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

An internal combustion engine works best within a relatively narrow band of RPM. However a car needs to be able to go anywhere between 0-100MPH. The RPM of your wheels is obviously directly proportional to speed so the different gears adjust that to allow the engine to operate within its narrow RPM range.