What?
Are you serious?[/b]
No. Not really. It was a joke, hence the smiley. But since you don't get jokes and you want a serious discussion, here's a pic of the sequential manual gear lever I speak of:
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I think that is a picture of Mary Katherine's Mazdaspeed Protege cockpit that I took on that one fateful day that I escaped from Mother's basement. All of the Mazdas have basically the same mechanism and operation. Based on descriptions of its operation by both Tindol and Tri-Point camps during a race, it just made sense that the downshift is to push based on ergonomics, for starters. Why? You downshift when you're slowing down for a turn. What happens when you slow down from high speed? The gobs of G's are pushing you TOWARDS the front of the car, as Awong mentioned. No big surprise there, that's just elementary physics. If the input was the other way (pull to downshift) your arm action would be opposite the G direction. Your arm would be fighting the G's, and could potentially hasten driver fatigue. In ergonomics, it's a good idea to make use the forces available to you instead of fighting those forces.
Now, obviously our normal driving environment differs greatly compared to the World Challenge cars, but the layout does present a more ergonomic layout compared to the other way.
IMHO A bigger, more important issue than the way the AT shift lever works would be the need for an extra notch on the shift gate - something between auto D and N. Something that will act as a buffer, in case the operator thinks he is in Manual D when really he is in Auto D and he attempts to downshift - which puts the car in N instead and causing all sorts of havoc! IMHO a fail safe gate above Auto D is needed. Therefore if the operator "downshifts" while in Auto D, the car stays in Auto D and does not go into neutral.
Oh, I see now. The references to commercials and joysticks ... this is the input from many teenage kids living in their mom’s basement, spending all their time watching TV, playing video games and posting on the ‘net. Tell the truth now, its really your mom’s Six right?[/b]
The checklist:
Teenage kid...I wish
Living in mom's basement...I wish. Life would be helluva cheaper.
Spending time watching TV, playing videogames, posting on the net...the typical American if you ask me. What's your point?
Mom's 6...I wish. It'd be cheaper for me too.
Honestly, you're pretty good at flaming. You should join us
here and let loose the dogs of war on my arse over there.
I posted originally with the intent of inspiring some conversation to keep things interesting.[/b]
Is this post interesting enough for you?
Bottom line: try to post things that add to the forums and BTW, leave your mom’s basement occaisonally!
[/b]
Two years in this forum, and I have added much in terms of content and levity to a lot of discussions here. 'Tis no boast. My record will attest to it. By the way, please talk my mom into letting me live in her basement. It would really help my bills a lot.
