Here's What Makes Honda Shifters Better Than Most
Honda has long been known as the gold standard for shifters.
Satisfying Experience
It's no secret that some automakers do a far better job of making shifters than others. When it comes to driving a car equipped with a manual transmission, shifter feel is everything, and Honda arguably does it better than anyone. In fact, the Japanese automaker has been churning out impressive shifters since the very beginning - with the S500 from 1963 offering up a stellar experience in that regard, and there's a very good reason for that.
Photos: Honda
One Specific Reason
The reason why Honda shifters are so darn good in the S2000 and virtually every other vehicle to ever emerge from its factories is pretty simple, actually - it just pays a lot of attention to that particular component during the development process, as Road & Track recently discovered.
Photos: Honda
All About Linkage
"Shift feel has always been a focus at Honda," Civic Type R chief engineer Hideki Kakinuma explained. Of course, there's a technical aspect to all of this as well - Honda didn't just will its shifter feel into existence. "Everything that they've done has just been top-notch, from the shift handle all the way to the gearbox, and that makes everything," said Chris Weismann of Traction Products, which designs transmissions. "You can have a great shifting gearbox, but if the linkage to the gearbox doesn't work, you're not going to get a good feel."
Photos: Honda
Working Together
Of course, there's far more to the process than that, as synchronizers are also a vital component in making shifter feel great, too. "All the rough edges are not there, all the fits between mating parts are correct and well within their high standards of tolerance," Weismann said. "Basically, the quality control of the finished product is excellent, and so whatever [Honda makes] functions better when all working together."
Photos: Honda
Important Piece
One of the many things that separates Honda from the competition in this regard is the fact that it continued to utilize metal rods for its shift linkages for many years, something that's difficult to design and package, yet provides a superior shifter feel. This applies to products like the S2000 and DC2 Integra Type R, but not all Honda vehicles - in fact, the first-gen Acura NSX had a cable-operated shifter, though it certainly feels rod-actuated.
Photos: Honda
Switch to Cable
As Weismann explained, cables aren't really a great solution for manual shifters - "quoting my grandmother, 'You can't push a rope,'" he says - though the packaging is what makes them necessary in many cases. Honda has transitioned to cables in recent years, though uses the lessons it learned with the NSX to make them feel far superior to most alternatives out there in the world.
Photos: Honda
Big Changes, Same Feel
The newest Civic Type R utilizes high-capacity synchronizers, though such a move required "an uncompromising stance of bringing everything into high-level balance," according to Kakinuma. However, it also helps that Honda has never produced a sports car with any extreme amount of horsepower or torque. Regardless, placing such a large emphasis on shifter feel has proven to be a boon for both the automaker and those of us that love its legendary sports car offerings.
Photos: Honda