We just crossed the street after talking with my English neighbor and sharing a couple of beers outside. Tough situation as his wife is losing her battle with pulmonary fibrosis and has maybe a half a year left. Anyway I told him about our conversation. He said another reason for the race cars (formula 1) using paddle shifting was that the shifting was far more faster than the old manual shifting.

I noted your comment about the Jag. We have had two. The best was an older 4 door Jag that my wife drove. Some time in the early 80s. It was battered all over and looked like s--t. We never took it in for body work because she like the way it looked like crap. Seriously. . But it was the best of the best and we never had any trouble with it. It was the very last of the Jags made by British Leyland before Ford took over. Later she bought a beautiful white Jag because of her love of the racing green monster but this one was the opposite of the prior one. Lots of trouble and hard to drive in the rain. As she said: " I had an affair with the racing green one but the white beauty taught me a lesson. No more Fords.