Sequencial gearbox question

[Mapsix]

Hey guys, sequencial gearboxes seem to be the bees knees; we're always hearing about them in the magazine and on the forums. I understand how they work and all and I have no plans of ever using one but I've got a nagging curiosity:

What pattern do they use? Is it just up and down or are they H-pattern with no neutral?

[xrt_si]

Hi, yep they are the bees knees and on my wishlist for the future for sure.

It's literally just up and down.

The process would be to start the car in neutral, clutch down and pull the lever back to go into first. Pull away and then just pull the lever straight back for the rest of the gears, and push the lever straight up away from you to change down. Some can be set up with a separate GCU (Gearbox Control Unit) to allow full throttle upshifts without the use of the clutch.

The one I've driven had a mechanism to stop you going into neutral on downshifts in case you lost count of the gears - easy to do!

Here's a good video to show it (as well as some excellent driving skill and awesome sound!). This is Boxxer's Mk2 Escort four-door which we featured in Decemeber 2011. This is set up for full-throttle-flat-change shifts, so doesn't use the clutch on up-shifts, only on down-shifts, as you can see if you watch his feet. You can get advanced systems that don't use the clutch on the up-shifts or down-shifts, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB-sd6gvrOc

Hope that helps!

[Mapsix]

That's great, thanks Simon! Your answer was pretty definitive and the video was a perfect example, the angle is just right to catch all the gear changes/foot work. I'm suitably impressed by BoXXXer's beast; it's one thing to read about a car but being able to put a 'sound' to it really helps you appreciate it.

Thanks again mate,

Kyle.

[xrt_si]

No worries

It's something that's of interest to me as I love them! I WILL get one for my next project car too!

And yes, the feature was hard to write as the car is so immense it really was a sight and sound to watch, something that I tried to convey in the feature. That video did it just as well though!

[Mapsix]

Neat, Query Of The Month huh? Does this mean I can start referring to myself as a published author?

[xrt_si]

Ha! Close enough!