Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

My first trip to a dragstrip was in 1962, so I was fortunate enough to see all of the great Super Stock and A/FX drivers which led to the creation of Pro Stock in 1970. My vote goes to Ronnie Sox with "Dyno" Don Nicholson second. Ronnie Sox was so good that when the Lenco transmission was introduced to Pro Stock in the 70s, his car slowed down. Most cars went quicker; his was he only one that slowed; that's a true story and that's how good Ronnie was with a 4 speed.

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

Jenkins himself called Strickler the best.
Ronnie Sox had quite the reputation.

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

Don't ever forget Lee Sheppards Maverick with the Chevy

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

Brad Zaskowski

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

X2 on the Jerico and G-Force transmissions.

My brother had a 71 Chevelle back in the mid 70's with a small block. Low 12 sec street car. Pretty fast in it's day. I spent most Saturday mornings taking those Muncie transmissions out of the car because they were broke. If we were lucky, it would make it through Saturday night. Big brother was hard on parts.There wasn't a part in a trans he didn't break. Broke the shifter off the tailhousing several times. Then he would shift gears by pushing and pulling the rods by hand to get home.

He finally lost his license (surprise) and I became chauffeur. I was good enough or lucky enough to never have broken a trans in that car, but I do remember how hard I had to pull that shifter to get it into gear and how important it was to get it completely in gear while still holding the gas petal to the floor. H-pattern shifter at that. 3200# pressure plate.

If you miss a shift with a G-Force, you have something broke or out of adjustment.

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Andy Stone 1102 A/S 1112 SS/C

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

I believe you would have to divide the selection up between drivers of modified stock trannys and drivers of race manual trannys. Completely different animal . Ronnie Sox was an artist at shifting a manual trans.

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

If we're talking 3 speeds, Terry Hardy was one of the best.

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

I would have to agree that modern racing transmissions have kinda made comparisons hard, but in my opinion Kevin Helms and 3 world championships is probably the most impressive stick shift accomplishment.


Jeff

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

I believe this says it all!

There are no absolutes in life, but the claim that Ronnie Sox was the greatest four-speed driver that ever lived comes pretty close. The longtime racing partner of Buddy Martin was the winningest Pro Stock driver (with nine victories in 23 events) during the short-lived four-speed era (1970-72), and he also claimed six additional Super Stock victories from 1967 to 1969. His skills as a four-speed driver in match races, ranging from his lumbering full-sized Chevys in the early 1960s to his injected, nitro-burning Barracuda Funny Car in 1966, are also part of drag racing lore.

But perhaps the best measuring stick for Sox's shifting talents came in 1973, the year that everybody switched to the clutchless Lenco transmissions. Many teams cited the reduced breakage as the primary reason for the move, but just about every driver went quicker with a Lenco, some picking up as much as a tenth of a second. Sox, by contrast, was the only driver whose car slowed down with a Lenco, losing a very measurable .04-second.

The science of power shifting, which is the act of changing gears with a manual transmission with the engine at wide-open throttle, is a lost art in today's world of air-shifted two-speed Powerglides. Power shifting requires the hand-foot coordination of a tap-dancing juggler because the timing of the hard yank of the shift lever must be carefully synchronized with the minimal application of the clutch pedal to prevent the over-revving of the engine. During the 1960s and early 1970s, there were a number of excellent four-speed drivers on the scene, including Don Nicholson, Butch Leal, Herb McClandless, Arlen Vanke, Bill Jenkins, and many others, but none could boast that they were better than Sox

Re: Best 4-Speed SS Of All Time?
 

I grew up watching many of those mentioned in this thread, and to be sure they were in a class by themselves, but I'm a little biased and before the Doug Nash 4+1's and the G-Forces, there was nothing like listening to the sound of a 351C in front of a top loader being shifted at 8,000(+) rpm and never missing a beat, only changing pitch with the ratios. You would swear that thing was an automatic!