Media | Articles
Our Two Cents: 8 of the Most Interesting Shifter Designs
If there is one feature that a car person will feel strongly about, it’s the transmission. Manual or automatic is only one way of sorting the vast array of options — you may favor one gearbox because it stands up to massive amounts of torque, another for faster-than-humanly-possible shifts, yet another for its tactile feel. For this episode of Our Two Cents, we focused on the part of the transmission assembly that you interact with most often: The shifter.
Our choices run the gamut from quirky to artistic to a classic old-school Hurst Pistol-Grip. Check out our candidates, get your thoughts flowing, and then tell us which shifter you find most interesting!
Spyker
Ferraris with gated manual shifters may get all the headlines, but the most interesting shifter I’ve ever seen in a car has to be the exposed chrome linkage in the Dutch exotic Spyker C8. The entire cabin, with its intricate switches and dials, is a wonder, but the route Spyker went to present that gear shifter almost resembles an arm stripped of all the soft bits in order to show off the functions of the radius and ulna. — Stefan Lombard
Goin’ Old-School
I prefer simplicity and feel over anything fancy. My ideal shifter would be a mishmash: A dogleg pattern like found in a Merc 190 E 2.5-16 Evo II, a short, precise throw like a Miata or S2000, and the durable-feeling heft of an aftermarket unit for a T56.
But if we’re talking about designs, it’s old-school angled Hurst with a white ball on top. Aside from Ferrari’s gated business, it’s hard to think of a shifter that’s more evocative of one corner of the hobby than Hurst’s. The long, angled lever screams driver engagement at its most mechanical. You can’t help but look at it and envision a roaring V-8, a dramatic yank, and the bark of the next gear sending tires into oblivion. — Eddy Eckart
More Woodgrain, Please!
Subtle? Uh, no, not much about my 1973 Plymouth Road Runner was under the radar, perhaps the least of which was the Hurst wood-grain, three-dot, pistol-grip shift knob (though “knob” doesn’t quite describe it) that sat atop a hefty S-shaped piece of chrome with HURST imprinted on both sides, back when that name meant sumpthin’. (Why does writing about this car make me revert to slang?) Attached at the other end of that shifter was a four-speed mated to a 400-cubic-inch V-8 topped with a Carter Thermo-Quad four-barrel carburetor, which was designed to include some plastic parts, presumably to make the damn thing easier to recycle. It had secondaries so big you could drop silver dollars down ’em. That dollar analogy is also valid, because its gas mileage was pretty much comparable to that of a Top Fuel dragster. If you squint, that shifter sort of looks like a king cobra snake, preparing to strike. Another valid analogy, the way that snake-bit drivetrain sho nuff ate clutches. — Steven Cole Smith
Silly … or Scintillating?
The whole mechanism in the Citroën Traction Avant—utterly bizarre and wonderful. Yes, the shift action and pattern seem utterly backward compared with the conventional layout. And the handle, which seems more like a lever that should make the whole car stand up on stilts or turn into a boat or maybe make kazoo noises, appears to be upside down.
The shift action becomes easy once you adjust to it, and the three-speed, which was designed specially to work with the Traction Avant’s innovative front-wheel drive, feels highly mechanical. This is the type of car you might not even bother locking, because nobody would even know how to steal it if they wanted to. — Eric Weiner
Twist, Pull, Push
Following the French theme, that’s not an umbrella handle you see sticking out the dash of the original Renault 4, it’s the shifter. There’s a conventional H-pattern for the four speeds but you select them with a twist-pull-push movement. Once you’ve done it a few times it’s pretty intuitive, though.
The Citroën 2CV has a very similar setup, except first is a dogleg, with reverse above (just where first would be on most cars). The arrangement makes your first go at parallel parking quite entertaining. — Nik Berg
Reverse, Reverse!
Pegaso, a Spanish maker of sports cars, has always been fascinating to me because its cars were both so advanced and so unusual. The shifter is a perfect example. A five-speed transaxle was cutting-edge stuff in the early 1950s, and it was also set up in a reverse dogleg pattern, which is just weird. — Andrew Newton
Shifter Utopia?
I think the shifter from the Pagani Utopia is stunning. For me, Paganis have this way of reaching exit velocity from the weird, sort of oversaturated hypercar space. I’m normally quite tired of all the insane performance stats of this segment and the even more obscene price tags, but for some reason, I’m fascinated by pretty much every Pagani. The Utopia eschews raw performance numbers and prioritizes a pretty light curb weight (around 2800 pounds) and driving engagement.
That latter point is apparent when you look at the seven-speed manual found here. Talk about taking a single component and elevating it to the point of art. If you scooped this out from between the Utopia’s two seats and placed it in a museum of modern art, it wouldn’t look out of place one bit. — Nathan Petroelje
Two for the Price of One
The shifter in my 1985 Corvette has me captivated lately. Well, actually it’s the second shifter. The car is equipped with the Doug Nash 4+3 transmission, and while the slightly clunky, four-speed Borg-Warner has grown on me, the second shifter for the electronically controlled overdrive has me smitten. It feels absurd to be in a car so modern with an overdrive divorced from the main transmission. The whole operation is hiding in plain sight, and mine has been really fun to drive after I got it working last fall. — Kyle Smith
World’s Tiniest Gated Manual
I’m gonna go with the shifter on the Tucker 48, a four-speed wrought in miniature. If there were a contest for tiniest gated manual, this would win!
No, I haven’t had the privilege of operating it, like many of my colleagues have of experiencing their selections. Can you imagine driving one of the 47 surviving Tuckers? Honestly, the rarity would stress me out more than the value, which is also remarkable: Clear over a million, with the best-ever examples over two. Part of an auto journalist’s job is to acclimate quickly to an expensive car that doesn’t belong to you, and the safest way to drive them is to remember that, at a basic level, it’s still just a car. If you fixate on the machine’s rarity or value, you’ll distract yourself, and such distraction can be dangerous. But with that pinch ‘n’ pull shifter, could you ever forget you were driving anything other than a Tucker? — Grace Jarvis
Another American Innovator
Much like the Tucker, the Cord 812 that I reviewed was probably the most awe-inspiring shifter I have ever experienced. Both vehicles use a similar system that’s more isolating than its gated detents suggest, making it more like a push button gear selector (with a lever instead of buttons). The isolation comes from vacuum-assisted shifting, and it is truly effortless in your hand. It feels futuristic, even in these modern times.
I wager these vacuum-assisted affairs are the perfect blend of old-school gated manual transmissions and modern-day electronic transmission stalks that you must pull/push to activate the transmission. And perhaps this is a little bit of history repeating itself, as the Cord I drove was undoubtedly a fantastic performance car of the era, much like a modern EV with a column-mounted shifter stalk. And the Tucker had refinement and advancements on par with that of modern luxury vehicles from Germany with a transmission controller in the same location. — Sajeev Mehta
Don’t forget some automatics got creative.
The his and hers Hurst slap stick in a GTO
Then the Hurst 442 Lighting Rods
Likewise, the GM horseshoe shifters evoke the feeling of being in a plane’s cockpit.
Best automatic shifter ever
That pistol grip has em all beat.
Reminds me of the 70 Roadrunner I had when I was 19 years old.
Sorry imo it’s such an ugly shifter, but no question it screams automatic 👎
I had an R4 when I was in the Air Force and stationed in Germany, mid-70’s. The 4 speed shift pattern was inverted!
Also don’t forget the push button shifters from the 1960’s Dodges. I still remember the tv commercial where the guy was sitting pushing Drive then Reverse then Drive over and over and the audio sounded like he kept smoking the tires.
I had a Renault with a magnetic Particle clutch and push button selectors. It was hilarious to go 60 mph and push reverse. The car would slow down , stop and go backwards without over reving the engine . It looked like a Lada
We called them typewriter trannys.
You’d never get away with that today…
I bought a ’58 Dodge push button automatic in ’64 from another G.I. while stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington for $200. I liked the pushbutton. It rode nice with I think the torsoin bar suspension. Used a lot of oil though. It was an ugly car, but it saved my sanity! Being able to get away from the army for awhile. I bought it from a guy on his way to Vietnam. I had it nine months and got my trip to Vietnam. Was that car jinxed? I sold it to a buddy for $175, and he got his ticket to Vietnam in about four months! I don’t know what ever happened to those guys.
When I was about 15 yrs. old in 1955 I got to sit in a Cord. There was a man who rented the garage next door. He kept a beautiful maroon ’47 Cadillac convertible in the garage there. Would drive his beatup Model A into the backyard, take off the plates of the Model A and put them on the Cadillac and drive away! In 1953 he drove up in brand new ’53 Corvette, the first one I had ever seen. In the Cord he showed me the cranks on the dash to crank up the headlights. Never did know who this guy was.
The most unique push button shifter from that era was the Edsel Tele-touch, where the push buttons were located in the center of the steering wheel. It was only offered for one year in 1958.
How about the 1954 Armstrong Siddely Sapphire with preselect transmission (Wilson electric transmission)
Small shifter on the column much like the Tucker
No, the “Lightning Rods” shifter was on the 1983-1984 Hurst Olds cars. In 1985, they went back to the 442 model which had a conventional automatic shifter. I have the documentation.
Rambler/AMC their “Twin Stick” 3 speed w/overdrive.Now that is a one of a kind setup.
The one in that 2CV looks like it has claimed a bloody knuckle or two in its time. I bet some of those gated designs are the root cause for a few blood blisters.
I wouldn’t call my 72 F350 shifter remarkably unique, but it is so tall that your hand is almost level with the dash, and you feel like you should be on the CB looking for the closest truck stop when driving it.
Nope, actually the 2CV shifter is easy to use, and there is nothing to scrape your knuckles. Honestly, it reminds me of the shifters in vintage Formula 1600 cars, just reversed.
The article is titled “most interesting” and I must say, all of the staff’s examples are indeed interesting – some more than others, and several of which I’d never seen, so thanks for that. However, like most systems on a vehicle, shifting isn’t really defined by “interesting” to me. I’m looking for functional, trustworthy, speedy, bulletproof – and most-of-all, something I don’t have to ever worry or even much THINK about. I just want it to work flawlessly when I grab it to upshift or downshift, and not have it interfere with my driving experience – or safety. Given that, Eddy’s right. Most of the old-school slab-steel shafts with the HURST stamping, whether with knob or T-handle, are going to get my vote – because I’m “interested” in a shifter working when I need it to…
HURST was soley responsible for a large pile of Muncie shifters in the scrap pile back in my day!
True that!
How about the mystery shifters that came with the Saginaw 4 spds? If you did it just right, you could engage two gears at once.
The HURST is too common in my book- drove a Spyker years ago (as part of a dealer promotion) and loved the retro-future look- the entire interior was accentuated by a lot (a whole lot) of billet aluminum- the shifter was really cool and worked great- the entire car reminded what Captain Nemo would drive- almost aquatic in feel- and stylish for sure.
Muncie did not make shifters, they made transmissions. Hurst made shifters.
they made the factory slop shifters we all changed out to hurst shifters. they worked ok for a normal person.
I loved the stock shifter in my 64 vette. When adjusted correctly it was as smooth as silk.
The Spyker and Pagani take the award for most beautiful mechanical design. I do wonder how smoothly they shift. The Tucker shifter looked like it was designed for the lilliputians.
The ” Twin Stick” AMC used in the Marlin is noteworthy. The shifters now used on those pro-stock Liberty five speeds are built to take anything and show it. Muscle into the next gear.
What? No Lenko?
Lenco?
The one with the three gear levers that you pull in succession?
No mention that Tucker was using scrapyard Cord transmissions?
Yes. The Cord 810/812. I still maintain that the whole thing was smoke and mirrors. So many of the parts were used. They never really tooled up for their own parts.
They never got the chance. Many mfgr’s from the 60′ & 70’s & 80’s operated in a similar fashion. Studebaker, AMC/Rambler & DeLorean to name some.
But those others used NEW parts from other manufacturers-very common. Studebaker used Dodge beds for their pickups, DeLorean used Renault engines, almost everyone used Saginaw (GM) power steering pumps. But Tucker was pulling parts from junkyards. Not right.
The gated Bentley/Rolls-Royce gated floor shifter is the finest manual transmission I have ever operated, and I’ve driven everything from AC to ZIL
Hard to diss the Cord, but glad to see my Citroen 2CV made the cut (along with the similar Renault 4). You just wiggle the knob and the transmission kind of does what ever it wants.
Should also mention the Cord L29, with the spiritual father to those 2CV and Renault shifters.
Loved the pistol grip on my 71 Roadrunner. Great memories of my first new car.
Some brilliant designs. My favorites are the “rifle bolt action” in the original Lotus Elan and a Hewland Mk9 in formula car or sports racer. “Lift & Shift!”
Don’t forget the push/pull reverse shift pattern of the 4/4 Morgan
Had that on my 63 4/4 seriies V until I put in 5 speed FordTransit which put the stalk in direct
position rather than up forward which made the push pull necessary.
How did you leave out the Cobra with the shifter that came in from behind the driver VIA a bent stick?
Actually a factory Ford shifter, with the lever turned around where it bolted to the actual shifter.
I’m surprised that a four-speed Lenco didn’t make the cut. The massive, hyper-industrial presence never fails to impress…..and they really work well also 🙂
mopar pistol grip all the way