On Mon, 28 Oct 1996, Peter Zaborski wrote:
> I was just wondering... do RHD cars use the same shift pattern as LHD
> cars or is the pattern symmetrically opposite?
> What I mean is, on any LHD car i have driven, 1st and 2nd are near the
> driver and 3rd and higher gears are away from the driver.
> How is it on RHD cars?
> If it is symmetrically opposite, does the change involve a simple
> linkage mod or is there more to it than that?
On cars with gearbox-mounted shift levers the pattern is almost always the
same for RHD and LHD cars. The design of a typical gearbox-mounted shift
mechanism makes it pretty difficult to alter the pattern. This isn't
necessarily true for cars with column-mounted shifters and other oddball
shifter locations.
This doen't mean that the pattern we now think of as "normal" has always
been "normal". Most early MGs (pre T-Series) for example used this
pattern. Sorry, don't remember where reverse was.
3 1
4 2
That might seem more logical for RHD cars, but by the late 1930's today's
"normal" pattern was pretty much standard in GB. And no, it wasn't the
fault of us Yanks. Export to the U.S. didn't become a major factor in the
British auto industry until after WW2. Even then, there were some
holdouts.
If you think about the standard TR2 - TR6 shift pattern, it works better
for RHD cars than for LHD. The "lift, right, back" shift into reverse is
a lot less awkward if you're sitting on the right side of the car. My
wife, who is no weakling, has to struggle to get our LHD TR4 into reverse.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chip Old 1948 M.G. TC TC6710 NEMGTR #2271
Cub Hill, Maryland 1962 Triumph TR4 CT3154LO (daily driver)
fold@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us
If cars had evolved as fast as computers have, by now they'd cost a
quarter, run for a year on a half-gallon of gas, and explode once a day.
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