BMW hasn't exactly been shy about its thoughts on the life and future of the manual transmission. The head of its M department has made it clear that BMW M wants stick shifts in cars like the M3, but it's becoming tougher with every improvement to its gas engines.Now, another M exec has said that BMW M is working on that issue. It will do everything it can to keep a third pedal in the lineup, even if that means cranking down the horsepower levels. M Is Torquing About Needing Something Stronger BMW With cars like the BMW M2, M3, and M4, it's not about demand. BMW M knows buyers, especially American ones, want a stick. But BMW's current six-speed, the one it uses in those cars now, isn't up to what BMW's 3.0-liter inline-six is capable of.Sylvia Neubauer, head of customer, brand, and sales for M, spoke with German publication Automobilwoche about the automaker's efforts to keep a shrinking group of enthusiasts happy. She said that BMW's engineers are working on a solution to keep the ever-more-powerful engine hooked to a six-speed box.Neubauer didn't deliver any details, but she did promise a solution to the problem, according to the report. A solution could mean many things, including dropping the stick. But the report suggested that lowering torque could be the answer that makes it possible.Lowering torque to make the transmission work is something BMW has already been doing for some time. Just look at the current line of small M cars where the manual transmission is only offered on the basic versions or only with less torque than the automatic. The M2, for example, delivers 442 pound-feet with an eight-speed auto and 406 with the stick. The M3 and M4 offer the stick only with the basic model and not in Competition, CS, or CSL versions, where they make 479 lb-ft. The Weakest Link Is Also Your Favorite BMW The reason given is the ZF transmission that sits behind the inline-six. Some online sources say the most robust version of that six-speed can handle 600 newton-meters (443 lb-ft) of torque. Karsten Fabien, the engineer in charge of transmissions at BMW M, says it can handle 550 Nm, which works out to, you guessed it, 406 lb-ft.Are there stronger manual transmissions out there? Absolutely. ZF makes a seven-speed for Porsche that can handle more torque, but the 911 is a very different car. That includes the transmission, where the drive comes out of the front and not the back because of the rear-mounted engine. A company called Tremec builds one that can handle up to 650 lb-ft, and it was used in the Dodge Challenger Hellcat models. It can't handle AWD, it weighs 50% more, and is about five inches longer.So putting a stronger stick in the M cars would need a lot of engineering work. Either significant chassis changes to make an existing one fit, or changes to develop a new transmission that fits in the existing footprint.Just a few years ago, when BMW's future looked electric, it didn't make sense to spend the cash. Now, though, when the pendulum is swinging the other way – at least in the US – spending some money on a solution, whatever it is, has a better business case behind it.
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