leoj, part of the business of changing gear in a crash box is your coordination. Like the background programs in your computer, these are not something you are aware of, but is a skill developed until it is unconscious. You have one foot working the brake & accelerator, a hand in the gearstick, & the other foot working the clutch. Stop one working & the unconscious act requires conscious thought again. That conscious thought is no where near as efficient as the trained reflex.

After this occasion I bought a 1947 Hillman Minx, who's synchromesh had long since died, & drove it around for months, with my left foot in the parcel shelf, to train myself to change gear clutchless, without my left foot action.

I had a similar but different experience at Bathurst in the Formula 1 Brabham Repco. If trying hard, perhaps overtaking or lapping a car, I would use 4Th gear, [about 150 MPH at 9700 RPM] right across the top of the mountain. However, changing up to 5Th across there was only about a second slower, & in those days when 100 miles around Bathurst broke most F1s, gave the machinery a little rest.

The problem was coming up to Skyline, where I needed 3Rd gear. The movement of the gear stick was too small to be able to feel which gear it was in, & trying to look down would probably kill you. Ridiculously, after checking oil pressure, water & oil temperatures out of McPhillamy I could not remember which gear I had selected just a few seconds before, & with a helmet & ear plugs I could not hear the revs.

I had to check the rev counter, to see by the revs what gear I was in. It was only a few seconds since I had selected that gear, but those things become so unconscious, when your full concentration is required to balance the car on throttle, you have no memory of it.

Hasbeen,

As I said elsewhere, driving a car on the road (let alone racing!) requires far more concentration than flying a small plane, and having driven more or less sedately around Bathurst many times (I used to work at Karingal Village) and I can only imagine what it must have been like at speed.

I takes me hat off to you and your mates!

great hasbeen

Hi there HASBEEN ol' mate...

Well, that's all the confirmation I really needed, you've really pulled just too many negative 'G's' both while racing, and in Navy Fighter Aircraft? If my dear wife was to witness me struggling to lift may right foot off the ground, twirl it clockwise, while 'air writing' the number six....? I'd probably end up in the Psych. Ward of the Repat!

Speaking of Clutches. Did any of you ever have a Girlfriend Clutch. Remember when the Gear stick was Steering Wheel & in the old cars with Mechanical Clutches the link would get worn out & the Clutch wouldn't work. You put a leaver in connected to the Clutch housing near the Gear box, when you wanted to change Gears she pulled the leaver back, you changed gear, then she pushed it forward again. Scherimple Sherlock. Aaah! the good old days. ;-) Remember whennnn.......

Dear Hasbeen,

It took me a bit of practice, but after 6-7 tries I got it right: the right foot circling clockwise and the right hand doing the figure '6'.