• TRANSMISSION
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As well as showing the competition the way home in terms of performance, the Ducat° delivers its power well too. The engine revs well in all the gears, which overcomes the particularly long gap between first and second gear without embarrassment. The engine is so flexible that up to two gears can be missed in an up change without sheepish looks at the passengers.
This is a useful feature, given the sloppy nature of the gear lever gate. The gears are well chosen for the 3.5-tonne gross weight, and the Peugeot Societe Anonyme gearbox fitted to most of the Sevel-built vans transmits the power of the turbo engine without complaint. The gearchange, however, is very vague, with the lever flopping about in every gear and no positive indication of neutral.
This characteristic is not a problem when moving up and down the box sequentially, but where a gear has to be selected in a hurry the box rapidly becomes full of neutrals – much to the driver's chagrin.
The situation is not helped by the very weak clutch on the test van, which failed to start the van on gradients steeper than 25% (1-in-5), when fully loaded. On an 25% uphill start, with first gear meshed, the accelerator fully depressed, and the clutch engaged, the van made reasonable progress . . . back down the hill.