So, Ive had my MR touring for about a month now, and having a hard time getting used to the paddles. I do love the trans, and shifting on the floor is cool, but I have a hard time remembering that pulling on the left side paddle downshifts. It just seems counter intuitive for me. It seems like pulling should shift up, and pushing will shift down.

So, Im watching the WRC, and I notice that those rally cars have excatly what I think would be the perfect setup. A paddle just on one side, you pull to upshift, and push the same paddle to down shift.

Maybe its the motorcycle rider in me?

I think that would be a very cool mod for these MR's, dont you think? A big carbon fiber paddel on the right side.



Here is a picture I captured about what I am talking about.

 

Go all out.

 

I think it would be best if both paddles were changed to allow either upshifting or downshifting via pull or press like the WRC cars

 

IDK about that, wouldn't want an accidental move to downshift the car when it shouldnt lol

I had some trouble getting used to the paddles myself. At first I would do all my upshifts with the shifter and my down shifts with the paddle. LMAO

 

I never had issues getting used to this. It's just like the Ferrari paddles. Pull right for upshift, pull left for downshift. IDK, seems right to me. Maybe it's the playstation player in me

In all serious, think of it like a motorcycle... shifting down is moving the lever away from the body (down) and shifting up is moving the lever toward the body (up).

 

the trans in the WRC is completley different..

it's sequential, which is why they push forwards for down and pull back for up.

I suppose you could hack up something similar for the SST, but it would be a bit rice :P

 

I honestly don't get why anyone would want to push... today I was testing the theory out and I could feel a lot more resistance in my hands to push rather than pull. To each their own I suppose.

 

I totally get that the WRC trans is a totally different animal. But in the end you pull to shift up and push to sift down. It seems to me that they could have made the shifter anyway they wanted, but they chose the pull-push method. I cannot believe there isnt anyone out there that agree's with me, exept the WRC....

 

Did not know that the WRC (or anyone for that matter) had a push/pull paddle shifter, seems more like a column mounted shift lever than a "paddle". I have lusted after a proper paddle shifter ever since F1 (lead by Ferrari) went that rout some 15 years ago followed by the Ferrari road cars and then the other exotics, now that I have a car with the paddle shifters I always wanted I find I actually prefer to use the shift lever (pull for "up" push for "down" like a sequential MC) when my right hand is free, oh well! You could extend the shifter so it is closer to the steering wheel and right hand to get the same effect as the WRC but you lose shift feel by greatly increasing the shift throw distance, I know, I tried.

 

Not a problem. Downshift as often and early as you want. If the revs aren't right the system just beeps at you. I do it all the time in competition.

 

If you're 7k rpms, and you downshift in 4th, i'm quite sure it will downshift into 3rd without a beep. Only time I've heard a beep is in 2nd, and it downshifted to 1st before i did. I'm in manual mode 95% of the time.

 

The evo uses the corrrect way to use the paddles. column mounted right for upshift, left for downshift. that is how ferrari uses it and since they were one of the first companies to use paddles, that imo is the standard...

WHEEL mounted paddles is a cop out. wheel mounted paddles came forth from the manumatics that tried to copy ferrari and their paddles. they were not going to manufacture new columns and a set of paddles just so you could shift manually on a true automatic tranny. instead, cheap plastic paddles on the back of the wheel makes you F1-cool and doesnt require much change.

YES true F1 cars have wheel mounted paddles but they also have like less than 1 turn lock to lock so its irrelevant when talking about a road car.

as for WRC, not too long ago console mounted push/pull levers were the norm. remember the 2002 ep civic si? console mounted shifters were WRC-cool back then. somewhere along the way they figured out that a push/pull paddle would achieve the same thing but you wouldnt have to let go off the wheel like a console shifter.

in the end, the evo got things right. right paddle upshift, left paddle downshift. pull back upshift, push forward downshift.... the fact that everyone else chooses the easy way out makes the evo THAT much cooler. they chose to do things the sportscar way and not the soccer mom way....

 

I agree the MR's current paddle/shifter setup is perfect.

 

Yeah, I guess Ill just use the console, and leave the flappy paddles to the Ferrari's and the sport mini vans

 

Actually, BMW agrees with you...

The non-M SMG tranny from the E46, have 2 paddles, both can upshift by pulling, and downshift by pushing.

The newer steptronic automatic trannies on newer BMWs have the same paddle system.

And believe it or not, in the BMW forums, people wish they just changed it to what the EVO X has today. They all say that the Paddles, should all be like the ///M models, which is downshift on the left and upshift on the right.