Is there anything wrong with loving stick-shifts?

The manual transmission forces the student to learn this lesson.

It's always been optional for an instructor to get involved and teach people how and when to downshift with an automatic.

...and that's all that needs to change.

I loved driving my aircooled VWs too. I rebuilt a few engines by hand, and eventually went to work in a restoration business. I learned to appreciate driving manual transmissions in those cars. But they aren't around anymore, and they pollute far too much to allow them to be the basis of shared experience with other drivers.

Remember them for what they were, maybe invest in a Sunday car if you really need a fix. But the way forward is to teach people how to drive the cars that we have now.

 

So can an ordinary automatic. But their real life results are different than manuals, especially in those Unintended Acceleration cases.

As another reader already pointed out, on serious hills, this isn't just an enthusiast thing, it is an everyone thing. The Pikes Peak road, with a mandatory brake checkpoint, isn't the only place where non-enthusiasts can get into trouble.



One Hawaiian PC member rebuilt his overheated brakes twice before learning here why D-mode wasn't enough, B-mode was essential.

Even my real manual clutch transmission does this now, with a little bit of smarts in the electronic brake controls.

Or did, until I turned off the factory-default 'hill holder clutch' setting because my decades-ingrained reflexes were not adjusting well to this new-to-me feature. But then, when a friend who was acclimated to the original version of Subaru's hill holder clutch drove mine, she ended up having as much trouble with this feature turned off, as I had with it turned on.

 

Hmmm. I drive through mountain passes several times a month, going from sea level to 4000ft or more. I've done that with a 2002 gen 1 Prius and a 2017 Prius Prime. I've never noticed a decline in braking ability and can't remember the last time that I put one in B mode. In more than 200,000 miles of driving I have not needed any brake work.

The takeaway from my experience is that while there may be need of a B mode in some rare cases, it's hardly a daily experience for most of us. I've found that with both of my Prius, the cruise control will actually hold the speed when going downhill. My wife's Camry, on the other hand, goes into freewheel mode and has been known to accelerate when driving down a grade with cruise control active.

 

That indicates that your downhill slopes aren't very steep. I often go down long slopes where cruise control cannot hold speed, so the car gradually creeps up to excessive speed.

The Hawaiian member here with the overheated brake problem, had more than a 3000 descent at something steeper than 7%. I often do some 2000 foot descents at 7%, where my Prius can't hold speed at 60 mph in either CC or B, but can at under 50 mph. (CC and B do dissipate enough energy to prevent friction brake overheat.) I don't recall any speed control failures on mere 5% slopes.

Pikes Peak road is longer, steeper, and prevailing traffic too slow for CC or B to get enough regenerative bite.

Brake fade was a more serious problem on old era drum brakes than on modern disk brakes. But disks can still overheat. An F150 with Florida plates, not far behind us coming down Pikes Peak, stunk to high heaven and was ordered into the 30 minute cooling off area at the brake checkpoint.

 

Just a comment, whether B mode is needed or not, US regulations require it.

I-84 Cabbage Hill/Deadman Pass westbound is an example road that may be safest in B.

Deadman Pass in Oregon: a steep road (6%) to the summit

 

The Deadman pass has more hairpin curves, it's no worse than I-5 as it goes through the Siskiyou mountain range. . I-5 in southern Oregon also drops 2300 feet in only 6 miles.

What regulation requires a faux engine braking on cars? If you can tell me what the regulations call it I can look it up myself.

 

RE: steep roads: from The Steepest Highway Grades in the US Will Blow Your Mind (and Brakes)
Sonora Pass along CA-108. It’s just 90 minutes away from Sacramento, but you’ll know you’re not in the city – the twisting, hairpin turns and slog as you trudge up a mountain road at an incredible 26-percent grade will make it very clear you’re deep into the mountains

 

Neither do you make full use of your engine's cooling system on a daily basis, but some people buying cars do drive through Death Valley in the summer at noon while towing.

 

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2002-title49-vol5/pdf/CFR-2002-title49-vol5-sec571-102.pdf

3.1.2 I think.

 

Unfortunately, that writer conflates degrees and percent grades as being the same measure of slope, variously writing that Sonora Pass is both 26 degrees, and 26 percent. They are not equivalent, not even close. 26 percent is 14.6 degrees, 26 degrees is 48.8 percent.

The 26% portion of Sonora Pass appears quite short, not enough to be a brake heating concern in itself. The longer distance 8% is of greater concern. Looking at an elevation profile, the over-10% portions appear to be less than 200 vertical feet each, the worst being 12.5% for 190 vertical feet.

 

I have only ever walked down to Sonora Pass, never driven up it.

 

^ Did you continue walking up the other side of the PCT?

 

Yes, Mexican Border to Mt Adams, WA
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in no particular order

 

I am an avid hiker and am a little jealous of your experience, having never had the opportunity to explore that trail. Sounds like a once in a lifetime experience.

 

I find all the steep downhill discussion interesting.
Last time I drove through Colorado, I remember how much I enjoyed never needing the brakes coming down the mountain.
While a manual transmission may really turn some people’s crank, I get as much enjoyment from reclaiming energy via generative braking

 

I had walked 4000 miles in 14 years before the PCT, but for many I met on the PCT they had already done the AT.

In 1981, I was serving as my brother's beast of burden so he could stay in the backwoods while I went into town to get food and do laundry.
Now that he retired, he is doing tiny portions of Washington each year to complete the trail. (This year, Rainy Pass to Harts Pass)

 

Is he being impacted by the closure of the Harts Pass Road?

https://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/closures/washington/harts-pass-road-closed-mudslide/
https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/okawen/alerts-notices/?aid=75109