Driving cars is almost a learning commodity in today’s
world. You have to reach from point a to point b, whether it is for a party,
school, game or hang out. The question though for this article is not whether
or not you need a car, cause that’d be silly, why would I question my existence on this blog? This article is about the dwindling amount of manual
transmissions in the world, or more specifically in America. To first explain
this unfortunate series of events I have to say what exactly a manual
transmission is. This is where the driver has full control of the gears of the
car, Reverse all the way to 5th or 6th. These gears are
controlled by a lever and a clutch pedal, in unison all of these things work
together to disengage a gear and allow you to select the next gear to be put
into action.
While “manual” transmission give you control the more widely used
and seen is the automatic transmission. This is where a computer in the car
selects which gear to use and when to use it, thus leaving one more hand free
as compared to a manual transmission. This then sounds like a dandy idea, why
not just put the car in drive and be content with it? Well I can think of a
couple ranging from simple safety to, quite seriously, saving the world! When a
driver is learning how to drive manual they are infatuated with the event, I
can use my experiences as an example. I always wanted to learn how to drive a
manual, its sort of a staple to me and in my mind is the only way to really
drive a car. You are able to feel the vibrations of the car through the gear
lever, you can feel just where the gears disengage and re-engage through the
clutch and knowing you have full control over the car is also a very comforting
feeling. What manual allowed me to do was concentrate on the task at hand and
do everything right. As we all know texting and driving is a big problem on the
streets, you will usually see at least one person the way home using their
phone while they drive, its hard not to, considering we are in a technology
driven world. What I am trying to say is not that people will stop doing that
if they drive a manual, but it definitely will make it more difficult. Driving
a manual car also allows for better gas mileage as you are able to control the
exact points when a gear shifts.
On the more devious sides of things though
manuals can also allow somebody to accelerate quicker than compared to an
automatic because of loss of powers though a automatic transmission, but that’s
another scientific article. All in all when manual transmissions are looked at
what could the harm be? Well besides the lack of people wanted to do I cant
seem to find any. It is not until we move into the realm of racing do problems
of a manual transmission come out.
More and more performance cars are starting
to loose their option for manual transmissions. Ferrari and Lamborghini have
sworn never to offer another one again, but why? Why deprive people of the
integrated feeling of a car? Well put simply, because of speed. What all the
performance cars you read about use is not a traditional automatic system but
instead something called DSG, SMG, Dual-Clutch, or Manual-Automatic. These
systems are not like automatics in the sense there is a computer doing all the
work, no computer calculating whether you can go to that gear or not, and
whether it is safe or not. This “Manual Auto” systems are in essence a manual
transmission except with the ability to manually switch gears with the use of
two little paddles, these mechanisms are lightning quick , so quick in fact
they can switch from one gear to the other in less time than you can blink, we
are talking milliseconds here. This means people on the track can shift faster
and get better power in and out of the turns quicker than even the best manual
drivers. So there are benefits and negatives to a manual transmission, but none
the less it still something, I think, everybody should learn. It teaches you
how your car really behaves and shows the driver just how much control they are
able to have over their car. Not to mention driving a manual is so rare now
days that if you can drive one…. You’re a car guy. Thanks for reading
