I hate CVT

Gore Vidal, a man is given to passing sentences as making them, said the "three most dispiriting words in the English language are Joyce Carol Oates". Though having managed that novelist, I feel the equivalent trio in my less hallowed sphere of endeavour would be: "continuously variable transmission".

Indeed, a survey of my fellows would find that any sentence starting with the exclamation "F***," would like as not be followed by "I hate CVT". While the manual is history in all but a niche of affordable cars (these are not coincidentally the most fun of any type to drive) and that automatics are of ever increasing sophistication, CVT is apt to bring out the inner luddite.

To the uninitiated, a CVT looks like an auto. This is so in that you needn't change gears, indeed there are no gears. CVT constantly changes the relationship of engine speed to car speed. There's no informative transmission shift as it builds up revs, just a sound like a crow that's caught its foot in a rabbit trap. 

No cogs, rather a pair of variable-diameter pulleys, shaped like a pair of opposing cones, with a chain connecting, One pulley is connected to the engine (input shaft), the other to the drive wheels (output shaft). Clever. Deuced clever. And damn depressing. Look, at some point we'll all be mere passengers in autonomously driven capsules, so let's enjoy our independence while we can.