Woodward Test Ensures GM's Transmission Reliability

Woodward Avenue became the first concrete highway in the world back in 1909, and three years later it got its first electric traffic light between downtown Detroit and downtown Pontiac, so it wasn’t what you’d call run down. Yet GM has it close to heart for a totally different reason. They’ve created a test for their products that are based on the rigors of strip driving.

It all started in 1967, when GM sent engineers to Woodward Avenue in the hopes of simulating some of the tortures placed on manual transmissions and “street” testing has become the norm. The test procedure combines elements of the worst-case shifting style of some manual transmission customers, including repeated high-torque launches and high-rev shifts.

“We’ve been evolving the Woodward test to make sure our transmissions live through repeated performance-style shifting,” said Brad Bur, GM assistant chief engineer for manual transmissions. “Of course we encourage safe driving, but we know burnouts and quick shifting are the reality. We have to design and engineer our transmissions to succeed in every possible scenario, including the street.”

Thanks to the Woodward test, which is responsible for a nearly 600-percent increase in flawless transmission shift cycles, transmission components like clutches and gears have been dramatically improved over the years.

“This is one of the ways we are able to offer one of the best powertrain warranties in the business,” said Bur. “We use this test on all our performance manual transmissions like those found in the Chevrolet Corvette and Camaro.”

Woodward Avenue is also the location where the Dream Cruise takes place, a vintage car cruise that dates to the cruising heydays of the 1950s and 1960s. It stretches along Woodward Avenue in Detroit and its northern suburbs. The Dream Cruise routinely gathers more than 1.5 million participants and spectators to celebrate the automotive heritage of the Motor City.