Leonardo da Vinci may be best-known for his Renaissance artwork, but the man was also fascinated by engineering.

High-end supercars such as the Lamborghini Aventador may use paddle shifters near the steering wheel instead of a clutch, but most cars with manual transmissions involve the use of a pedal to shift gears.

Manual cars are slowly becoming rarer, but there are still many drivers out there who prefer this type of vehicle over today's automatics.

The transmission can be one of the more confusing parts of a vehicle, but also one of the most important.

All-wheel drive (AWD) and four-wheel drive (4WD) essentially mean the same thing, and the only difference is that four-wheel drive tends to refer to an optional drive system whereas all-wheel drive is a full-time system that cannot be turned off.