THE 2024 CENTERFORCE ADVENTURE RUN

Like buffalo, manual transmissions once roamed in great numbers across this beautiful land.

- KAHN MEDIA

Preferred for their simplicity and ruggedness, they were found in everything from one-ton work trucks to Jeeps to sports cars. With less heat generation and complexity to deal with, manual transmissions were often the choice of off-road adventurers exploring the wilds of Moab, the Colorado high passes, and the Sierras in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. As a bonus, their lower first gears made them better for technical trails, and they were usually cheaper, too.

Three-pedalers are sadly now a dying breed. Currently, only 36 vehicles are available in the United States with a manual transmission. Of those 36, the vast majority are sports cars, and only four really matter: the Ford Bronco, Toyota Tacoma, Jeep Gladiator and Wrangler. Every year, that list gets shorter as more people forget the joy of manually rowing through gears and the feel of a clutch pedal under their left foot. Still, a select group of individualists buck that trend and prefer manual transmissions over automatic slush boxes.