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Subject- <M3> miss-shift ex

Hi again,

Without getting in the middle of, or taking sides in, the Great Missed =
Shift 
Debate, I thought I'd add some (hopefully helpful) comments to something 
Brendon Whateley just wrote.  He said:

>All the talk about the "problems" with the M3 gearbox (with no 
>complaints from the 328 folks using the same box) prompted me to 
>change my shifting technique.

Now, Brendon changed from good technique to bad, to see what would =
happen.  
I did the reverse.

By the time I began autocrossing a BMW in 1993 I had become accustomed to =

shifting by grabbing the lever with my fist and pushing it wherever *I* 
wanted it to go.  Hey -- shifting a VW Jetta in a 1-g corner *demanded* =
this 
sort of technique!  

This never presented a problem in the VW, but in the 318is I occasionally =

couldn't get the gearshift into 2nd when coming down from 3rd.  =
Invariably, 
I would pull too hard to the left and drag the linkage into the Reverse 
gate.  It wouldn't actually go into Reverse, just pop into the gate and =
not 
go into *any* gear.  (Not the fast way around the track!)

TC Kline, my major competitor at the time, then taught me to shift using 
nothing more than my fingertips and wishful thinking.  That way, when I 
tried to put the shifter somewhere it knew it shouldn't go, I simply lost =
my 
grip, instead of risking my tranny.  After two or three times of it =
popping 
out of my hand in mid-shift, I began to develop an incredibly sensitive =
feel 
for where it *wants* to go.

For the record, I've yet to miss a shift in my M3, but I once loaned my =
car 
to a *very* experienced, national-calibre driver (not on this digest) and =
he 
actually shifted it into Reverse when going for a 2nd to 1st downshift!  =
I 
know he made it because I painfully witnessed the back-up lights come on =
at 
the apex of the corner!    He let the clutch out, too, because, as he =
later 
blushingly explained, "It went right in, as if nothing wrong had =
happened!"

Anyway...I can easily see both sides of the issue.  Just thought I'd pass =

along a little technique tip from TC.  It sure has helped me.

Bob Tunnell
bobt@domain.elided