somebody that flatlands, carol shelby, system of a down, the president, any one that would be current.

THE POLITICS OF SHIFTING
Clutch in.

Throttle blip, then slip the clutch on the rev drop to get the car rollin. Tip in the throttle as the car starts to move - throttle in, clutch out.

First gear...

There's never been a second thought in the House of Speed and Chrome when it comes to transmissions...they're almost always manual. First thing to check when a new car comes out - does it come with a stick?

Revs are up, engine's burbling; time for second.
clutch stab
pull back on the shifter

slip the clutch out so's to match revs on the drop. do it right, and the passenger doesn't even notice the gearchange.

Yah - automatics are faster; easier to drive, and these days, there's no mileage penalty, either. So...Why is it soo damned important to change gears manually?

Motor's back at the shift point again

clutch
push
slip on the rev drop
we're off in third

With a manual, there is a direct metalliic contact all the way from the alloy shift ball, thru the linkage, the gears, the input shaft, to the crank. When I change gears - I'm close-coupled to the heart of the beast. No wires, no PCM, no hydraulics making decisions for my benefit. Right or wrong - I'm making the decision, doing the work.

We're well under way now
Clutch
Pull
Slip
And we're in fourth.

it's an anachronism, shifting. F1 drivers use little paddles in the steering wheel, and instruct the computer what they'd like to gear to be. No clutch, no linkage, just bits and bytes. Seems alien to this gearhead...Nope. Gotta feel the gears...

Short gears mean the motor's busy when in fourth, so another ratio has to be selected to keep the revs down:

Clutch
Push - this time away towards the passenger side to engage 1st overdrive
Slip
We're now in fifth.

Some folks think it's too much work to shift. Some folks feel shifting limits their ability to do other things in the car, like jabber on the cell phone, drink coffee, eat...everything EXCEPT what they're supposed to be doing - driving.

I'm a do-it-yourself kinda guy. Automatic transmissions are cheating, IMHO. We're suppsed to DRIVE the car, dammit - not plop ourselves in leather climate-controlled cocoons and engage in non-driving-related activities...Passengers with steering wheels in their laps, methinks.

Traffic's stopped just ahead. I'll hafta downshift all the way to first and repeat the process all over again.

Hot damn. Another chance to row thru the gears To actually control the car to drive. ..