Adam Dorey: The Stick Shift Mafia Wants You — Part One
If you’ve been at a drag-and-drive, you’ve undoubtedly heard the announcer(s) talking about stick shift cars more than at a typical track day.
You aren’t hearing things, because it’s absolutely true: there are more stick shift rides per capita at a drag-and-drive than other typical drag races you’ve seen. Even if they’re not specifically in a stick shift class, there are more stick cars peppered throughout all the classes at an event.
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The reason for this is multi-faceted, but mainly because they excel on the street portion, which is 99.9% of the mileage of a drag and drive. However, it’s not all just two overdrives and no converter slip fun, because now you have to learn how to race with a clutch pedal!
In this series I’ll break down a couple of the common benefits as well as a few of the ‘extras’ you’ll need to consider to join the group of clutch dumpers at your next race, and we’ll also talk a few cons in some of the future parts of this series.
The first and the most advantageous part of a manual transmission is the clutch. This is a lockup torque converter that works in every gear and gives you infinite ‘stall speed.’ Because you can choose when to let off the violence pedal, you can choose where the car launches every time. While locked up, this creates almost zero heat and should have zero slip.
There is a downside. No torque multiplication, which a torque converter achieves, and there’s no ‘shock absorber’ left in the drivetrain. Aggressive diaphragm clutches are somewhat of an on-off switch, with little room for slippage to get the vehicle rolling either on the track or on the street. However, with a little practice, you can figure out how to drive with an aggressive clutch within a couple of hours behind the wheel or one event at the track. Keep in mind though, when combined with a sticky tire and especially a heavier ride, this is where you’ll start breaking parts, so be gentle at first while you feel out the activation, especially on the track.
The second advantage of most modern manual transmissions is the ability to pack a lot of gears in a relatively small case. Typical transmissions, both from the OE and from the aftermarket, will have five or six gears, and in many of them, at least one or even two overdrives. If you do drive the ride a lot (and 1000 miles in a week is a lot), overdrive will give you the ability to help keep the engine alive and happy for a much longer period.
For those unaware, overdrive is a gear ratio of less than 1:1. For example, we’ll use the Tremec T56 in my car with a 0.5:1 sixth gear. Instead of cruising down the road at 60mph with a 3.89 gear and 26” tire at 3250 rpm with a 1:1 transmission (TH350, TH400, Powerglide, Muncie…and nearly every transmission on the market up until the nineties), when I slide mine into sixth, it moves down to 1625 rpm with the same speed, gear, and tire. This helps with fuel consumption, valvetrain and engine wear, keeping the engine running cool, and a slew of other ripple effects. An overdrive will allow you to run a much more aggressive rear gear to help on the race track, but still drive the thing without much additional drama on the street.
Intrigued? Stay tuned for coming parts to this stick shift mafia series, to learn more about the inside workings of a stick shift drag-and-drive ride! You know what they say about the mafia: once you’re in, there’s no getting out.
Written by Adam Dorey.
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