the 8L90E, was constructed of four gearsets, a pair of open clutches, and an industry-first binary-vane pump. The latter device, which regulates fluid flow into-and-through the transmission based on driving style, operates under two output levels – low and high. When a driver mashes his foot to the floor, it circulates an abundance of fluid thru the transmission ensuring proper pressures and lubrication. It can also drop back when being driven economically. GM was awarded patents for all of these elements, (along with approximately two dozen others). Combined, these elements reduced internal spin-loss by approximately thirty percent, meaning more of the transmission output was transferred directly to the rear wheels.
The 8L90E Automatic Transmission
While the argument has been made that the more gears an automatic transmission has tended to decrease its reliability, the 8L90E (at the onset at least) had hoped to prove this theory wrong. Question is, over the long term, how reliable was the transmission really?
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