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Visitors to the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show will see supercars, hoverboards, self-propelling luggage and all manner of new transportation options.
But they'll be hard pressed to find a clutch pedal or a stick shift. Available in nearly half of new models in the U.S. a decade ago, the manual transmission is going the way of the rumble seat, with stick availability falling to about a quarter this year.
Once standard equipment on all motor vehicles, preferred for its dependability, fuel efficiency and sporty characteristics, the four-on-the-floor is disappearing from major car manufacturers' lineups — and subsequently from the sprawling auto show's floors.
Consider, too, that electric vehicles don't even have a transmission.
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The Disappearing Stick Shift: Less Than 3% of Cars Sold in the U.S. Have Manual Transmissions
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In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it is against the law to open a soda bottle without
the supervision of a licensed engineer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by shortscreen on Friday November 18 2016, @06:22AM
Automatics are annoying. Last I heard they can't be flat towed or push started either.
I'm not too worried about what new cars come with. I already retrofitted my 35-year-old car with a 6-speed manual and I have some spare 5-speed boxes in the basement.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday November 18 2016, @03:31PM
Last I heard they can't be flat towed or push started either.
I was quite surprised to hear about push starting. [wikipedia.org] See, *this* is the kind of sweet stuff I wish they taught in driver's ed.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday November 18 2016, @05:57PM
I don't know how well you can do push starting anymore, when nanny car companies have decided that Americans need to push the clutch on the floor or he car won't start.
I had to get good at push-starting when I learnt to drive, because my mom's car was regularly misbehaving. But that's becoming obsolete faster than the manual itself. Stupid need to protect people from themselves...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @06:24PM
When the kick starter pawl (ratchet part) failed in my small motorcycle, I bump started it for years. The sequence is to put in gear, hold clutch lever in, push the bike. After a few steps, hop on the seat (add weight to the rear wheel) and release the clutch to turn the engine over. If you don't land on the seat at the right time, the rear tire might just slide, and not turn the engine. As noted, as soon as the engine fires, pull clutch back in so it doesn't stall at low speed.
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My friend with a 1911 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost has the best starting method I've seen. Once the car has been running and is warmed up, he shuts off the 6 cylinder engine. One cylinder ends up with valves closed and the piston past top dead center. This cylinder is filled with air-fuel mixture--potential energy! Since there is a spark timing lever on the steering wheel, all he has to do is turn on the ignition (a vibrator-coil affair) and then flip the timing lever up and down to make a spark in that cylinder.
Of course he knows that he should never advance the timing before TDC -- which would risk starting the engine in reverse rotation (most engines don't like this).
The effect is like magic. Things are quiet and he moves the little timing lever (barely noticeable, unless you know what to watch for), and then the engine is idling. None of that crude starter-motor grinding noise. His car has been very carefully rebuilt and sometimes this "start on the timing lever" technique will work after several days of sitting. It always works when the engine is still warm.
I don't think that this technique is used to re-start "mild-hybrid" cars that stop the engine when the car stops, but it would save the life of the starter motor and battery. With a computer that knows the phase angle of the crankshaft, it should be really easy to command a spark in the correct cylinder (might also need to squirt some fuel if the engine is direct fuel injected).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @09:46PM
I really don't think that would work on a modern engine, because there won't be any fuel in the cylinder. (Unless it's got direct injection -- then, as you say, you could spray some fuel in.) Your friend's antique is carbureted, so it always breathes mixture, but a fuel injected engine sometimes breathes air, perhaps most noticeably during closed-throttle deceleration, and I'm pretty sure also during shutdown. I don't think you would be able to meet current emissions standards if you change it to keep the injectors running during shutdown.
Anyway, it's kinda pointless -- the whole idea of the "mild hybrid" (I mean the engineering idea, not the naming) is instead of using a starter motor that runs a tiny duty cycle at low engine RPM and ludicrous current, and thus is both at risk of excess wear and unable to augment the engine at normal driving speeds, the alternator (which is already designed to run continuously), beefed up and properly connected, will both serve well enough to start a warm engine, and then be usable to augment mechanical power (on launch and acceleration) as well as withdraw mechanical power (during cruise and braking) to charge the battery as normal. So although the old starter is typically retained for cold starts, you're not putting wear on it every time you stop at a traffic light -- and since you're going to load the alternator-starter anyway, as you accelerate away, it shouldn't affect its longevity much to also use it to turn the engine over first.