Shifters
LONG, rambling tangential ruminations about my prior shifters follow. You've been warned.
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I have had many shifters from various manufacturers (more or less in chronological order from 1974 to now):
- Alfa: 1965 Giulia Sprint GT (hand-me-down; my first car and first shifter)
- Toyota: 1980 Tercel coupe, 1985 MR2
- Datsun: 1976 Datsun 280Z, 1980 Datsun 810 wagon (both parental hand-me-downs)
- Nissan: 1994 Altima SE, 1994 Pathfinder SE
- BMW: 2000 528i
- Ford: 2004 Focus SVT, 2014 Fiesta ST, 2016 Focus RS
Of those, my favorite shifter was my first. That could be the mist of nostalgia there blurring my memory since it's been more than 40 years; it's a little like the first time for any truly exhilarating experience...it sticks with you...hah. That car forever affected the way I shift. The Alfa was a hand-me-down that I got from my dad, although it was my mom that spent the few afternoons teaching me how to shift at the Santa Clara county fairgrounds parking lot back in the day.
Aside: Before that car, my dad owned a 1959 Alfa Giulietta coupe, a late-in-series MG-T, and a couple of Jaguars, one of which spontaneously caught on fire while sitting in front of Courtesy Chevrolet on Bascom Ave. in San Jose after being traded on the awesome first-year Malibu SS V8 hardtop coupe. That was quite a car, but I was a pup when we had that and my sister got it on hand-me-down in about 1970 or so.
Anyway, that car liked an initial stab at second (with the clutch depressed) before shifting to first. Apparently that "stopped the synchros" according to my dad. I retain that move to this day. It seems to make shifting to first from a standstill a little smoother. Could just be my imagination. That "105" era gearbox also had a number of anomalies that resulted in a "crunchy" second gear over time (I never experienced that, but the car was gone by 1976). It was such a fun car to putter around it. But let's face it: It was not fast, but it was oh so fun.
All those cars listed had pretty decent shifters. The 810 and 280Z had the most notchy and stiff shifters, perhaps the Pathfinder had the longest throw and loosest feel, but...Pathfinder. It was a truck. My slickest shifter was probably the 528i. That and the Pathfinder are probably the only cars I regret parting with when I did. The RS probably feels closest to that shifter, although the clutch is much more specific with regard to release point.
My SVT Focus and the Fiesta ST had/have what I consider the most "vague" sense of gear slot location during "aggressive" driving. This is leading me to now emphasize more deliberate shifts (since I popped the shifter linkage off on both those cars at the track). Having said that, those are the only cars I've ever "tracked." Next year, the RS is likely to do a SCCA TNiA half day just to get a sense of the car. I want to do Portland in the RS since that's a VERY fast track and will likely be better suited to the RS vs. Pacific Raceways and The Ridge (for me).