I personally prefer the sticks, and would actually like to see the cars mandated to use the simple H-patterns with clutch if applicable.

Though I understand that the paddles may make the techie segment of the audience happy, I would prefer having the drivers as busy in the cockpit as possible, with the chance that they would make a mistake.

I would also assume that I am unique in that I tune in to watch the drivers race, and could care less about all the latest gizmos.

markm55543 - 05 April 2009 09:48 PM

I personally prefer the sticks, and would actually like to see the cars mandated to use the simple H-patterns with clutch if applicable.

Though I understand that the paddles may make the techie segment of the audience happy, I would prefer having the drivers as busy in the cockpit as possible, with the chance that they would make a mistake.

I would also assume that I am unique in that I tune in to watch the drivers race, and could care less about all the latest gizmos.

Here is the thing though, more and more street cars are going to paddle shifts, within 5 years it'll be common on all standard transmissions.

H pattern shifter + clutch + Indycar = an accident waiting to happen/a Big effing mistake.

there are pros and cons for both the F1-style shifter currently used in Indycar and the old sequential shifter from the old Indy cars before the split.

Yeah it was cool to see a driver take their right hand off the wheel to reach down and shift gears. But maybe the F1-style shifter reduces the load on the driver just enough so he/she doesn't get 'task saturated' and make a mistake.

now if Michael Andretti decides to drive the 500 again, I think he'd want the old style shifter. But that's just my opinion.

If it's the H pattern, I'm down with it, but a sequential shifter is pointless, really.

I agree. The advent of paddles was nothing more than the engineers trying to eliminate mistakes by "stupid" drivers. Safety was of no concern to them but that is their excuse now, you know, for the chilrun.

Racing now has become nothing more than an engineering exercise and the tropy usually goes to the team with the best financed engineers with the biggest racing budgets.

Paddles are for gurls and gurly men that cannot shift a manual transmission.

If it was up to me there would be no million dollar race cars with 300 grand worth of computerized systems other than fuel injection and ignition. That way we could actually have mid-packers with lower budgets and smarter, wiser crew chiefs competing rather than making laps.
P.S. - racing is not a sport but a big, big-----big, big, big business.

I think Paddle Shifters look cool, but I understand the people that like gearshifters and want the drivers to work more.

And what about placing paddles in the Indy Light cars?

Lexus has been putting them in there cars and on the ISF it is much more fun than the 6-speed. don't get me wrong i love a good gear shift but the paddles make the car feel faster and allows you to get around a corner much better.

B Glover - 23 July 2008 09:05 AM

IMO, removing the shifter also removes an element of racecraft and, therefore, is a "dumbing down" of skill. Not to mention the fact that when anyone emulates a race car driver, they ALWAYS make the hand gestures of shifting gears. It's ingrained. You never see little kids or even grown adults making a race car noise and flicking their fingers, always pronounced hand gestures of moving a gear shift.

AOW is not going to complete with F1 in the arena of technology, so instead of trying to, I suggest the opposite approach, a true driver's car with no aids or assists of any kind. Paddle shifting is to video gamish for my taste.

The IRL never used an H-pattern gearbox when they raced on the road courses, so that skill you are talking about was never utilized. The first gen IRL cars had an H-pattern gearbox but since they were racing only on ovals, they rarely shifted except coming in for a pitstop. The 2nd gen IRL cars all have been sequential gearboxes, so you move the stick up to shift, move the stick down to shift, not to mention the driver never had a foot clutch, so the skill you are talking about being lost was never utilized in the first place.