What do you just like the tactile feeling of?

Cars!  Darn it, get your mind out of the gutter;)

Any car, any part, that  you liked something about how it felt. Doesn't matter if you owned it or not. 

Transmission  wise I love the feeling of shifting a Cadillac LaSalle gearbox.  It slides into gear so smooth and with exactly the correct level of notch to tell you exactly where you are.  
My previous favorite was the. Duesenburg  model J but lost to the LaSalle because you needed to move the lever too far and had to "reach" for 2nd. 
 

parts wise;  I just love the feel of a wrist pin.  It's heft, size and smooth feeling.  
I also like a Radiator cap from a MG T series  ( TA, TB, TC, TD, TF)  but it doesn't roll around in your grip as nicely  

I liked the shift button feel on my long gone '64 Plymouth Savoy.  That was always cool.  The shift action of my '73 Capri, with that dainty chromed shift lever and the long, smooth throws to the shift action. 

I liked everything about the feel of my Chinon CE-5 camera.  A fall ended its life last year; I've got another Chinon-made camera to replace it and look forward to shooting the daylights out of that thing this year.  I know it's not a car part but it's the first thing I thought of when I read the first post in this thread.

Wife had a NC Miata for a few years.  The shifter and seat position was just... 

To the point that after swapping a T5 into the Mustang I went into a couple month long attempt to mimic it.  Not there 100%, but it feels good.

Outside of cars, my first real camera was a Pentax K1000.  The feel of pushing the shutter and having the lens snap just right.  It felt like I had sliced that moment out of the world and it was mine alone. 

The switch gear in the 1st-generation 1986-1990 Acura Legends. Hard to describe, but the toggle switches felt like they pivoted on greased ball bearings, with a nice crisp little click at the end of travel as they actuated.

MOMO prototypo steering wheel.

Pete

My first car, '62 Falcon, had a little flip up keyhole cover on the trunk lid.  Like flipping open a Zippo.  Not mine but you can see the design.

Ferrari 275GTB. The steering wheel feels amazing in your hands. Nice, thin wood rim with a concave inner surface that your thumbs fit into perfectly.

The Lear-Siegler seats in my 1984 Indy Fiero were pretty amazing too.

Not a tactile thing, but more olfactory.  Diesel exhaust in a cold humid environment (mid-30s, light drizzle)

Takes me back to Eglin AFB, waiting on a piece of equipment to warm up.  Standing in the bay door, hiding from the wind and the wet, while I watch the jets from the test wing flying through a grey sky.  No one bothering me, no crisis needing fixing, just me and a vehicle that may or may not be fixed.

Closing the door on an air cooled 911.  It feels like a bank vault made by a Swiss watch maker.  Solid yet light with the most satisfying mechanical click, that implies granite like solidity while needing very little effort.  Product designers should be made to study it and have refresher courses every year.  

Leatherman, especially immediately after using a friend's cheapo knockoff they got for free.

Adrian_Thompson said:

Closing the door on an air cooled 911.  It feels like a bank vault made by a Swiss watch maker.  Solid yet light with the most satisfying mechanical click, that implies granite like solidity while needing very little effort.  Product designers should be made to study it and have refresher courses every year.  

Yup.

Shifting a Muncie Rock Crusher.  73 Corvette with the top down.

Feeling the cushy suspension in my 66 Bonneville floating down a country road.

Pressing clicky buttons.  The kind of buttons that might be on a printer from the 90s, or a computer tower from the 90s, or a smaller version of one of those dog training clickers.  They make that little click sound and the sharp motion makes me happy.  I want to build a little control/relay box for the 67 LeMans so all the buttons on the dash can be just like that.

A good baitcasting reel. The aforementioned leatherman. A wood hockey stick feels much better than a composite one, but performance isn't there. 

Vintage audio equipment. So much better feeling to move something than to just press a digital button.

On my current vehicles, two things come to mind:

-The shifter on my Mazda 3. I installed a Delrin knob a few months ago that's quite a bit lighter than the stock leather and plastic knob. This instantly transformed the feel of the shifter in ways I didn't anticipate. It feels more direct and "snickety", and since the knob is a little shorter, it just feels more "right". Wish I installed this on day one!


-The feel of the V8 rumbling through my Power Wagon's... well... everything. It may be one of the most anemic V8's I've ever had, but that well-tuned 318 2bbl V8 works in perfect raw harmony with the rest of the truck to give you an experience that's long gone from modern vehicles. As the revs climb, you can feel the engine doing its best to get you going down the road, especially through the steering wheel. You don't get that in late model vehicles, and probably for good reason, but I love it.

The shifter that camein my white neon. Pretty sure its a mad dog, but....

Best feeling shifter ive ever had. Ever.

The door handle button on my 70 duster. Just feels RIGHT.

the feeling of putting it away in a properly formed kydex holster 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

yes!  MoPar nailed the thumb-actuated door button.  we had 72 and 73 dusters in the family and your post triggered an odd flashback.

also, tittyballs.

I have a titanium connecting rod out of a Mugen Honda F3(?) engine, and the rolled thread on the rod bolt is just soooo smooth.

Parachute under you butt, cinching down the harness over your shoulders, and snapping the canopy shut in the back seat of a T-6 Texan. The smell the of old iron, the vibration of the radial, taste of the spent 100LL Av-gas, there's nothing on Earth like it.

I was going to say a Momo Monte Carlo steering wheel.  Man, those guys know how to make it feel just right. 

Also the genuine 8 ball shift knob on my 4age 20v powered MG Midget (T50 trans) was so perfectly (accidentally) weighted, it was fingertips suggesting a location for the next shift and a light touch.  Perfection. 

Shifting into gear in a monocoque chassis sports racer with solid engine mounts. 

Torque wrench clicking. A good one anyway. That tactile feedback that you've reached your end goal. 

Tire slip. Not a full on slide, but when the car is good enough that you can feel slip angle through your hands and butt. Even better on a motorcycle when you can just feel the front sliding but it's not enough to dump you. The feedback on that makes me all tingly. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

As a flip side to that, there's the feeling you get in your hands, and then in your gut, when the bolt you are tightening suddenly goes soft. You know exactly what just happened. 

In reply to Appleseed :

I had an adrenaline surge/feeling of dread just reading that. Yes, I know exactly what that feels like. 

The smell of:

- Turbo Blue race gas exhaust fumes - just smells evil.

- Burned nitromethane after a top fuel pass - smells like power.

Of course there is no sound that comes close to that of a top fuel car. If you have never heard one, you must before your time is up.