Discussion
Is it just me or does anyone else fail to understand why many car manufacturers' PDK or Auto gearboxes feature a stick which you have to push forward to go up a gear and pull it back to go down a gear?
To me its totally counter intuitive to - when you're accelerating up through the 'box and inertia is pushing you back, it makes more sense to pull back on the stick - and conversely, when you're braking and being pushed forward, its easier to push forward on the stick down through the gears. My auto box has it the 'wrong way around' and despite being a binary issue, I just can't operate it like that.
Alot of manufacturers do this now but what really surprises me is that all (correct me if I'm wrong) Porsches except the GT3 have the +/- signs and resulting stick movement the wrong way around, whereas BMW doesn't on its SMG and DCT boxes...
I was lucky enough to drive a V10 R8 around Spa last year and again the stick was the 'wrong way around'. Ok I could use the paddles but if you want to pretend you're a touring car driver and pull up / push down on a stick (ok its not sequential but you get the idea) it just feels all wrong. I was told by an Audi bloke (not sure if he was a techie) that the lever just operates microswitches which could be reversed and so be operated the 'right way around', but I'm not sure about that.
Is it just me?
To me its totally counter intuitive to - when you're accelerating up through the 'box and inertia is pushing you back, it makes more sense to pull back on the stick - and conversely, when you're braking and being pushed forward, its easier to push forward on the stick down through the gears. My auto box has it the 'wrong way around' and despite being a binary issue, I just can't operate it like that.
Alot of manufacturers do this now but what really surprises me is that all (correct me if I'm wrong) Porsches except the GT3 have the +/- signs and resulting stick movement the wrong way around, whereas BMW doesn't on its SMG and DCT boxes...
I was lucky enough to drive a V10 R8 around Spa last year and again the stick was the 'wrong way around'. Ok I could use the paddles but if you want to pretend you're a touring car driver and pull up / push down on a stick (ok its not sequential but you get the idea) it just feels all wrong. I was told by an Audi bloke (not sure if he was a techie) that the lever just operates microswitches which could be reversed and so be operated the 'right way around', but I'm not sure about that.
Is it just me?
Not that I have an auto or semi auto but I agree, push forward for a down chance seems much more intuitive to me too, not sure why though.
Maybe its a combination of being a biker where a typicical road bike will have push down on the pedal to go down a gear and maybe it's because 4th to 3rd is by far the most common down change when going for an overtake or a changing down for a corner.
Maybe its a combination of being a biker where a typicical road bike will have push down on the pedal to go down a gear and maybe it's because 4th to 3rd is by far the most common down change when going for an overtake or a changing down for a corner.
Be nice if there was an "international (or even German) standard" for this. I've got a 911 and two BMWs, all with stick-only tiptronic 'boxes. The Porsche goes one way, the BMWs the other. Most of the time I just leave them to their own devices, but, if I do want to change manually for a safe and rapid overtake (drop down 2 gears), I have to look at the markings on the gate to see which way I've got to move the stick. Tricky at night in the Porsche, because there's no illumination.
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