might be a stupid question but...

Ok I was looking at this video of this '80 Olds on you tube right around the 1 minute mark it shows three separate levers in the console. Whats up with that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d60c9E4pq78

There once was (not sure if there still is?) a shift "mechanism" sold by B&M ....who have since been "gobbled up" by another company, that involved 3 shift levers. I BELIEVE this contraption was called THE QUICKSILVER. I've never seen one up close, and I may be wrong about the name and pretty much EVERYTHING else, so far. But B&M did market something like this.

Hurst Lightning Rod Shifter out of a Hurst Olds

Wow. Give that man a cookie.

http://image.popularhotrodding.com/f/magazine-stuff/remember-hurst-lightning-rods/9825197+cr1+re0+ar1/hurst-lightning-rods-tons-of-fun.jpg

Tim Baxter wrote: Wow. Give that man a cookie.

I'd better not. I have what doctors call a little bit of a weight problem. I used to grab bear claws as a kid, two at a time, and I'd get them lodged right in this region here

I know you bunch of misfits would be the ones to ask.

So basically its a way to manually shift an auto trans in a more complicated way?

That ad is so full of 70s, it's amazing.

Who doesn't need a stick for every gear?

"Anything less is a few sticks short"

SNORT!

Wally wrote: Hurst Lightning Rod Shifter out of a Hurst Olds

I've actually driven one! I can has cookie 2?

I has axually owned two Hurst Olds, a 1979 with the Dual Gate shifter and an 86 with Lightning Rods can I haz milk wif my cookeez?

So...

Where those shifters just mullet bling, or are they actually user friendly?

Just curious, as someday I hope to own a Cutlass.

Clem

They weren't bad. They were for drag racing. Basically you started with them both forward for 1st, slammed the left stick back for 2nd, and the right stick back for 3rd. You wouldn't probably use them for much else.

Holy cow! Did you guys hear the idle on that thing? Sounds like it's got a cam with lobes the size of boiled eggs.

I can't view the video but it sounds like Lightning Rods. I see a later version on Pinks from time to time, similar to what Mr. Baxter put up, but imagine four flat blades 1/4" apart and each one cantered out about 15 degrees on top.

Clutch and yank one back, nothing much faster than that.

Dan

ClemSparks wrote: Just curious, as someday I hope to own a Cutlass.

I haz a Cutlass so I wuz curious.

But sorry guyz I dun ate all da cookeez but still haz beer.

Ouch it hurt typing like that. Anyway I had thought I had seen similar multi stick setups for drag cars but never a stock application for street car.

Seen one on the street, illegal street racer.

Still available....

http://www.eautoworks.com/product-Hurst-310004.htm

Some additional pics:

http://wausau.craigslist.org/pts/1184752657.html

http://spokane.craigslist.org/pts/1164739976.html

Lightning Rods were patterned after the looks of the Lenco Transmission with its individual shifters per gears. You could build anywhere from a 2 speed through 6 speed Lenco iirc.

rebelgtp wrote: I know you bunch of misfits would be the ones to ask. So basically its a way to manually shift an auto trans in a more complicated way?

yup. When you have a high stall converter and a modded valve body, manually shifting a planetary gearset results in extremely fast shifts without having to lift the throttle, and done exactly when you want them. A normal shifter on an automatic might let you shift from 1st to 3rd, letting the engine drop out of it's powerband.

The aforementioned Quicksilver and Star Shifter had detents at each gear that allowed you to slam the stick forward with a forced stop at the next gear so as not to do that, but the Lightning Rods did so with the look of the Lenco trans. Great for Pro Street cars.

now you need to throw a hand brake into the mix and figure out how to make things even more complicated...maybe individual brake pedals for each side?

ooo cutting brakes!

Then throw in controls for brake bias into the mix...

They were OEM on the car correct? I remember them being sold in my younger days, and a few highschool seniors prowling around in them.

Yeah, OEM in the mid-'70s Hurst Olds (C-body? I forget - don't shoot me for forgetting the chassis code).