gpsman
Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays 3385Here's a different Xmas story As a teacher, Ms. Jones, was very curious about how each of her students celebrated Christmas. She called on young Patrick Murphy. "Tell me Patrick...
Well... this may be cranking up the wayback machine a little bit, but there were at one time aftermarket shifters available for "standard" (i.e. 3-speed manual) transmissions that were specifically designed with stiff springs to throw the shift lever over into the 2-3 gate so that 1-2 shifts could be completed with one fluid, diagonal motion. The factory shifter on my Porsche 914 (and I would buttume contemporary 911s, until they went to a conventional shift pattern) works exactly the same way, with 4-5 being an additional gate to the right. You can achieve a quick 1-2 shift simply by pushing the stick forward with the heel of your hand. 2-1 downshifts can be done quickly as well, simply by keeping leftward pressure on the stick while pulling back. (this is buttuming, of course, that whatever transmission we're discussing has a synchronized first gear, which is true of the Porsche but not true of many of the old American 3-speeds - in which case a double-clutch, or if you feel like showing off, a clutchless rev-match, is a must.)
That said, unless one is racing, I would pause in neutral briefly to let the synchros do their thing unless one really likes causing undue stress on the transmixer's innards. Unless one is very familiar with rev-matching and has some experience driving a "crash box" I wouldn't drive a synchro box like that.
nate
