Ferrari Mailing List: Re: LA Times: Dan Neil on heel-and-toe shifting and theNissan 370Z

[Michael James (cavallino_rapante]

And for all the 'talk' about how wonderful F1-style trannys are, why do they 
cost $$$$$$$$ to fix when they're broken, and why can't I get someone to loan 
me a paddle-shift car to learn how to drive one?  
 
M

--- On Thu, 2/12/09, LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com> wrote:


From: LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] LA Times: Dan Neil on heel-and-toe shifting and 
theNissan 370Z
To: "Michael James" <cavallino_rapante [at] yahoo.com>
Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Date: Thursday, February 12, 2009, 12:12 PM



I remember Charles' run...through the northern DC suburbs. Did you have any 
aftermarket pedal covers on your car?

MJ, today, you shift a race car with your pinky!



----- Original Message ----
From: Michael James <cavallino_rapante [at] yahoo.com>
To: LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 12:10:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] LA Times: Dan Neil on heel-and-toe shifting and 
theNissan 370Z

I'd be even-more amazed if you had actually done it on purpose.....LOL.
 
I recall another event at Charles' house, I believe it was a FCA Formula 1 
get-together where one distinguished guest had just sold his 250 GT SWB 
(probably for all the money in the world, good for him).  He explained to me 
that the car, as well as most early racing manual-tranny cars, was equipped 
with a 'crash-box'.  I had never heard of one before.  His description on how 
to operate it left me with the impression that only VERY SKILLED drivers could 
handle such a machine at speed.  I guess 'crash-boxes' were somewhat 
commonplace Back-in-the-Day, and a novice could 'learn' at a pace that would 
allow a driver to operate that on a racetrack without thinking about it.  
Today?  On a million-dollar machine filled with Unobtanium gearbox pieces?  
Forget about it.  Who is going to learn that setup in a car that's too 
expensive to break?  No wonder they're always parked on-the-lawn.
 
M
 
 
 


--- On Thu, 2/12/09, Charles Perry <charles [at] carolina-sound.com> wrote:


From: Charles Perry <charles [at] carolina-sound.com>
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] LA Times: Dan Neil on heel-and-toe shifting and 
theNissan 370Z
To: "Michael" <Cavallino_Rapante [at] yahoo.com>
Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Date: Thursday, February 12, 2009, 9:54 AM


Agreed. I respect the performance of the newer boxes, but I still ENJOY the car 
more when I shift for myself. I'm not a racer and rarely care if I'm the guy 
who's ahead by half a car length after the stop light.

But I still remember to this day the first time I actually did what I 
considered to be a perfect heel-toe downshift in the TR. It was on one of 
Lashdeep's runs around the DC area. I think it was Michael James that was 
riding with me, but we went flowing through a curve that was at the bottom of a 
hill transitioning to uphill, and I was ecstatic that I got it just right. It 
struck that perfect balance of feeling like part of the machine, which I think 
is where a lot of the Ferrari mystique came from over the years.

I still rarely get them just right, but I do really enjoy practicing it. I 
wouldn't mind having a double-clutch F1 type box in the fleet, but I don't 
think I'd ever want to be without at least one true manual...

On another topic, I was at our local Chevy dealer two days ago. They have a 
black Corvette ZR1 on the floor. Nice looking car - I appreciate the 
understated approach - but the dealer had $41,000 of additional dealer markup 
on it. Yesterday I dropped by our Nissan dealership. They have two GT-Rs on the 
floor, each with $21,000 of additional dealer markup. Are these guys smoking 
crack in this economy, or are people still getting such premiums for cars that 
will be pretty pedestrian in 12 months...?

-- charles

________________________________

From: Rick Lindsay [mailto:rolindsay [at] yahoo.com]
Sent: Thu 2/12/2009 8:25 AM
To: Charles Perry
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] LA Times: Dan Neil on heel-and-toe shifting and 
theNissan 370Z



You know, a lot of this thread was written after F.G. commented (paraphrasing) 
that some car "...would be better if it had a manual gearbox."  I then said 
that modern automatic gear selection systems are superior to manual gearboxes - 
if your standard of excellence is absolute performance.  I went on to say that 
if your standard of ENJOYMENT is playing with the shifter, listening to the 
exhaust note and heel-n-toe down-shifting, then by all means, go for a system 
with a manual gear selector in the cockpit.  (After all, if it was good enough 
for drivers in 1930, its good enough for drivers today!)  :-P 

The only point I am trying to make is that we can argue until the end of days 
and we still won't agree because the real difference is in the shifting system, 
its the definition of the word "better".

rick
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