Does GM make a version of their 6L80E/6L90E for European OEMs

[B'klyn9C1]

In going through my car magazines and reading about the high performance four door sport sedans like the Aston Martin Rapide, the new BMW 7-Series and the Maserati Quattroporte all use the same 6 speed automatic transmission with manumatic capability. They also have gear ratios that eeirly similar gear ratios to the GM 6L80E/6L90E. Remember the 6L90E is in Cadillac CTS-V and it was with this transmission that John Heinricy did his historic sub-eight minute run at the fabled Nürburgring in Germany in the CTS-V.

Look at the following comparsion:

6L80E/6L90E....................European OEM 6 speed auto

Gear ratios:
First:.......4.03:1................4.17:1
Second:...2.36:1................2.34:1
Third:......1.53:1................1.52:1
Fourth:....1.15:1................1.14:1
Fifth:.......0.85:1................0.87:1
Sixth:......0.67:1................0.69 :1


So to those in the know and to all you automatic transmission gurus out there. Is GM Hydra-Matic the manufacturer/supplier of these 6 speed auto that are in some of Europe's fastest and powerful (400+ HP) sport sedans???

[formula]

In a word: no.

BMW uses a zf transmission, as does Aston. Maser uses a generation old Ferrari design manufactured by...zf, oddly enough.

[B'klyn9C1]

In a word: no.

BMW uses a zf transmission, as does Aston. Maser uses a generation old Ferrari design manufactured by...zf, oddly enough.

Wes,

So is there a common design lineage between GM's 6L80E family and the ZF transmissions used by BMW and Aston Martin???

Those gears ratios are practically the same. What do you say about that? Similar problems encountered by two different engineering teams yield similar results?? Well it could happen I guess. I know that GM Hydramatic builds the 5L40E and 5L50E in France and both those transmissions were used by BMW from 1999 to present.

[formula]

Hard to really know for sure without seeing the two side by side, but it's theoretically possible. Gm does supply BMW with their 6l45s for the 1 series and 3 series, but the 6l80s are gm exclusive to my knowledge. A perusal of wikipedia confirms this, but wiki is by no means law. The bmw spec gm 6 speed has the following gear spread:

1 2 3 4 5 6 R
4.06 2.37 1.55 1.16 0.85 0.67 3.20

Noticing a trend? Nearly the same ratios again. This is why I think we would need to look at the actual transmission designs and not just the gear spreads to know if they share a common thread.

[B'klyn9C1]

I know this is a semi old thread but looking over it again made me recall a conversion I had some months ago w/Chris of Circle D Specialites and I put this same question to him that I asked in my original post.

He said that if you lay on the floor the GM 6L80E unit next to the ZF 6 speed auto unit along with the Ford version of their 6 speed auto they all look errily simliar and at a quick first glance they look the same. Yeah they are apparent differences upon inspection. But they all use some version of that clutch to clutch shifting technology.

I came away from that conversation that just maybe that some of the big auto industry suppliers just pooled their resources to save some much needed developmental cost and know how. Then they each came away with their own version of basically the same product but with different specs to suit their individual needs and markets.