Types of shifters

I am just wondering, I've seen track races inside cameras and how people shift. One was of a megabusa (Kit car with 420hp hayabusa engine -- amazing), another was of a BMW M3 GTR.. The shifter goes up and down. Notch notch notch, that's how the gears are shifted. It's amazingly simple the guy either pushes lightly upwards or pulls light backwards. What is this and can these kind of shifter mods be applied to 'regular' cars.

Its called sequential shifting

read this:wink:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/sequential-gearbox.htm

argh. beat me to it.

edit: race-prepped sequential boxes are sweet and fast, but the ones designed for the road and offered by many manufacturers are still slow and sloppy, IMO. If you're truly performance-minded, stick with a stick.

H patterned is funner

If you want a real sequential tranny unlike the shifter made by Ikeya formula,be prepared to spend BIG bucks.BIG $$$...

The HKS sequential trannies for my 240sx cost about $10,000!!!:22yikes:

i'll always love the H-pattern.

You've got to love the horizontal H (An H pattern layed sideways) Or three on the tree, or a cane through the dash - or how about a nice planetary tranny? (with two pedals to control high and low) or how about pogressive sliding disk? (friction drive)
I picked up a nasty habbit from the 360 of shifting into second when I need to have first when driving a conventional car (In the 360, 1st is at the bottom left of the pattern)
Way back before either you or I was born, most cars used a sequential gear box, not the greatest setup for everyday driving though (especially with the crash-boxes all those cars had!) I can only imagine how tired one's left leg must have been after a day of driving.