I’ve driven manual for years and STILL don’t understand why you need to change gears.

Question

I get that low gears > more power but low speed. I get that high gears >low power but high speed.

But can someone give me the brain dead intuition of why you need to change gear “sizes”? A single sentence if possible.

I’ve tried Googling it but they always use a bike example. I’ve never ridden a bike. Or they start talking about ratios and it just goes over my head.

In: 0

Answer 1

Your engine only works efficiently in a narrow range os speed, or rotations per minute. As a car speeds up and the wheels turn faster, you need to change how many times the wheels rotate per engine rotation, so that the engine can stay in it’s efficient range. This is what gears do.

Low gear->many engine rotations per wheel rotation.
Higher gear – >fewer engine rotations per wheel rotation