pic: CVT drivetrain

[mechanicalbrain]

actually a CVT is hardly ineficient all it means is nobody has created an efficient one. i once saw a race car with one... VERY COOL the car lost absolutly no RPM when shifting gears and you didnt have to wory about "shocking" your transmission when performing high speed gear shifts. the main benifit with this pertaining to FIRST is you can actually make them VERY simple (although with a few costom done parts) and you have a more complete control over a direct drive torque to speed ratio. i also looked at torque converters but they were too much of a hasle.