Talking Transmissions Part Two covers the Continuously Variable and Manual Transmissions, one increasing in popularity, the other sadly disappearing. No longer an SRT, the new Viper remains one of the quicket production cars despite having an "old school" manual transmission. Manual The “stick shift” is the traditional purists transmission that every driver should be required to learn. It educates a driver on the interaction of the vehicle and gear selection. It is the lightest and most reliable type of transmission. Now cars like the new Corvette Stingray and Porsche 911 offer a 7-speed manual. Interestingly the Corvette has 4 “acceleration gears” ending at 147mph and 5th starts the overdrive ratio “fuel economy gears. The Carrera S has 5 “acceleration gears” ending at 158mph. Besides weight and reliability, it is the most direct connection to the driver and the performance of the vehicle. For classic cars, it is almost always the most desired transmission and many weren’t e...