T handle shifter

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I am a bit curious to see if anyone else shares my feelings on this.

I have always felt that any vehicle with a manual transmission that someone has slapped a T-handle shifter into is a vehicle to stay away from.In my personal experience every vehicle that I can remember from my youth that was equipped with a T-handle was owned by a wannabe racer on or off road.A person who usually abused the carp out of the vehicle .I have passed on some vehicles for sale that had a T-handle shifter.

Is this just my personal bias?Has any one else made this correlation?

Just curious.
 
I always used a Hurst "T" handle to power shift. Always touched the clutch when shifting, never a problem. If anything, using it helped get it into the next gear, instead of missing a shift or not getting it fully into gear.
 
Owned many muscle cars back in the day. I always liked the round type shifter handle. Had one that looked like a cue ball on my 65 El Camino.
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
I like "T" handles. They're more ergonomic for shifting.


Drove afew vehicles with T handle from the factory, and they do hit your hand just right. But if it is a modification and the vehicle also has mods, I agree with OP.
 
They are lame IMO. Not ergonomic at all for proper shifting. I was taught when shifting through the gates to turn my hand backwards to let my muscle memory naturally guide the shifter into the proper gear.

I find them a throwback to things that were not good in older cars like the annoying ribbed seat design that Ford seems to put in Mustangs.
 
Yeah, but back to the OP's point, a car with a T-handle is more likely to have been flogged than one without. Not sure what you're shopping for, I haven't seen a T-handle in more years than I care to remember. Could have a point though.
 
I've never had one, nor seen one on a MT. I don't understand how you can assume the car was driven a certain way based on the shifter someone decided to screw onto the handle. If it were part of a culmination of things I could maybe understand, but just screwing on a handle? No.
 
I don't think I've seen one in a while, and they're probably not on the vehicles I'd be shopping anyhow.

But I think I agree with the sentiment. If I come across a car with decals and seat covers and f@rt can muffler and alloys with low profile tires, I'm staying away. The owner may well have taken good car, and the vehicle likely can take the occasional flogging; but better examples can be had. Examples which wouldn't need to have all that stuff stripped off.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
They are lame IMO. Not ergonomic at all for proper shifting. I was taught when shifting through the gates to turn my hand backwards to let my muscle memory naturally guide the shifter into the proper gear.


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I have a tendency to buy older vehicles(usually trucks) from the 70's and 80's.I bounce around on craigslist a lot,and a good bit of the time I see the t handles on vehicles.I was in my teens back in the late 70's and early 80's.Back then the t handle shifter was sold as a"racing shifter" so every wannabe street racer would slap them on a vehicle. esp if there was a column to floor shift conversion done.So I have a jaundiced view of the aftermarket devices.If the vehicle had a factory t shifter thats one thing but Bubba and Leroy slapping in a Hurst shifter thinking it will magically turn them into street racers nah.The modern equivalent is as one earlier poster noted a car with a [censored] can ,decals and low profiles etc is probably a car to pass on buying.It has probably been rode hard.Most likely the same for a t-handle vehicle.IMO.
 
The Hurst T handle is great. I have lost count of how many I've had over the years, from my first car, to two I have now. A Camaro with a 4 speed Hurst super shifter/T handle, and a C5 Vette 6 speed, with a stock shifter. Once you learn the pressure points on the handle, and have the angle set right, it will pretty much go right where you want it. 1-2 shift, 2 fingers to the right side. 2-4 shift palm it forward/right. 3-4 shift, 2 fingers to the left side of the handle, so on, and so forth.
 
My trans am came with a Hurst t. I've been meaning to get the classic white ball with the pattern engraved.

The pewter tarnishes with sweat and looks nasty dull all the time.
 
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