Shifting with a beautiful poker
The manual gearbox is disappearing quickly. Yesterday you could read on this site that the renewed BMW 3-series, for example, is no longer available with a manual transmission. Unfortunately! And gear levers were sometimes beautiful in the past. That is why we have a collection of beautiful pokers for you that embellish interiors like true pieces of art.
Oldsmobile Cutlass Hurst/Olds
This forest of pokers is called ‘Hurst Lightning Rods Triple Shifter’ and is intended for the better drag racing work. The right one is to manually, quickly and accurately switch from 1 to 2, with the middle one you go from 2 to 3, after which you can put the left stick in D (overdrive).
Citroen 2CV
The horizontal stick is connected to a ‘normal’ vertical stick in the gearbox behind the engine. You switch on the 1 by turning the ball to the left and pulling it backwards, for the reverse you push it forward. 2 and 3 are ‘in the middle’ opposite each other, 4 is ‘top right’.
Dodge Challenger
It looks like a handbrake like they use in rally and drift sports, but this is a so-called ‘pistol grip’ from Hurst.
Volkswagen Golf GT
Classic that needs no further explanation.
Chevrolet Camaro
Before Alfa Romeo turned it into a handbrake in the 75, Chevrolet already used this shape (the ‘Horseshoe Ratchet’) to operate the automatic transmission.
Jaguar XJ40
We first saw the distinctive ‘J-gate’ on the XJ40 (1986). The idea behind this shift pattern is that you can’t accidentally put the automatic transmission into N or R when you manually select a gear.
Delahaye 135
This miniature lever is the ‘pre selector’ for the semi-automatic Cotal four-speed gearbox, the 1 of which is not located at the top left but at the top right. In addition to Delahaye, Peugeot, Citroën, Delage, Ford, Bugatti, Salmson and Hotchkiss also used this electromagnetic gearbox in the 1930s/40s.
Ferrari 550 Maranello
Ferrari doesn’t have to tell you how to make an aesthetically pleasing gear lever with associated gear shifters. The poker in the photo with this article is from a Ferrari 328.
Triumph Dolomite Sprint
The slider on top of the poker of the Triumph Dolomite Sprint. This engages the gearbox’s overdrive.
Alfa Romeo 6
Of course there are many Alfas that had a beautiful poker, this is that of the Alfa Romeo Sei. A short, crisp copy.
lemon SM
What was not nice about the SM? Even the gear lever surrounded by a beautiful shift pattern stamped in chrome.
Mercedes-Benz 300 SL
This is how beautiful a simple gear lever can be. The gear selector for the Mercedes 300 SL. A large white steering wheel and a simple white button on a long lever.
This overview was previously posted in AutoWeek Classics 5 2018 and of course a topic like this is subjective. So don’t be shy in the comments to hit our ears with other stems that we should have shown too!
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl