Our pals at American Powertrain are the true zen masters with five and six speed manual transmissions. If you have an application that you want a hard core stick box in, these are the guys to call. When RideTech wanted to swap a six speed into the 48 Hour Camaro, they tapped American Powertrain and luckily for us, spent a bunch of time shooting video and explaining the benefits and proper operation of a Tremec T-56 Magnum.

Manual transmissions have come a long way in just the last 10 years. While four speeds were once seen as the only transmission strong enough to really live behind high performance engines, technology has pretty well passed them by. The T-56 Magnum the guys bolt into the first-gen Camaro in this video is rated for more than 700 ft.lbs of torque, you can beat it like a rented mule and it will come back thanking you and asking for another.

The most informative part of this video is near the end when Gray and Brett talk about the proper way to shift the T56. It seems like something not even worth discussing on the fact of it, but the fact is, you can screw up and start blaming the transmission for driver problems. As you will see, the gates are very close together, so when you go to jam the 2-3 shift, it is more about pushing the lever nearly straight forward as opposed to the “over and up” motion of a regular old four speed. We’ve powershifted the wee out of T56 transmissions and this is good info to have.

Press play to learn lots about the T56 from American Powertrain’s Gray Fredrick and RideTech’s Brett Voelkel!