[DeTomaso] NPC: automotive journalism and manual transmissions

Sun Feb 23 20:35:14 EST 2014

I might learn to live with paddle shift.  I tried one out in a
Maserati 7 or 8 years ago and I remember thinking "I could really get
used to this"!

But the pedal makes me feel like I'm actually operating the machenery.
 No replacement.

On Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com> wrote:
> Very good read - thanks for sharing!
>
> I understand that paddle shifting is faster. A clutch pedal will always be
> more entertaining. Sorry to see it dying out - I'll be signing up for my
> wooden wheels and cable brakes....
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DeTomaso [mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com] On Behalf Of Charles
> Engles
> Sent: domingo, 23 de febrero de 2014 20:59
> To: detomaso at poca.com
> Subject: [DeTomaso] NPC: automotive journalism and manual transmissions
>
> Dear Forum,
>
>
>
>
>
>                          This is from Dan Neil's recent Wall St. Journal car
> review of the new Mazda 3.   He writes very well.    Interesting and erudite
> commentary about manual transmissions.   Excerpts follow:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>                "In two weeks, if all goes according to plan, I will drive
> the McLaren P1 at Dunsfold.  That is the rubbish test track you see on "Top
> Gear."  And some sunkissed day soon, I'll mambo with the LaFerrari hypercar
> on a sublime corso in Italia.  Va bene.
>
>
>
>                 But a car like the Mazda3 I Grand Touring is, for people who
> like to drive, pound-for-pound, minute-by-minute, more fun than either of
> those ladies, stumbling around in their high horsepower stilettos.  Outside
> of a race track, the McLaren and Ferrari-actually, most exotic hypercars-are
> slapstick figures: nearly impossible to get out of second gear without
> drawing the attention of the local constabulary; requiring secure parking
> for even a trip to the market; and mobbed by car-loving mouth-breathers
> most  of the time.  A dirigible would be more convenient.
>
>
>
>      Mazda's freshly redesigned five-door hatch drives like it was on
> cartoon animation, just happy to be its wheel and eager to heat up the
> tailpipe.  It isn't fast, particularly, and it doesn't have unusually high
> limits, But it is so will to stretch to reach them and so untroubled by
> heard driving, that you want to pin a medal on its chest..
>
>
>
>                   Here, the Mazda chassis department is exploiting a famous
> phenomenological loophole:  It is more fun to go fast in a slow car than to
> go slow in a fast car  (also known as the British Leyland Rule).
>
>
>
>                   ....the six speed manual transmission comes only with the
> smaller, 2.0 liter engine...I suppose that at this point, I must observe
> that the sun is setting on manual transmissions.  As it should.  In an era
> of quick-twitch mechatronics-of continuously variable transmissions, 8-speed
> dual-clutch transaxles, 9-speed automatics with torque converters-using a
> series of steel linkages to engage and disengage gears while levering the
> clutch in and out of the way with your foot?  It is barbaric.
>
>
>
>                 Sentimentalists argue that semiautomatic and automatic
> systems are uninvolving to drive.  You want involving?  We should go back to
> wooden wheels and cable brakes.
>
>
>
>                      Look, I only read the writing on the wall, I didn't
> write it.  Manual transmissions are, for example, slower than modern
> automatic and dual-clutch transmissions.  Around a road course, a
> PDK-equipped, paddle-shifted Porsche 911 will steadily walk away from the
> exact same car with some stick-shifting yokel in the driver's seat.  As
> hybrid and electric parts take up a greater percentage of powertrain duties,
> gearboxes themselves will become obsolete.
>
>
>
>                         Manual transmissions are also less fuel-efficient
> than other cog-swappers, and rising fuel economy standards will only
> marginalize manual transmissions further.  The percentage of new light
> vehicles sold in the U.S. with manual transmissions is in the single digits.
> Meanwhile only a small and aging segment of the driving population even
> knows how to drive a manual transmission.  Go ahead, leave the keys in it: A
> car with a stick shift is practically immune to theft.
>
>
>
>                     For these reasons and more, manual transmissions are
> becoming as rare as unicorns.  Ferrari doesn't make a car with a manual
> transmission.  Nor Lamborghini.  Porsche and Corvette offer the mechanical
> curiosity of 7-speed manuals, but these are pandering and retrograde,
> actually sacrificing performance to nostalgia.  Call it emo-engineering."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>                            Dan Neil's resume:
>
>
>
>
> Dan Neil is the author of the "Rumble Seat" column which runs Saturdays in
> The Wall Street Journal.
>
>
> Previously, Mr. Neil was the auto columnist for the Los Angeles Times from
> 2003 to 2010. He also wrote the syndicated column "800 Words," a column
> about pop culture that was syndicated by Tribune media in 2005 and ran until
> it was discontinued in 2008.
>
> Mr. Neil began his professional writing career with the Spectator, a local
> free weekly, and began working for The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., as
> a copy editor in 1989. In 1991 he began the paper's weekly automotive
> advertising section.
>
> In 1994 he was recruited by AutoWeek magazine as a senior contributing
> editor and in 1995 he began contributing to The New York Times which
> continued until 2003. He went to work as a contributing editor at Car and
> Driver.
>
> In 2004 he won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for his column and to date,
> is the only car columnist ever to win a Pulitzer. In awarding Mr. Neil, the
> Pulitzer board praised his "one-of-a-kind reviews of automobiles, blending
> technical expertise with offbeat humor and astute cultural criticism."
>
> In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize, Mr. Neil also won the Ken Purdy
> Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism, from the International Motor
> Press Association, in 2001. He also was selected for Houghton Mifflin's Best
> American Sports Writing, 2002.
>
> Mr. Neil received a B.A. degree in Creative Writing from East Carolina
> University and an M.A. in English Literature from North Carolina State
> University. He is married and has twin daughters and a son.
>
>
>
>                               Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Sean Korb spkorb at spkorb.org http://www.spkorb.org
'65,'68 Mustangs,'68 Cougar,'78 R100/7,'60 Metro,'59 A35,'71 Pantera #1382
"The more you drive, the less intelligent you get" --Miller
"Computers are useless.  They can only give you answers." -P. Picasso