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Sequential manual tranmissions

with the exception of one vehicle, i have only ever driven manual transmissions, and i skip gears all the time (had an F250 4X4 that was impossible to get moving in first gear, so literally never used it). that said, i don't know a lot about transmissions, and when i first read this, i thought you were talking about a non-synchronous transmission. a few years ago i was looking at buying an old mg (can't recall if it was a midget or an mgb), but it had a non-synchronous first gear (IIRC the rest were synchronous). i was looking for a funky beater sports car at the time, but it was a little too funky lol.
 
Doesn't every car with paddle shifters shift sequentially when in manual mode. But who ever bothers to use the paddles. In over two and a half years I might have used mine 5 or 6 times.
 
Blankpage said:
Doesn't every car with paddle shifters shift sequentially when in manual mode. But who ever bothers to use the paddles. In over two and a half years I might have used mine 5 or 6 times.
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don't know the answer to that, but the one car i have that is auto has manual mode paddle shifters, and you can also shift in manual mode with the stick (push the stick to the right, and then you can go up and down the gears manually). i never use them either. hate it every time i've tried it.
 
Motorcycle transmissions are Constant Mesh. There are Constant mesh transmissions for racing cars. But the Dog clutches wear out quick on those compared to a normal Syncromesh gearbox.

Sequential shifting can be built for a Syncromesh gearbox if the manufacturers wanted.
 
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the OP is talking about flappy paddles and tiptronic transmissions since that’s all electronically controlled.
 
Yeah not talking about that, though similar concept I suppose. I'm picturing the Hurst shifters in like, a 1970s Barracuda or something similar, where they had the 3-speed and 4-speed floor mounted shifters where you still used a clutch but shifted linearly up and down vs the H pattern. Common for drag racing, and while it wasn't "standard" they DID offer OEM packages with them I thought. Sorta like how you can get specific transmission / engine options for an SRT Jeep or a Hellcat vs the normal ones.
 
While very common in race cars, the sequential will never come on a street car because of how quickly they wear out. Rick hit the nail on the head. Sequentials are great for race cars because they minimize the downtime between shifts through the use of dog clutches.
 
NorCalAthlete said:
Yeah not talking about that, though similar concept I suppose. I'm picturing the Hurst shifters in like, a 1970s Barracuda or something similar, where they had the 3-speed and 4-speed floor mounted shifters where you still used a clutch but shifted linearly up and down vs the H pattern. Common for drag racing, and while it wasn't "standard" they DID offer OEM packages with them I thought. Sorta like how you can get specific transmission / engine options for an SRT Jeep or a Hellcat vs the normal ones.
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I think what you're thinking of is a ratchet shifter and they're for automatics.
41bbBRv1uYL._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg
 
Ahhhh yes the good ol’ fashioned slap stick. Those are fun for a few minutes. Then, just as the paddles or +/- gate are of the modern automatic, the novelty wears off and you never use it again.
 
Abacinator said:
I think what you're thinking of is a ratchet shifter and they're for automatics.
41bbBRv1uYL._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg
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That has to be what he's thinking of. No muscle car came with a sequential gearbox or shifter. Fast forward to today and there are a vast number of transmission types including fully automatic manual gearboxes/clutch and autos with various shifting processes.
They are saying the manual trans is dying fast and I believe it, my Hellcat auto trans is awesome, eight speeds, shifts instantly even in street mode, and I'm a hardcore muscle car guy, I still like big blocks with 4 speeds but the new autos are better in every way.
 
That IS what I'm thinking of but the ones I recall were still a 3-pedal setup, not automatic...I dunno. But yeah bottom line it was just a curiosity as to why the linear shifting never caught on. :dunno
 
Blankpage said:
Doesn't every car with paddle shifters shift sequentially when in manual mode. But who ever bothers to use the paddles. In over two and a half years I might have used mine 5 or 6 times.
Click to expand...

Our smart car has the sequential shifting paddles, and I prefer using them to letting the computer control shift points. It wants to get into 5th gear as quickly as possible, and there are times that it upshifts, only to need to immediately downshift - which means it needs to grab 2 gears instead of one. And if you're tooling along at 25 mph you don't really need to be in 5th gear...
 
NorCalAthlete said:
It's not like you're ever going to skip gears by that many unless you're one of those people who puts it in neutral and just brakes from 60-0.
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That's exactly what I do. In typical daily driving there's no reason to come flying into a corner, heel and toeing away, revving up the engine. Brake pads are way cheaper than a clutch and easier to replace.

Rolling up to a stop light or intersection I'd just pop it out of gear (4-5) and coast all the way.
 
easter bunny said:
Rolling up to a stop light or intersection I'd just pop it out of gear (4-5) and coast all the way.
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Wait... you just skipped 4 gears!

What's the advantage of linear? With a nice H transmission, once it's in first it's just pull down (to 2nd) push up (to 3rd) pull down (to 4th). May take more effort to get to 1st (which is usually done at a stop) or 5th (usually fuel efficience is key). And more effort to go to a random gear, but you can do it easily.

With some sort of linear control, you have to figure out the current state (harder than on an H shift, requires finding and reading some readout if it's electronic) then adjust some # of times (usually one, but maybe 2).

Of course in fully automated systems like modern automatics and CVTs, you can just listen to the engine and push the button as many times as you want, and the computer will prevent you from doing anything that stupid. I do this with some frequency going down long steep hills to slow the car down.

But modern cars can also auto-control all sorts of things--mine can control engine speed, 'gear' ration (it's a CVT), and brakes on individual wheels when appropriate. Way more advanced than most any human.

So both human-designed-controls (H-pattern type shifters) or full automation make sense... but the in-between is akward.
 
mbsv said:
..
So both human-designed-controls (H-pattern type shifters) or full automation make sense... but the in-between is akward.
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Oh wait. Or unless you're at the bottom of a San Francisco hill and the precious automatic has just shifted in 5th..

Manuals or shifting-paddles make helluva sense in San Francisco.

The reality is, with conventional automatics, or even with auto-controlled SMG/DSGs, people simply press the pedal harder, make more noise with the engine(*) and shift unnecessarily later, because they weren't controling the gear in plain visibility of the upcoming hill.

Hence the automatics create a lot of push-gas-push-stop traffic. You could extrapolate this to a more of noise, brake dust and stop-go congestion, too. But I didn't digress all that much .. yet


* - also people buy more powerful engines than they need to, when all the control they have is an automatic and one pedal.

.
 
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easter bunny said:
That's exactly what I do. In typical daily driving there's no reason to come flying into a corner, heel and toeing away, revving up the engine. Brake pads are way cheaper than a clutch and easier to replace.

Rolling up to a stop light or intersection I'd just pop it out of gear (4-5) and coast all the way.
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Ditto for me and for Mrs. We had 250k+ miles on her Saturn when we sold it and the clutch was still strong. We have 205k+ on our D21's clutch, still good.

Brakes we have gone through, but not often and always easier and cheaper.
 
My dad wen't through 2 Camrys and didn't need a clutch job

280k on the 1990 that he taught both me and my sister to drive on
260k on the 1999

Now he has a 2014 and they only come in autos.
 
wazzuFreddo said:
My dad wen't through 2 Camrys and didn't need a clutch job

280k on the 1990 that he taught both me and my sister to drive on
260k on the 1999

Now he has a 2014 and they only come in autos.
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The future kinda sucks.

I have grandkids to teach so I gotta go easier on ours.
 
Alan_Hepburn said:
Our smart car has the sequential shifting paddles, and I prefer using them to letting the computer control shift points. It wants to get into 5th gear as quickly as possible, and there are times that it upshifts, only to need to immediately downshift - which means it needs to grab 2 gears instead of one. And if you're tooling along at 25 mph you don't really need to be in 5th gear...
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You own a Smart car, I'm really sorry to hear that :(
 
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