Manual transmission Fan Club and BS thread (All Generations Welcome)

Did my most expensive mod to the truck to date. Bought a carton of eggs. Used the plastic grocery bag to hang off the shifter for my trash.

Anyone else use grocery bags like me for trash?

 

Careful. Any static weight on the shifter could mess up your synchros.

 

Understand. All light weight paper receipts and empty plastic water bottles.

 

Color matched fenders. Could be a Sport MT or a rare SR MT

I mean, my sport had OR factory wheels for two years.....

 

And with the air dam/chin strap removed.

I don't like how the TRD Sport wheels look lol. I don't blame you for running the TRD Off-Road wheels.

 

I drove my 2007 MTsport a fair bit this week after having my new 2023 MT.







I have to say, the g2 "gets across the highway " faster. The 0 to say 20. That first gear and half of second. Maybe I'm not running the g3 up high enough in rpms? I'm used to the 4.0 should go higher in rpms on it then my old truck?

 

Yes, this engine very much likes higher rpms. Don’t be afraid pushing above 5K, that’s the only way I drive and have fun

 

Absolutely rev it more. I don’t shift below about 4000 rpm ever really. I just regeared my axles to 5.29 and man is it fun to drive winding it out. It feels like it could have come stock this way except for the revvy 6th gear on the highway.

 

Second this. I notice vvti engagement at around 3.5k RPM.

I have to rev this truck up like I do with my S2000 if I want more power.

 

Drive it like you would a two stroke bike...it's fun

 

Took the air damn off right away lol. Wanted 16" wheels for more tire options.... Which is great until you want to bigger. Then 17s are preferable for options and pricing lol.





The 2GR is a rev monster. You won't hurt it by taking up to where it can breathe.... 3500+

 

Not sure if it is really necessary, but I try to keep it from hitting the boost at 3500rpm until the engine warms up. So I'll go easy on it and shift around 3000-3500rpm until the engine temp has climbed up and then it is a free for all!

 

The 3.5l has bottom end. Toyota just locked it away.

I can break the tires loose under 2,000rpm without dumping the clutch.

 

Cool article this morning

https://www.wsj.com/articles/manual-transmission-stick-shift-cars-929dc155?mod=hp_lead_pos12

 

I can't read that without a membership. Can you copy and paste the whole thing here?











... kidding

 

2021 was the lowest year for stick shift sales in history. 2022 and 2023 have seen Mark increases by not small amount. Apparently there's a sort of stick shift Renaissance going on with young car buyers who are actually enthusiasts

 

Did my part

 

Thanks for the synopsis!

 

LIFE & STYLE

The 20-Somethings Fueling a Stick-Shift Renaissance

Think the manual transmission car is dead? Not yet

Stick-shift loyalists aren’t taking the electric-car revolution lying down.

Following a decadeslong decline, three-pedaled vehicles are experiencing a modest but real resurgence. Manuals accounted for 1.7% of total new vehicle sales in 2023, according to data analytics company J.D. Power, up from 1.2% last year and a low of 0.9% in 2021. The Autotrader marketplace reports a 13% rise in page views for new manual cars in 2023 compared with this time last year.

Manual sedans no longer necessarily get better fuel mileage, cost less or accelerate faster than automatic ones do, auto pros say. Drivers who are sticking with sticks say that taking control of their clutches not only makes driving more fun but also provides a counter to an increasingly automated world—especially as more buyers shift to mostly single-gear electric vehicles.

“It’s not a statement against electric cars so much as I’m going to try to enjoy the type of driving that’s the most fun to me until I can’t anymore,” says 26-year-old Lucas Marcouiller, an engineering salesman in Warwick, R.I., who has purchased three manual vehicles.

Mini recently added three new models to its lineup of stick shifts, with four more coming this month. Manual is now the only option on three of Mazda Motor Corp.’s five versions of MX-5 Miata. Acura brought a manual option back to the Integra in June after discontinuing stick shifts in its lineup in 2015. The company is releasing a higher-performance Integra with no automatic option later this year.

“We are definitely doubling down,” says Emile Korkor, who helps oversee U.S. sales for Acura. He says about a quarter of the 15,000 people who have bought 2023 Integras have requested manuals.

These cars entice younger consumers in the same way that vinyl records and point-and-shoot cameras do, manufacturers say. Over half of those who opted for manual Integras are between 18 and 46 years old, and about a quarter of those who bought manual Miatas in 2022 are between 18 and 35, the companies say.

Seventeen-year-old D.J. Clark thinks he’s one of the few people at his Harrison, Ohio, high school who took his driving test with a manual.

“I thought it was cool to learn how to drive on a stick, just because I could tell my friends that I was a better driver than them,” he says.

His mom, Shara Clark, likes that having to maneuver the Jeep Wrangler’s gear shift plus the wheel doesn’t leave D.J. a free hand with which to text while driving. She also appreciates that he can easily rent a car in many other countries where manuals are much more common.

A learning curve

Many millennial and Gen Z manual enthusiasts got a late start learning to drive stick before learning to love it.

Lawrence Jacas’s dad had to drive his 2008 Infiniti G37 home from the dealership for him. After a half-dozen embarrassing experiences stalling out at red lights, the 22-year-old Miami computer technician got the hang of his new wheels. His choice of transmission still confounds some of his peers.

“When people hop in for the first time they look at me weird, because they have no idea how this car works now,” Mr. Jacas says.

C ody Whelan, 29, saw the lack of manual driving expertise among his peers as a business opportunity. His stick-shift school Three Pedals proved so popular that he recently quit his job as an environmental scientist to focus on the company full time. He is now looking to hire more drivers outside of Dover, N.H., where he lives.

Mini just opened a manual driving school of its own at the BMW Performance Center in Thermal, Calif. A January company survey of just over 1,000 drivers found that two-thirds of 18-to-34-year-olds are eager to learn how to drive a manual, versus 40% of older respondents who don’t already drive stick.

Manufacturers acknowledge that traditional stick shifts might not be around forever as they take their fleets electric. Manufacturers sold 43 different manual models in 2022, according to J.D. Power, compared with 69 in 2019. While a few EVs do have more than one gear, auto makers are still figuring out how to translate the experience of maneuvering a manual to their electric car lineups more broadly.

The has already taken off on social media in the face of fewer stick models. Posts featuring the hashtag have generated some 435 million views on TikTok.

An acquired taste

In Rhode Island, Mr. Marcouiller loves his manual 2011 Toyota Corolla so much that he knew he wanted to drive only a stick during the 7,500 mile, six-week cross-country road trip he took last summer. His fiancée, Hope McMorran, 27, was less enthused.

She started off excited by the prospect of learning how to drive the van they kitted out for the trip and optimistic they would take turns driving. Ten unsuccessful lessons later, Ms. McMorran ended up driving exactly zero of those 7,500 miles herself.

“I found it super stressful, and I also was just like, ‘Why? Why would I want to do that?’ ” says Ms. McMorran, a college academic adviser. The lessons stopped once Ms. McMorran felt that she could drive to the hospital if Mr. Marcouiller broke his leg.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Would you still buy a stick shift? Why or why not? Join the conversation below.

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R achel Cosker, 24, is questioning her commitment to the stick. As one of the few people at her high school who drove a manual, she says she leaned into the persona of “girl with the cool BMW stick-shift car.” That was before her leg grew sore from the clutch as she navigated traffic commuting back and forth from law school every day in Tampa, Fla.

“I think they are very fun to drive for about two hours, and then you’re like, ‘OK, I would like to put it away and just drive like a normal person again,’ ” Ms. Cosker says. “My dad is going to kill me for saying this, but they don’t make a whole lot of sense anymore.”

She plans to buy an electric BMW as soon as she can afford one.

Write to Rachel Wolfe at rachel.wolfe@wsj.com

 

Thanks @doublethebass