How To Drive A Motorcar
A Key To The Subtleties Of Motoring

THEORY OF GEAR-CHANGING yet found one on which osdinary gear changes could not be made properly with a little practice and reason- able knowledge of the car in question. This qualifica- tion is meant to apply only to the gear changes as such, and when it comes to what one may term super-refine- ment in the art of gear-lever manipulation there are some cars which absolutely refuse to do that which one is endeavouring to accomplish. More of this anon, however. We have therefore the fact that it is entirely un- necessary for any noise whatsoever to occur when gear- changing, whether the step be made from neutral to a forward or the reverse gear, or whether it be from a low gear to a higher one, or, on the contrary, a step down- wards. Let us, then, as the matter is one of prime im- portance, go into it carefully and see if we cannot all learn to become expert in the art of changing geais. At the present time quite a large number of drivers, although able to make a gear change, do not care to do so at a high car and engine speed, and consequently do not come down from the top gear on a hill until the severity of the hill in question forces them so to do, although it may be perfectly apparent, even at the start, that a change is bound to be required before the summit is reached. This is not as it should be, and every driver, so soon as he comes to that portion of the hill where his engine tells him intuitively that it is about time to make a change in order to keep the engine running at its best efficiency, should proceed to do so without any hesitation, or worry as to the possibility of making a bad change. Some Theoretical Considerations As we have agreed to go into this matter rather fully, it will be well in the first place to endeavour reasonably well to appreciate the actual nature of the operation effected from the theoretical standpoint, so as the more readily to grasp the raison d’être for the practical side of the question advocated. Not only is it desirable to have some cognizance of the actual movement of parts inside the gearbox, but it is as well to be able to appre- ciate them relatively to their mechanical significance, 81 F