Nissan’s SynchroRev Match (SRM) combines the tactile reward of shifting your own gears with the perfectly orchestrated downshifts of an automated manual or an automatic.

In most cars with a manual transmission, a smooth downshift requires a blip of the throttle to match the engine rpm with the speed of the lower gear. And shifting during braking requires the one-foot, two-pedal technique known as heel-and-toeing; your right foot blips the throttle while at the same time pushing the brake pedal. It can be harder to get right than health-care reform. But Nissan’s system, part of the Sport package on manual-transmission 370Zs and standard on the NISMO version, takes care of the rev matching for you.

SRM is such a simple concept that we’re surprised it took this long for an automaker to come up with it. The basic system components are sensors on the clutch pedal and shift lever, along with some finely tuned programming in the engine control unit (ECU). There’s also a transmission-speed sensor to make sure the driveshaft matches up with engine speed. Pressing in the clutch pedal triggers the system, and when it detects movement in the shift lever, the engine control unit calculates the target engine speed and adjusts the electronic throttle accordingly.

The gearshift sensors monitor gear position as well as side-to-side shifter movement and are sensitive enough that you can hold down the clutch pedal and watch the revs jump precisely to the right rpm if you merely hint at moving the shift lever to a lower gear. But it’s not just for downshifts; SRM also sticks the engine speed at the targeted rpm during upshifts to prevent any lumpiness that might result from letting the revs drop too low. And if you push in the clutch pedal but don’t change gears, the engine will adjust to the proper revs before the clutch is fully reengaged.

As we mentioned in our 370Z road test, Nissan’s system gets the revs right every time, which is more than even the best human can claim. It’s incredibly helpful on the track, where a botched shift could upset the car’s balance, and it’s also a useful tool for normal driving—particularly with an in-law, grandma, or ­nausea-prone paramour riding shotgun. Plus, unlike stability control, SynchroRev Match enhances the driving experience instead of diluting it, removing pre-corner anxiety and allowing you to focus on braking and turn-in. Some might see SRM as another step toward the fully computer-driven car. If you’re in that camp, well, there’s always the off switch.

I’m in Italy with Fiat, finding out about the owners of America’s third-largest car company, Chrysler. And, naturally, all we want to know is what the Italians intend to do to the folks in Auburn Hills.

Herewith, a few observations. On the PR side, they’ve put the power back with the brands. They have cut out what little flab was there. And they have given the power to the good people who know the products.

Fiat has decided to keep the Viper brand. This is proof they are car guys and understand that having sexy cars isn’t a bad thing. Now, if they can bring some Ferrari finesse in, all the better.

Apparently, it will be August before a product strategy is decided. But Fiat powertrain people were dropping hints at where synergies will be effected.

Let’s say Alfa returns to the U.S. with a 3-series competitor. Chrysler has a V-6 that would be handy. (It’s not a great V-6, but maybe there’s improvement that can be made.) The merging of both companies makes a super compact dual-clutch transmission financially viable.

Chrysler has electric cars and hybrids that are way ahead of anything Fiat has, apparently. And as Alfredo Altavilla, CEO of Fiat Powertrain Technologies told us, “the technology transfer from Fiat to Chrysler will not just be one-way.”

Fiat’s innovative camless Multiair technology, which helps lower CO2 emissions (or improves gas mileage, depending on which way you skin this particular cat) is “an add-on we can adapt for Chrysler engines,” Altavilla said. It’s certainly a smart and relatively cheap way to get closer to impending CAFE regs.

Perhaps the most interesting thing I heard, though, was Altavilla’s observation that diesels will die out in Europe. Here’s why. As European emissions regulations more closely mirror those in the U.S., where diesels have to perform comparably to gas engines, the cost of getting a diesel that performs as well as a two-cylinder turbo Multiair gas engine wil be $1200 more, at least. On a $12,000 car, that won’t fly. Diesels will make sense only to upscale automakers who need them to get good gas mileage for CAFE reasons and can pass the cost on to their richer buyers.

I know there’s a tendency to scoff at Fiat over here, but they are technically sharp and making money at the moment. When you look at how Fiat turned its wonderful old Lingotto factory in Turin into its HQ and a destination hotel and then compare that with GM’s abandonment of the great Albert Kahn HQ in Detroit, it makes you wonder.

Related posts:

1. Chrysler Outlines Future Product Plans Resulting From Fiat Agreement – Car News
2. Fiat and Chrysler: A Marriage Made for Washington – Interview
3. Fiat and Chrysler Announce Strategic Alliance – Car News
4. Chrysler and Fiat Alliance: Future Product Speculation – Car News
5. Driving Miss Fiat: We Sample Engines Likely to Come to the U.S.

The Fiat X1/9 was never a great car; at best, at its introduction in the mid-1970s, it was a novel styling exercise and a miracle in packaging that yielded a tiny mid-engined sports car with the agile handling to match its excellent weight distribution.

By the standards of 1974, the X1/9 was not a fast car, running only about as quickly as the bog-slow standard family sedan of the time. When the car was discontinued in 1988, wearing a Bertone badge in honor of its designer following Fiat's pull-out from the American market, it was one of the slowest cars on the market, neck and neck with low-grade economy sedans and base-model minivans.

The 1974 edition ran 0-60 in a halfway respectable 11.0 seconds (respectable by the standards of the time, anyway), but by 1976 tightening emissions standards had caused the Fiat to fade to 14.0 seconds--an eternity in virtually any era.

What the X1/9 always had going for it, though, was style. Mid-engined cars are a novelty even today; in the 1970s, they were the stuff of exotica. With its extravagantly wedgy profile, intimate seating arrangements, and trim, tidy proportions, the X1/9 perfectly captured the time and looks sharp and contemporary even today.

Nowadays, you can find ratty old X1/9s behind gas stations, parked in alleys, and in fields--their marvelous designer lines left to slowly (or rapidly, as the case may be) rust away into nothingness.

I'm sorely tempted to nab one and fix it up to have my own boutique mid-engined, two-seat sports car, but Fiat's legendary unreliability, expensive parts, and typically casual 1970s approach to rust-proofing would probably make even a free X1/9 a very expensive proposition.

Someday, perhaps.

The international appeal of the X1/9 is displayed by the fact that these photos are courtesy of www.peterboehi.com, a German-language site that discusses his love of quirky cars and Fiats in particular. This is just more proof that Car Lust transcends national and linguistic barriers.

--Chris H.