Alan Macey crafted the automotive future in advanced design studios at BMW, VW, Dodge, SRT, JEEP and Ford before founding The Manual Gearbox Preservation Society. Here’s his insight on his latest work.

Adam: What is INFINITE SHIFT? How did this idea come about?

Alan: INFINITE SHIFT is a new line for TMGPS, and the Infinite Shifter Sticker Pack is the first product in the line.

Honestly, I was in the shower, and I was thinking about how hilarious the whole Toretto Special decal was.

Adam: Our fans really responded to that celebration of movie magic.

Alan: I was thinking, okay, what if it was possible? What if you could just keep shifting upwards and upwards forever? What would that look like?

An infinity symbol would be the gate, and it would let you shift in an infinite loop. And you’d just keep shifting and shifting like in the movies.

Adam: How did this idea transition from shower thought to the newest TMGPS slap?

Alan: I struggle a lot with overthinking things. I spend forever perfecting, then when it’s 99% there, I get distracted with another project. So, I told myself, you just gotta start doing things.

When this image first popped into my head, I thought, I’m going to draw it, cut it out on a vinyl, slap it on my speaker and put it out there as a giveaway with purchase to measure the response. I had the idea at 3:30, and an hour later, orders started rolling in.

It was really inspiring. I put it out there and people loved it. I appreciate that feedback, so I re-proportioned and remastered the art and cleaned it up a lot. I reached out to our sticker company and decided to just use a bunch of different options. We’re including three distinct designs in our launch edition sticker pack.

Adam: The yellow graphic represents the technical side.

Alan: It’s actually a shift pattern. It’s a diagram that shows you how to do an infinite shift. The arrows tell you: down and to the right — up and to the right — down and to the right. Ad infinitum.

Adam: The launch pack comes with three stickers, including a holographic.

Alan: Holograms are so awesome. You think about aurora borealis — about a wormhole. You think of 2001: A Space Odyssey, when they take that travel at the speed of light through the rainbow tunnel. So the holographic sticker is perfect. It’s the essence of the whole project. We have to take the safe road with the color options on our products so it feels nice to do something so colorful too.

Adam: Do you see this as a retrofuturist image? From what era?

I see it as the early ’90s looking at the 2020s. Everyone was obsessed with 2020 in the ’90s.  I think about McFly’s hat.

Adam: Holograms were the future then. Is the Infinite Shifter our future now?

Alan: I see it as a hilarious joke — but it’s also sort of mystical. There’s almost a mythological transcendence that I think fits with the way many of us feel about driving. We just wanna do it forever.

@highmileage is a world-traveling automotive historian. follow adam barrera on instagram.