Manual transmission drivers, applause yourselves.

"RotaryLover" (rotarylover)
08/14/2014 at 17:52 • Filed to: Manuals

This is not a rant or a ''Manual is more awesome than Automatics or vice versa''. Just a realization I had while driving.

Drive and watch your footwork one day when you can (Do it in a empty area. I'm not responsible if you crash tho). It seems like nothing in our minds to play between 3 pedals,the shifter and the steering wheel when you know your car pretty well, but in reality it's impressive when you look at yourself doing it. Releasing the clutch while giving some gas, then clutch and change gear, go back on the gas, clutch again, gas […] brake, clutch+ heel and toe, downshift and it goes on and on. Our feet are constantly dancing and it's just so natural that we forget how complicated it looks to someone who never touched a manual. So pat yourself behind the back for that!

DISCUSSION (39)

Saracen > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 17:54

I've given thought to making a video of my footwork some day, while driving on a fun road. I think it would be interesting.

ttyymmnn > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 17:56

You should watch my dad play the organ some time. Same sort of thing. Getting to the point where your body can do things without your brain getting in the way is a wonderful thing. Look at great drum set players, great helicopter pilots. They all use both hands and both feet at the same time, and the great ones make it look so easy.

Reigntastic > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 17:58

I fucking nailed a 5th-4th-3rd-2nd downshift chain driving down an offramp today on my way to work, perfect rev-matching each time. I felt like a fucking stud.

One of my good friends is just learning how to downshift in his relatively new manual, and I was in the car for one of his first perfectly smooth shifts. I could tell he was ecstatic, and I gave him a compliment to butter him up. It's a great feeling.

mcseanerson > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 17:58

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md30nyA…
Terry Crews is unimpressed.

Nibbles > Saracen
08/14/2014 at 17:58

I have some errands to run tonight; I may just do that!

RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 17:59

I've nearly wrecked while watching my own feet.

RotaryLover > Saracen
08/14/2014 at 18:01

Plz do!

RotaryLover > RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire
08/14/2014 at 18:03

Don't sue me!

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 18:03

I really don't want to watch your dd play with his organ, if you don't mind.

JGrabowMSt > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 18:05

It's a dance, the only dance I ever do (I'm no dancer).

Shifting becomes such a disconnected process, that it's more of an art. Even in a "slower" car, it's no less delicate a process compared to a "faster" car. I was super nervous at first, but now 80+ thousand miles later, it's something totally different. My car is an extension of me. I may drive an automatic for now, but it wont stay that way forever.

It can't be replaced. Paddle shifting is nice, but goddamn, give me a third pedal, or give me death.

Tekamul > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 18:12

This is an excellent idea. I'll try to setup my WiFi camera in the footwell before the morning drive tomorrow. Not sure if there's enough light though. This means a slight change in commute path for better moments.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 18:15

Hey, my dad plays the organ. When I was 1, we lived in Germany for a year while he studied with a guy named Arno Schönstedt. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51m79…

RotaryLover > JGrabowMSt
08/14/2014 at 18:16

That was beautiful.

Manuél Ferrari > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 18:16

Screw automatic transmissions! Anyone who has a slushbox or automated manual sucks!

Oh wait, you said this isn't a manual vs. auto war

RotaryLover > Manuél Ferrari
08/14/2014 at 18:18

NO IT ISN'T!!! lol!

Manuél Ferrari > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 18:20

Good! Cause I just said that I suck, haha

JGrabowMSt > Reigntastic
08/14/2014 at 18:25

When I first met my girlfriend and we would get lunch or whatever, I'd typically drive, and even then, she said that I shifted and drove smoother than anyone else she knew. From that moment she was already a keeper.

I like the feeling of not feeling even a harsh shift. I don't want my car to squat and fart, I want it to grab and go to town.

I will say, I tend to not down shift through gears typically. I'll do a 5->4 and a 4->3 sometimes, but never really more than that. I rarely if ever downshift to second, simply because I don't trust the car to take the 4k rpm beating. I mean, Aaron's 944 lived at 4k, and well, it decided to donate a rod to the engine block, which prompty said "I ain't need this shit" and spat it out, along with pretty much every ounce of fluid.

ttyymmnn > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
08/14/2014 at 18:30

I wonder if my dad has ever heard of Schönstedt, though I'm thinking my old man might be a bit older than yours (74). He's got a doctorate in organ performance from Michigan, a masters from Syracuse, and a bachelor's from Oberlin. He also spent a year studying in Austria, but that was back in about 1961.

Saracen > JGrabowMSt
08/14/2014 at 18:39

I've driven over 200,000 miles on manual cars in the last 9 years. Yeah, I'll keep my stick.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 18:40

My dad's 76 (my oldest brother is 13 years older than me, and my youngest bro is 6 years younger). Not sure how famous Schönstedt might be in that world. My dad is a retired Lutheran pastor, but also studied church music. Our family lived in Hanover that year. They're trying to sell the house they've been in for 30+ years, and his Steinway grand just recently was shipped to my sister's place in California (unfortunately, he's started having tremors, which means it's quite a challenge for him to play, or write clearly, these days - otherwise, he's in fairly robust health, thankfully).

Saracen > Reigntastic
08/14/2014 at 18:40

I rev match every time I downshift, braking or not.

My brother still seems to have issues trying to do it.

Manuél Ferrari > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 18:55

Oh wait I have manual too. Does having stick and paddles make you bi-polar? Do I both rule and suck at the same time?

RotaryLover > Manuél Ferrari
08/14/2014 at 18:58

Maybe you like trannies too much. LOL!

Manuél Ferrari > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 19:04

LOL!

I do like trannies too much. I have every kind of manual ever placed in a road car (stick, single clutch paddle, dual clutch paddle)

I never realized this made me a sexual deviant until now. Thanks for pointing out that I have a problem, haha

Reigntastic > JGrabowMSt
08/14/2014 at 22:06

it's a good thing I have another engine lined up as a replacement. 146k and counting.

Reigntastic > Saracen
08/14/2014 at 22:06

typically I do as well, I value the practice.

JGrabowMSt > Reigntastic
08/14/2014 at 23:00

my 5spd manual has 118k, my magnum (autotragic) has 146k, fresh fluids all around, and is all good to go another 146k.

The neon isnt very reliable long term, i dont trust it for longer drives. The magnum is no big deal at all. Im glad benz had a hand in the making of it. Made a huge difference.

Sally O'Broder > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 23:16

I've noticed this, and sometimes I feel pretty cool while driving.

Even cooler considering I've learned to drive well in my current car that came without a tachometer. Even more impressive considering my neurological problems and math disability. Before I was prescribed Gabapentin I could really barely feel what was going on with my feet or the rest of the car. Learning to drive despite that and then getting more normal sensory ability turned me into kind of a badass.

RotaryLover > Sally O'Broder
08/14/2014 at 23:26

Mind if I share this? I have massive respect for you there. Giving the right dosage of pressure on each pedals is hard, especially for the clutch! You really need to feel it, yet you did it without that feel!

Sally O'Broder > RotaryLover
08/14/2014 at 23:37

Absolutely not! That's actually pretty cool...I really only wade into Oppo on occasion and based on sidebar stuff usually, despite basically being of the same soul and substance as Jalopnik. Seriously, you should have seen my last two cars. Share away! Hell Q&A me, that would be interesting.

It really is amazing when I think back on it, and it really is amazing to remember "...oh, that's how things are supposed to feel!". I lived in a vacuum of sensory function and after treatment all of the car advice for driving manual suddenly made tons of sense.

Oh, bonus information: It turns out that first clutch was bad and getting ready to explode, too. I had a hell of a time learning to drive that first car - I didn't get my license until I was 21! Getting my medication took about three years until after that.

RotaryLover > Sally O'Broder
08/14/2014 at 23:50

How long since you had that neurological issue? I did a quick wiki search on the drug they gave to you and it seem to be for people with epileptic issues or had neuropathic pain.

What cars did you own?

I know that feel, my RX7 FC was my first manual and boy oh boy it was hard as hell to drive. I thought I sucked with manual cars. Then I bought my NA miata in manual trim. I was so scared to drive it that I got a friend to bring it back to my house. A few minutes later, I decide to take it out. It took me 1 sec to drive manual flawlessly. That's when I realized how bad my FC's clutch was and how good of a manual driver I was.

Sally O'Broder > RotaryLover
08/15/2014 at 00:13

1990 Geo Storm and a 1995 Mitsubishi Mirage S. I want both of your past cars, although if given the choice I'd have a Storm or another car on its platform again in a heartbeat.

I've always had the neurological problem. The neuropathy is currently understood to be the consequence of the disruptions of my sleep cycle. These disruptions are themselves the consequence of Narcolepsy, which I was diagnosed with earlier this year.

The way my doctor explained it to me back in 2009 was that the problems with sleep quality and the errors in regulating my sleep cycle cause my nerves - among other parts - to not "regenerate" during sleep like they're supposed to. A day's nominal wear and tear don't get fixed, and as a result I'm exhausted all of the time and I'm basically living with mild but insidious amounts of nerve damage. Having Narcolepsy can be compared to 3 day's worth of sleep deprivation ; there's just no recovery or even much rest like most people get while sleeping.

This damage can be recovered from to an unknown degree of success depending on how well I respond to treatment for the problems with my sleep, which would explain why I started to get a little bit of improvement on my medication. Narcolepsy is also a disease currently understood to be "in" the hypothalamus, and that regulates a ton of things, so that probably contributes to the dysregulation as well.

Dear God, I can use car metaphors with ya'll and not have a single damn problem communicating:

Imagine some really bad ground loop noise, only in your nervous system . The medication I take doesn't provide and kind of filter, but the best way to describe it is that it serves as an attenuator for the signals. This not only helped with the "noise" and constant buzz that kept me from feeling my feet, it also helped me sleep because I was no longer harassed by as many weird little sensations which kept me away.

On top of all of this, I've also got a math disability, better referred to as dyscalculia . Reading RPMs? How much gas is left in the tank? How long it's been since I've maintenanced whatever? Which gear, again ? Welcome to having sequencing problems; welcome to Hell.

RotaryLover > Sally O'Broder
08/15/2014 at 00:42

Didn't the Storm had the same lotus suspension setup as the Isuzu Impulse?

I've heard about this before. A classmate of mine had it and apparently she had to stay home for over 6 months and rest to fully recover. I never knew if it was succesful tho.... But that is some scary stuff...That dyscalculia issue sounds like hell indeed. What was your tricks to counter these problems?

Sally O'Broder > RotaryLover
08/15/2014 at 01:01

Some of the Storm models did. The rest of them, to my knowledge, were merely derivative of the Lotus suspension. Damn if f that wasn't a good suspension, though. I miss my rear trailing arms . I cannot emphasize the durability nor the reliability of the platform enough, though...it took so much abuse it took multiple failures happening at the same time to finally kill it.

Countering the dyscalculia took mostly practice. Practice, practice, practice. Eventually the shifting pattern became less about the math of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in a timed sequence and more about the movement at an appropriate time, if that makes any sense. Watching the tachometer for the appropriate RPM was pretty vital. Listening to the car helps, too, meaning not using the radio or having vents blowing until I'm on 4th (which I almost never use) or 5th. Quiet operation really bugs me out. Using senses like momentum also comes into play, which is pretty useful considering that eventually made me into a hypermiler. Working the gears became a matter of visuals, motion, and sound rather than the "feeling" you'd normally get. Zen and the art of shifting.

The only problem with this is that driving could get more exhausting than it otherwise should, because I had the additional cognitive load of using vision to tell when to shift and being sort of martial artsy about which gear I was on instead of just counting numbers. I shift into the wrong gear during boring city driving way more often than I should.

My Mirage doesn't have a tachometer, which really sucks for trying to go for precision. It's still wound up making me get really good at "feeling" the car, though.

As for the fatigue, naturally driving with a clutch is extremely bad for it. There's general health stuff that can be done to help out, but often it can also mean stay off the road . Sometimes I'm too tired to drive my car but not too tired to drive an automatic, which I'll then do out of necessity. I can't stand it, though. The one I have access to takes way too much gas, and not being able to have the same agency over the vehicle's momentum just plain sucks. Also: The dyscalculia sometimes has me trying to shift it; I wound up screeching the tires yesterday.

yamahog > RotaryLover
08/15/2014 at 09:38

When you're ready to go big league, get a motorcycle.

Left hand clutch, right hand throttle and front brake, left foot shifter, right foot rear brake. Countersteering, leaning into turns, blipping the throttle, burnouts, fun stuff.

RotaryLover > yamahog
08/15/2014 at 18:39

I'm immature...I'll die.

RotaryLover > ttyymmnn
08/15/2014 at 19:44

That drummer valid your point!

RotaryLover > Sally O'Broder
08/15/2014 at 21:47

So a Tesla is out of the question huh?

Sally O'Broder > RotaryLover
08/16/2014 at 00:19

A Tesla? Yes, please.