In this series: Everything I learned about dual-clutch transmissions from driving more than 10,000km in one - what they are, how they work, three key positives, three key negatives and four critical conclusions, which you need to know if you want to buy the right new car.

This video covers DCT basics - what they are and the long-term test I performed.

Dual-clutch transmissions look just like automatics from the cockpit. Same kind of shift lever. Maybe, but not always, some shifting paddles behind the wheel. But [LOOK DOWN] down there, it’s all very different.

There’s essentially a manual gearbox doing the work, with two different parallel gear trains and two different clutches - the clutches are concentric, so they look like one clutch from the outside. Trust me, there are two.

One clutch engages one gear train, and the other clutch controls the other - hence the name. All the clutch operation and gear shifting is automated - there’s a computer making the decisions and high-speed servo motors moving the parts, engaging the clutches and shifting the gears. The control is very precise.

The i30 uses a dry clutch setup. The alternative is the so-called ‘wet’ clutch - an engineering euphemism for a clutch sitting in an oil bath.

I’ve driven dozens of test cars with dual-clutch transmissions. But I’ve never lived with one. So I approached Hyundai about it and they got on board with the project. But just to be clear - Hyundai supplied the 1.6 turbo petrol i30SR Premium for evaluation but they have no say in what I report, and no money changed hands.

Just a note on the way I drove the car: I’m not an abuser of vehicles. I’ve been driving media evaluation vehicles for two decades. It’s hardly a novelty - at least, not any more. But I hate abusing vehicles.
I guess what you need to know there is that these kinds of evaluation vehicles generally live harder lives than vehicles driven by actual owner. Very few people buy a new car and drive it this hard, this often. No point wrapping a car in cotton wool, to evaluate it.

It’s fair to say that my 10,000 kilometres in this car would be harder than most owners’ 20 or 30,000 kilometres. Plus I drove in a lot of Sydney traffic, which is hell on earth for engine oil and hard on clutches in particular. This car has been to boot camp on Parris Island for 10,000 kilometres.

After all that, I can’t feel any obvious signs of wear and tear - no rattles and squeaks, no shudder on clutch engagement. I had it up on the hoist the other day while they serviced it - even the brakes showed minimal wear. It seems pretty durable to me.

The i30 SR uses a seven-speed transmission called the D7UF1 manufactured in-house by Hyundai Dymos. It’s rated to 340 Newton-metres. It’s the big brother of the other seven-speeder, which is rated to 220.

They’re both kinda modular - same basic design. Beefier clutches and geartrain on the high-rated one, but the same control architecture on both. It’s only seven kilos heavier for the bigger torque capacity.
This is actually the second generation of Hyundai dual-clutch transmissions. The first was a six speed DCT in the Veloster, which debuted in 2011. These seven-speeders rolled out in the Sonata and Veloster Turbo in 2015, and made their way into i30 and Tucson in 2016.

They’re compact and reasonably light - seven forward gears plus reverse in a package that’s 385 millimetres long and weighs just under 80 kilos.