An ode to manual transmission cars
- Thread starter T & P
- Start date
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
Almost all new cars have hill hold now. So it'll keep the brakes applied until it senses a certain value on the TPS. So it won't roll back even if you take your foot off the brake.
Torque convertor autos are fluid coupled so they just slip when the car is stationary. CVT autos have a centrifugal clutch so the transmission isn't engaged at idle rpm.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
Dogleg 1st (Porsche 914, E30 M3, Merc 190E 2.3-16, Diablo, Murcielago, loads of mid-engined Ferraris, etc.) is the king of shift patterns.
LOOK AT IT!
LOOK AT IT!
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
That has reminded me about this story.
Since this happened when I was 11 or 12, I may have mentioned it before ...
When I was going to secondary school, my journey was by coach for approx 3/4 hour ... good job I didn't get travel sick.
Anyway, one morning instead of the decent 45 vehicle we usually got, the driver turned up in one of the older 37 seaters.
I asked "what gives ? " as we all piled on. Lateness at school was "excused" , thankfully.
Answer ... the bosses' elder son had pranged the new coach into the 45 seater. Apparently, he hadn't noticed the sign telling everybody it had a "weird gearbox" so instead of selecting first he had actually engaged reverse ... jumped backwards and smashed into the front of the 45'er parked a few feet behind. Got up enough momentum to break the windscreen & dent the grill. Son was off driving for several months after that, his dad wad definitely not amused.
[the weird gearbox was usually referred to as "Chinese" because it was inverted with R and evens to the back of the gate - the ratios were better for town work, so once you recalled which coach you were in, it was good for rush hour crawling interspersed with short faster bits. It also had really good power steering and an extra "retarding" brake ...]
Since this happened when I was 11 or 12, I may have mentioned it before ...
When I was going to secondary school, my journey was by coach for approx 3/4 hour ... good job I didn't get travel sick.
Anyway, one morning instead of the decent 45 vehicle we usually got, the driver turned up in one of the older 37 seaters.
I asked "what gives ? " as we all piled on. Lateness at school was "excused" , thankfully.
Answer ... the bosses' elder son had pranged the new coach into the 45 seater. Apparently, he hadn't noticed the sign telling everybody it had a "weird gearbox" so instead of selecting first he had actually engaged reverse ... jumped backwards and smashed into the front of the 45'er parked a few feet behind. Got up enough momentum to break the windscreen & dent the grill. Son was off driving for several months after that, his dad wad definitely not amused.
[the weird gearbox was usually referred to as "Chinese" because it was inverted with R and evens to the back of the gate - the ratios were better for town work, so once you recalled which coach you were in, it was good for rush hour crawling interspersed with short faster bits. It also had really good power steering and an extra "retarding" brake ...]
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Anyone who thinks they can change gear better than a modern auto ‘box is deluded.
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
Another reason not to ride a bicycle.
ice-is-forming
I was born naked, shameless & fucking outrageous..
I've got both an auto awd and a manual 4x4, and swapping between them makes me laugh. For the first few minutes of driving the auto, I still have to purposefully tuck my left leg back and sing a little song in my head about being in an auto to mind I don't slam the brakes on when I try and change imaginary gears.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Bit of a tangent, but given ongoing events have you considered changing your username to ice-is-melting?
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
I don’t get this, have swapped daily between automatic and manual for 15 years. Very occasionally if on a long drive and closely approaching a roundabout from a dual carriageway in an automatic my left leg will twitch for the clutch.
Ping ping ping. Steering pulls you back Indicator facsists. Ping. Ping pong.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
I've driven both autos and manuals and tbh I prefer autos but cope fine with manuals, I've always had manuals though not particularly out of choice but due to the fact that gearbox is low down my list of selection criteria.
I've insisted that all 4 kids learn in a manual car purely on the grounds that by doing so they get the choice of whether they want manual or auto rather than have it foisted on them.
My oldest grandson is 5 so will be 17 in 2034 when all new cars will be electric but there will still be a lot of (probably the majority still) ICE manuals cars left on the road, I wonder what he will have to learn to drive in.
I've insisted that all 4 kids learn in a manual car purely on the grounds that by doing so they get the choice of whether they want manual or auto rather than have it foisted on them.
My oldest grandson is 5 so will be 17 in 2034 when all new cars will be electric but there will still be a lot of (probably the majority still) ICE manuals cars left on the road, I wonder what he will have to learn to drive in.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
The first couple of times I drove an auto I gave myself a couple of bruises on the chest before pain (always an effective teacher) taught me that there was no longer a clutch pedal.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Yes I wasn't being entirely serious. I myself have bad joints due to hypermobility and my left knee in particular does not like long periods of driving in stop-start traffic or tricksy back roads that require endless gear changes. My opinions on the subject come very much from a place of, 'I have endured this, so all who come after me must also'.
That and the septics all drive automatics, which makes me assume they must be shite.
Epona
Sonic: 1 Nov 2006 - 8 Jan 2022
Laughter emoji due to the last sentence, not about your hypermobility - which I understand, that (EDS/hypermobility) is also the cause of my osteoarthritis.
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
Septic cars aren't shit. They are just designed for a country with no corners on roads, no need to ever parallel park and petrol costing 3p a gallon, also the buying decisions are made by people with the tastes of a six year old.
Once you realise(sorry realize) that you can admire their cars...
All great, automatic, cars within the above design criteria....
urbanspaceman
Well-Known Member
There are advantages in buying automatic used cars:
1) bad manual gear changing can grind away at the gears and reduce a manual to a swarf-filled ruin
2) manual gearboxes allow drivers to over- and (more generally) under- rev the engine, putting undue stress on it.
So an automatic removes concerns about abused manual gearboxes, and protects the engine from bad gear selection, reducing the risks/uncertainties of buying a used car. Years ago, automatics were fragile, unreliable and inefficient, but nowadays, they are dependable. and often more efficient than a manual.
As for control, cars have had, since 2011, automatic traction control and since 2014, Electronic Stability Control, which provide superhuman reactions to skidding, sliding, etc. If you think you're controlling the car's traction, you might be flattering yourself - the computers are taking care of you in the background.
1) bad manual gear changing can grind away at the gears and reduce a manual to a swarf-filled ruin
2) manual gearboxes allow drivers to over- and (more generally) under- rev the engine, putting undue stress on it.
So an automatic removes concerns about abused manual gearboxes, and protects the engine from bad gear selection, reducing the risks/uncertainties of buying a used car. Years ago, automatics were fragile, unreliable and inefficient, but nowadays, they are dependable. and often more efficient than a manual.
As for control, cars have had, since 2011, automatic traction control and since 2014, Electronic Stability Control, which provide superhuman reactions to skidding, sliding, etc. If you think you're controlling the car's traction, you might be flattering yourself - the computers are taking care of you in the background.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
I believe the Americans support automatic cars primarily because they want their kids to be able easily to drive to and from school and learning to drive an auto is much simpler than a stick shift.
And I agree that the roads there favour autos, lots of long semi straight motorways with low speed limits where a cruise control can really minimise any work required.
And I agree that the roads there favour autos, lots of long semi straight motorways with low speed limits where a cruise control can really minimise any work required.
hash tag
Books, not bombs
My baby is a serious drinker and has a very poor steering lock but she is still a joy to drive.
BTW I would love to get my hands on that Dodge, one of my neighbours has a C3 Corvette, sounds lovely and not keen on modern TBirds
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
If I ever sense that the car behind is auto cruise controlling me I will change lanes to shake them off. Otherwise I'm basically doing their job for them and fuck that.
kalidarkone
Bringing YOU round.....
Yes I will. I have only ever driven a manual and I really enjoy driving.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Ironically, countless (mostly minor to be fair) accidents of a certain type by novice or simply not very good or confident drivers would have been avoided had they been driving manual cars instead of autos.
I’m taking all those instances you see on YouTube of cars on left on neutral with the engine running while the driver is distracted or has got out of the car for whatever reason, and they roll off and and gather a good 15-20 mph speed until they hit something- something that of course wouldn’t happen with a manual on a level road.
And in those incidents in which a driver confuses the brake and accelerator pedals, or becomes ill at the wheel with the foot inadvertently pushing down on the pedal, the event will usually be more brief and involve a slower top speed on impact if the car is a manual than if it were an automatic.
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
what's the advantage to that? quicker change from 2 to 3?
oops
i've driven something similar - one of these (Bristol SC)
although i think there's one pair of gears where two consecutive gears are both bottom half, so you go up, across, down for one change. i can't remember now, it's been a while.
and while the fuel economy was impressive, with the small 4 cylinder engine, there's one or two roads i'd never realised were a slight gradient until i'd driven one of them up them...
then there's these -
(Bristol MW) - 1, 2, 3 and 4 are where you'd expect them, but then 5 (assuming its a 5 speed box) is right then up from 4 through a second 'neutral' position, so you have to be careful not to try and select 5th when you're trying to change down from 4th to 3rd, as it's a fairly unforgiving crash box.
5 Speed Lodekkas have a similar arrangement, but with the steering wheel being raked, there just isn't room in the cab for the gear lever, clutch, steering wheel and my left leg, so I had to give up on driving that...
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
It's alright there's always another sucker
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Yes, on a track you’ll almost never use first gear.
For a road car though it’s just another thing to impress other Clarksons down the pub.
