Rachet shifting?

[Asad]

How is it different than say, good old shifting?

Advantages? Disadvantages?

[hybrid2nr]

It's the old school mechanical way to sequentially shift an auto tranny. It's great on the dragstrip because you don't have to worry about overshooting a gear or worse, like hitting neutral, reverse, or park at WOT with the vehicle in motion! It's slap it one gear at a time. Sucks for autocross and road racing though.

Disadvantages? Driving one on the street, especially the first gen vertical gate manual tranny race-only shifters.

Many also had a separate control to engage reverse, the early ones almost requiring 2 hands to operate.