Cars with "hand gearchange...."

Scania

Scania

Scania

Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
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On the road....
As I drove away from my depot last night, as my cars revs climbed, I instinctively pulled my stalk on my column and got windscreen wash all over my screen.... :o

A week of driving my "Opticruise" equipped Scania which has a stalk mounted gear change is hard to snap out of I guess....
P1010074-1.jpg

^ Said stalk mounted gearchange, pull towards you to change up, push away to change down....


It got me thinking though, what cars have this as a gearchange option?

Not too many bar Ferrari's & the like which immediately spring to mind....

And I'm in luck, my dream Alpina B12 comes close with a steering wheel mounted change up / down iirc.... :D
 
I drove a manual Renault 16 1976 vintage once that had a column change.

Very special car that, good seats if i remember right, very comfy.
 
Didn't the Peugeot 504 have a column shift?

EDIT: quick google shows that I'm mistaken :)
 
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There are lots of flappy paddle cars out there, it's far from restricted to old cars, lorries and exotica
 
A lot of American tat use column shifters for autos, probably to minimalise the risk of spilling their mega slurpee by haviing to reach down for a gearstick.

Edit - Citroen C2 1.6 has flappy paddles
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
Stalk / column / flappy paddle - perhaps I should have said finger gearchange rather than hand? - you tend to use hands on gear levers! :o
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Ahh right. There are loads...Audi, VW, BMW, Nissan, Mercedes, AM, Porsche, Lamborghini, Fiat, Mitsubishi, Citroen and more. All are pretty much paddle/button.

Three on the tree died, I don't know any modern car with a manual column change, I'm assuming the Scania is semi-auto.
 
I think that single stalk in and out might be a lorry only thing.
 
Bennie-Mac said:
A lot of American tat use column shifters for autos, probably to minimalise the risk of spilling their mega slurpee by haviing to reach down for a gearstick.

Edit - Citroen C2 1.6 has flappy paddles
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Aren't those American ones stalk change from driver to park to reverse, rather than semi auto changes
 
Fett said:
I'm assuming the Scania is semi-auto.
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Yes, it has a clutch pedal which you use to pull away, once rolling, its automatic, but I generally drive it in "Manual" mode where I change gear but the clutch is automatic.

You can also change gear yourself even when its in auto mode, you simply flick the switch at the revs you want to change at rather than the revs the box thinks it needs. :)
 
Just something that sprung to mind - Why don't rigs like yours ever seem to come with an autobox/CVT setup?
 
The E65/66 BMW 7 series has a column mounted gear selector. You can't use it to shift manualy though as far as I know, you can use the buttons on the wheel to do that though.

Now for some reason BMW have gone back to a more traditional gear selector on the new 7 series, which is disappointing really as I really liked the column selector, left the centre of the car open and made it seem more spacious.
 
Joshy said:
Just something that sprung to mind - Why don't rigs like yours ever seem to come with an autobox/CVT setup?
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a lot of trucks (DAF's) for example use an automatic gear / clutch linkage with a conventional manual gearbox, it drives more or less the same as an auto, but it won't hold the vehicle on a hill.



Clarkey said:
Obvious really, a slushbox would kill fuel economy, and a CVT would never stand up to the load of an HGV.
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I doubt if they have produced a torque converter that'll handle 2 - 3000Nm of torque yet...?
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
You can also change gear yourself even when its in auto mode, you simply flick the switch at the revs you want to change at rather than the revs the box thinks it needs. :)
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B5 is the same, only with buttons behind the steering wheel rather than a stalk, not that you need them though as there is so much torque all you ever need to do to breeze past other vehicles is press your right foot down. You can use it for engine braking though too.
 
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