That part of the story reminded me of the 1978 MGB I had as a teenager. If you had just a little leftward pressure on the stick going from 1st to 2nd the gearb

That part of the story reminded me of the 1978 MGB I had as a teenager. If you had just a little leftward pressure on the stick going from 1st to 2nd the gearbox would happily announce "welcome to reverse!". The throw between gears was so small I ended up just using my middle finger to push down from 1st to 2nd and 3rd to 4th and then hooking my thumb around the knob to go from 2nd to 3rd. 5th gear was electric - a little switch that seemed to break every few months.