Gated shifter: Why?

If it were not for those beautiful gates and their wonderful sound, Garfield Exotics would not exist. Thank you Ferrari.

 

In reading this thread, I'm surprised to learn how many people are apparently looking at their stick shifts when they shift gears, instead of where they are going.

 

Honestly, I do EVERY time I downshift, just to make sure. It is WAY worth it to me, as I would HATE to miss a shift coming down......

The gate shifter has caused me to NEVER miss a shift. Can't say I NEVER missed a shift before in previous cars. It happens. But not with a gated shifter....

 

ouch

 

I don't know the real reason, but for me it is one of the very coolest parts of the TR. I love the look, and while I don't like moving away from original equipment, I'm getting an aluminum shift knob to pick up the whole "metal" geshtalt of the thing. It just has a race car feel about it. You don't see that look on any modern car anymore (do you?).

 

I agree......although I have yet to experience the gated shift for any length of time (give me one more week and I will now as I just bought a 328)....I used to own a MGB in high school and I missed shifts a plenty at times even though a stick was all I ever drove.....I look forward to the gated shift.....as I like the way it looks and shifts on the test drives I have done in Ferraris

 

I've been driving my '94 Trans Am 6-speed for 12 years and can't seem to recall missing a shift, or looking at it. I can't believe anyone, after driving their car for sometime would need to look at the shifter. Plus, the gears are engraved on the top of the shifter anyway. I think it's a looks/racing tradition thing.
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But doesn't it slow the shifts down ? I've always imagined that taking the time to guide the stick through the notches is cool but slow.

 

the gated shift in the competition cars also allowed the driver to lock-out reverse and first by flipping the tab pictured below. This is on a 1955 Series II 500 Mondial.
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With self-centering shifters, I don't see how you could make such a mistake........poor driver I guess

I see gated shifters as a hassle (slower to move from gear to gear) especially with so many hi-po short shifters around, thats why they aren't used much any more.

 

I guess I am the third high-school MGB owner in this thread! Wow! It was my first car, a pagent blue '78. Been hooked on British sports cars ever since. It is funny that at the time I had no idea what an MGB was. I turned 15, got my liscense, and it became time for me to get a car. I was looking for a truck of some sort, mostly since that's what the other cool guys at my school had. So my dad comes to me one day and says, "I know what you need, you need an MGB!". Now realize that I was 15 years old, so my dad was the least cool person on the planet at the time. Therefore any automotive recommendations coming from him had to be viewed with great suspicion. So I ask him, "what the heck is an MGB"? He says "it's a little convertible sports car". So I think to myself "that sounds really cool", while still somewhat confused and disoriented by trying to comprehend the fact that my dad wanted me to get a cool car. So it turns out that my DAD'S first car ever, when he got out of college, was an MGB, late sixties model I believe. I think he was wanting the car as much for him as me! Anyway, a week or so later one turns up in the classifieds in Memphis, and we go look at it. I loved it. Great color, ran great, great condition, good price. We (he) bought it, and the rest is history. I credit that MG with making me as much of an auto enthusiast as I now am. I started going to car shows, reading as much as I could about them, etc. As it was British, I also became a self-taught mechanic very quickly. There were several days that in order to get home from school I had to pop the hood (sorry, bonnet), and fix something. Now I can't go near any neat car without feeling a strong desire to pull out a wrench.

Maybe this high school MGB thing is a precursor to being drawn to Ferraris. Like early signs of a disease. Or maybe there is just nothing like an MG to draw one in to the world of automobiles, and Ferrari is just the natural peak of the automotive world.

Anyway, back on topic now, I don't recall ever missing a shift in my B. It was a little clunky, but had a very direct feel. I did own another MGB for a while that had a couple of sagging transmission mounts, which put the shifter in a bit of a bind, and made the gearbox very difficult. I have never missed many shifts in my 95 Trans Am, and I don't look at the shifter. I think that after spending some time in a particular car, you learn the "feel" of that car and you can know what gear it is in just by touch. The 73 MG Midget I have now has a wonderful gearbox, very light and crisp with tightly spaced gates. Only tip off that it is an older car is that the throws are a little long by modern standards. We just bought my wife an Acura RSX Type-S, and it has a FANTASTIC gearbox. Super short throws, great feel, just perfect. I have only driven one Ferrari, an 88 Testarossa, and I liked the gearbox in it. Dealing with the gates requires a little extra thought and concentration on dog-leg shifts at first, but it doesn't take too long to get used to it. I do think it slows your shifting down a bit compared to other shifters, but probably not too much after you really get used to it. I can't say where the gate actually helped my shifting, but it sure looked good, and I think that is the point.

 

hmmmmm, I had a '74 chrome-bumpered MGBGT . . . .

 

I had that many a time

 

I think we may be on to something here.....
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Interesting thread turn.

I grew up in the far back hills of NC... virtually no furrin' cars except for Beetles. Still cruising town American Grafitti style in the 1980's...

One neighbor had a '60 Corvair sedan and the other an MGTF...neither had moved in over a decade.

I decided I wanted a Corvair and Dad talked me out of it... that it was unreliable, unsafe, hard to fix, and leaked oil. So I bought an MG Midget I found near Boone (them thar college kids!).... quickly followed by a rubber bumper MGB owned by one of the "theatre" types in town (think "Waiting for Guffman"!)

By my second year in college I'd owned another Midget

http://fnader.com/images/FormerCars/71Midget.jpg (my favorite)

and another MGB (a '66 MK1... with a Moss 'box for those of you who find the later box too strong and trucklike) and also got started in Corvairs... and I've own LBC's and Corvairs since! (Talk about a car that could use a gated shifter...)

I've been in love with the gated shifter since all those mid-70's magazine articles... it just screams "exotic"!

Bill

 

Its funny that my MGBs elicit more interest and response from young kids than does the Ferrari.

 

Gated shifter is high on my list of why I love driving a Ferrari.

P.S. Learned to drive in a 1972 MGB white with dark gray interior, that car was a lot of fun.

 

Nice Midget Bill. Glad to see I am not the only one with the British car bug around here! Actually I think I have the "any neat car" bug, but my particular strain has a lot of 'ole England in it, and then of course there are those red-headed Italians....

Here's a recent picture of my Midget:
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Sweet!

Actually my Ferrari was the first Italian car I'd owned... I think life would have been a little easier for me had I cut my teeth on a FIAT/Lancia/Alfa or two first! ;-)

If any one is interested, a buddy of mine has one of the finest Midgets around for sale right now... I just have too many irons in the fire right now:

http://www.minimania.com/web/threadid/75141/InfoID/1/SiteMessages/27/msgthread.cfm

No gated shifter though! ;-)

Bill

 

Wow, a whole lot of MGB owners out there...I myself was also a high-school MGB owner, 1977 blue one, pretty much exactly like the one in the picture a few posts back. Now that was only a few years ago, so the car was almost 25 years old when I had it, but what a great car it was!

Anyways, back on topic...the gated shifter may slow things down a little bit, but it just looks so darn cool, its worth it.

 

For me the gated shifter looks and feels better than a normal rubber booted shift.

I understand that the gates at the shifter end need to be matched up to the gearbox, which requires a good deal of setting up. Which is presumably why most other cars don't have them?

Hovever, a properly adjusted gate shift makes gearchanging easier and more immediate for the driver, because the feel is directly at the stick, rather than at the end of a number of rods and gears?