History Do you know what a "Straight Shift" is ?

Just curious I use that term to refer to a manual transmission. Like a lot of antiquated terms we use down here it tends to be very old and very regional.
Is it a common term for you?

 

No it is not.

 

Yep, and my first straight shift was three-on-the-tree!

 

I've always referred to a manual shift as a straight shift, but then I spent my youngest years in the South. Never thought of it as a regional thing.

 

As the Valet Grnds the gears on Tom Power's '30 Lasalle Power's (Cagney) yells.....
" Hey Stoop that car's got gears! It ain't no Ford?"

I wonder if the manual shift over taking the planetary pedal floor shift of the Model T is where the term " straight shift " originates?

 

I've never heard of that once in my life

 

.......I find that puzzling. I guess it really is a regional thing.

 

Heard it a few times, also ''straight stick''.
Kirk & Spock got the hang of it.

 

Straight shift in this (Muncie M-21)..........

 

I called it that plenty of times. But I was originally born in southern Ontario, so maybe it is a southern "thang" .

 

"Standard shift" was more commonly used

 

..................Especially by the used car salesmen.

 

I've always heard straight stick never once straight shift.
Standard shift yes.

 

My dad called it "straight shift" for as long as I can remember.

 

Straight shift or standard shift is not the same as four on the floor.

 

"Straight Stick" was almost universal in the twin cities area in the '50's. Usually referred to a three speed column shift. If you had anything better (a floor shift or GASP! a four speed), you called it what it was to differentiate from the hoi polloi.

 

I think so is....
Mash for depress or press
Crank for start
Knocking ass for a high rate of speed (whipping a horse?)
Plumb for extremely....the battery is not just dead....It's plumb dead.
Laid the ears back or Ears Laid Back for a high rate of speed.....throttle and gas lever on a Model T?
Let the Blade Down, term for a high rate of speed....A Rail Road semifore signal ....blade down means track is "Wide Open"....

 

Treeonnatree

 

OK.....
So the straight shift was a 3 in the floor. A standard shift...3 on the column?

 

I had an auto shop instructor back in the day who called it straight shift. I think he’s the only person I ever heard call it that. Where I grew up (AZ) I guess most everybody said either standard or manual. Kinda funny, cuz I see that HRP called it a straight drive in his recent thread. I’ve not heard that term either.

 

I thought it was that first to second gear bang....

 

"Is it auto or straight shift? "

"She is a straight shift. "

"Stick shift or three on the tree? "

Self explanatory when I was growing up. Never thought about it until just now to be honest.....

 

Stick shift or 3 on the tree is what I always heard.

 

"Hog's Leg"

 

I grew up with "straight drive" here in NC.

 

Well, sheese! You are all wrong. It is a standard trans [mission ] . We ALL knew THAT!

Ben

 

I'd say it was always "straight stick" around here. But to me that just means it has a clutch. It needs to be further defined. 3 on the tree, 3 on the floor, 4 on the floor, etc.

 

F-ONE have you ever heard someone call the gas pedal the foot-feed?

 

back in early half of 1960s, my cousin and I saw a 55 chevy 2 dr sedan up high on a lawn for sale. It had white shoe polish written on the windshield saying "For Sale .... Stick "
We were pretty excited to go look for a cool Hurst shifter, but it was 3 on the column. We were mad...(and only 10 or 12 years old).

 

Heard it up here in Minneapolis as a kid. Stick shift, straight shift, and floor shift, before consoles and auto trans shifters on the floor.