Shift Patterns - Pick your favorite, or the ones you have experianced?

3 different patterns in my 3 manual cars, but I don't really have any trouble keeping them straight.  Following the nomenclature above:

Miata is 6RDR

FD is 5RDR

M3 is 5UR-RUL

Minor nitpick about the nomenclature -- IMHO the one labelled '5UR-RUL' should just be '5RUL' (thus consistent with '6RUL') while the one called '5RUL' should just be '5-1DL' or something like that.  It's the dogleg first that makes this one special, not the reverse location.

<insert Top Gear joke about reversing into things all the time>

Dogleg 5 speed for me.  Blame it on a neighbor 50+ years ago.  The summer I got my license he brought home a new pantera and let me drive it.  Yes it had the dogleg pattern which was considered a real racecar pattern.  Even after driving 914s for a few decades with crappy linkages it is still my favorite.  Bought a merc 300SL because it had a manual trans with... dogleg 5 speed.

On track I have the most experience with PRNDSL of my 722.120. It starts in 2nd unless you go WOT or select L. There's no way to select 2nd. At least it's gated such that the shift between D and S(4th and 3rd) is easy as we almost always manually shift the racecars. And now that car has a FS5R30A so no longer a problem.

I bought a car with a 3 speed toploader where the PO had flipped the shift pattern. It wasn't great to drive.
1  3
R 2

My favorite transmission is the ZF5-320 which is 5UR-RUL. Not saying it's my favorite pattern, but I got used to it. I have the most mileage in 5RDR and my current daily is 6RUL. My current dream transmission though is a hotrod with one of these

Keith Tanner said:

There's definitely a joke in here somewhere about Vanagon shift patterns. On my coworker's van, reverse has the shift knob moving under the steering wheel. Mine was never that bad but it was always "four in the air".

Good point, what do we call the Vanagon Syncro, where you push down to get the Gelaende/granny gear that's underneath first?

In reply to aircooled :

Same with the C7 transaxle. 7th is, as you'd expect, a big overdrive for low-rpm highway driving. 

I like 5RDR and 6RUL - the first gets 5 speeds in a compact gate where going across it precisely is easy, the second gives easy maneuvering in town for a 6-speed.

My uncle drove a twin-stick Mack. 

He was a busy man...

In reply to ShawnG :

I'll bet I could drive the 15 speed version but the 20...that would require a lot of study.

1 up, 5 down. I just can't remember if it's left foot or right foot.

In reply to ShawnG :

I LOOKS like the general ideal is to put it in a main gear (1-5), then work your way through the compound gears (lo-lo to HI), then shift the compound into the next gear, while at the same time shifting the main back to first (!), then go through them again.  Obviously, there can be some skipping in there... BUT it looks like LO-LO would be skipped when doing that since it seems to overlap with other gears.  So, LO-LO seems to be a standout for special circumstances.

But... it also looks like if you follow the above sequence (not using LO-LO) you don't want to go from 4th gear HI to 5th gear LO, since that would be a downshift!  Maybe they mostly used only HI and DIR?

I suspect you get used to it and come up with your own favorite sequence. 

I like the UL reverse. 1st and R next to eachother and much hard to shift into at high speed if something goes wrong.

Mine in my old Jeep. Any guesses what (custom) transmission it is?

llysgennad said:

Mine in my old Jeep. Any guesses what (custom) transmission it is?

 

It ain't right, whatever it is. I'd screw that 3 - 4 shift up EVERY time. 

I can't remember where reverse was on most of the cars I've owned. I can recall having a 3RUL (Ford Granada), 4RUL (Datsun 510?), 5RDR (Miata),6RUL (MINI) and 6RDR (ND), Can't remember my Austin Mini ,VW GTIs, Mazda GLC, or my '78 Datsun 510, amongst others. I have driven a three-on-the-tree Standard Vanguard Estate.

aircooled said:

I have always appreciated having the reverse near 1st.  Seem to make more logical sense and clearly less horrific for a miss shift (not that you could slam a manual into reverse at 80 mph!).  Either way, as side-stepped, well gated reverse is always appreciated!

For a time I had to transition between the 4RDL (Ghia), the 5RDR (Corvair with T5), the 4RUL (64 Corvair) and the 6RDR (Speed 3)!  Yes, it was confusing backing out after changing cars!!

 

One that is missing apparently is the 2CV's which was (this one just seems based on cruelty!):

R  2  4
|    |   |
1   3

Au contraire!

Reverse and first are in a line for close quarters maneuvers and locating the logical gear to be used following reverse; 2 and 3 are "in town gears" up to about 45 mph, climbing hills, etc; 4 is off on its own as a cruising gear. 

I would have to say it's my favorite. Add the gear change lever itself and the fact the gates are actually parallel to the long axis of the car, and it's really magical.

https://youtu.be/dMjr1vIJiNs?feature=shared

llysgennad said:

Mine in my old Jeep. Any guesses what (custom) transmission it is?

 

THat is the shift pattern of a Spicer 3053A. The OD version has 3 and 4 flipped. The direct version has 5th down and right.

I own 3RUL, 4RDL, multiple 5RDR, multiple 6RUL and switch between them all.  No real preferences, other than the fact that turbo cars should be 4 speed--the modern trend for 6 speed turbos is dumb.  I thought it would be confusing as I added more shift patterns to fleet, but my brain apparently just figures it out and I don't have to think about it.  Reverse never gives me a problem... despite it being all over the place, every vehicle has a different lockout mechanism.  For some reason the only mistake I consistently make is trying to shift the 5-speed Miata into 6th.  Fortunately it has a clever mechanism that doesn't even let you abuse the synchros when you try.  Never mind that I've been driving a Miata for nearly 30 years at this point, the combination of cruising down the highway at 4,000rpm and having plenty of 6 speed vehicles makes me reach for a 6th that should probably be there.

buzzboy said:

llysgennad said:

Mine in my old Jeep. Any guesses what (custom) transmission it is?

 

THat is the shift pattern of a Spicer 3053A. The OD version has 3 and 4 flipped. The direct version has 5th down and right.

Close. It's actually a Clark 280VO with custom in/out shafts to bolt up to my CJ. OD is up and right, which is nice and out of the way for cruising down the highway. 1st is 5.98:1 granny low.

With a 360 and big tires, it's basically a 2 speed around town (2&3).

Spearfishin said:

llysgennad said:

Mine in my old Jeep. Any guesses what (custom) transmission it is?

 

It ain't right, whatever it is. I'd screw that 3 - 4 shift up EVERY time. 

The funny part is I didn't know the pattern when I put in the transmission (no pattern on the ball). Could not figure out why it felt like I was downshifting to 5th.

As my friend said at the time, it was customized to the point that no one else could drive it. It also had a twin stick transfer case with no pattern. I usually left it in Front wheel drive low range, since i couldn't lock the doors.

I like the one with the cheap close ratio gearsets that replace an overdrive 5th with a new 1st gear.

2 4 1

3 5 R

1st, 2nd, and 3rd are all in the corners.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

That is messed up.

brandonsmash said:

Also, I'm not seeing the C7 Z06 shift pattern there.

 

1  3  5  7

2  4  6  R

 

I suppose that would be 7RDR? It works well. But really, 1↓5↑ makes me wibbly. 

I can attest that powershifting from 2 to 5 is a letdown.

llysgennad said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

That is messed up.

For one example.  I have also seen Toyota boxes with this style gearing.