[DARISC]

I also disliked the 915 when I first drove my SC, "Something's wrong, this ain't right!". Well, fact is, an old Porsche ain't meant for dragging of speed shifting. The 915 is no Muncie rock crusher or Miata slick shifter.

The 915 vsrsus G50 debate goes on and on. Unfortunately, (the opinion of some) converting a 915 to a G50 is possible but not practical. Besides that, the G50, while stonger and more positive in feel (and significantly heavier and more expensive to repair than a 915) can't be shifted any quicker than a properly set up 915 driven by one who's learned to shift it properly.

A correctly functioning 915 trans is not really vague at all. The stick always causes the chosen gear to be engaged at the same position of the stick, each and every time.

True, there is not much tactile guidance offered by the transmission to the hand trying to guide the stick to the correct position where engagement occurs, but that correct position remains always the same, shift after shift. With experience and practice, the driver learns these positions, not by feel, which is admittedly lacking, as just said, but rather by muscle memory, not unlike an accomplished golfer who doesn't consciously think about his every swing but rather lets his muscle memory take over and repeat the same swing every time. When muscle memory takes over, percieved feelings of vagueness in the 915 disappear.

Similarly, for example, a guitarist's or violinist's fingers and hand motions are guided by muscle memory - no gates or guides.

I enjoy shifting my 915 and have come to feel that it has been maligned by those who have driven it briefly and declare it to be a bad piece of machinery but who wouldn't pick up a guitar for the first time and condemn the instrument because they couldn't play it.

Practice makes perfect.