Sorry to be late getting back to this party; been a long few days.
As others related a “tank slapper” is a had-shifted/foot-clutch motorcycle; think early Harley and Indians. Some people do call them jockey or hand-shifters but I learned from folks who grew up in the 30s and the phrase they always used was tank-slapper since when you are doing it at speed or on dirt/rough roads you tend to slap your hand to the tank and use that as a guide for finding the knob.
“Four on the floorboards” is an old Harley expression. I am told that foot shifters for motorcycles came more into vogue around the same time as floor shifters for cars. Since car people called their four speeds “four on the floor” we (having those huge flat pads for resting our feet) went with “four on the floorboards”. Today most motorcycles are a standard shift pattern of down for first gear and up for everything else but back into the 80s and earlier they varied more so when you were riding a bike for the first time your first question was “what’s the patters?” Mine was one down and 3 up, a friend had a lightweight Yamaha that was all six down, and I remember one of the Brit bikes being one up and the rest down. It made things interesting sometimes.
(Another flashback — remember those old Harley/Aramachi 2-strokes? You could turn the timing 180 and make them run backwards ---- 5 speeds in reverse. I actually became somewhat famous for my abilities to ride like that.)
Synchro and three-on-the-tree got covered well; “jimmy shifters” to me where the old manual trucks and some farm equipment. You have two levers which sometimes have to be operated at the same time. For a good view and explanation see
My family was split into two branches. One called them “jimmy shifters” which I assume was because that branch owned a fair amount of GMC products. However my one uncle, who fixed heavy beer trucks for a sideline, always called them “shimmy shifters” because you would shimmy a little on the road when using one. If either is right I cannot say -------- but I do know how to drive one and still do now and then.
I learned to drive a stick on a small wagon missing second gear in the hills of Cincinnati. So I had to learn to jump into third from first. Perhaps that is why I always bought an automatic when I picked out my own car.
I did it years ago. I had been driving nothing but stick, everyday for years, borrowed new GF’s car and someone pulled out in front of us. I went for clutch and brake and got 2 footfulls of brake.
All in all no big deal, I was gonna floor the brake anyway.
My mom forced us to learn on a stick because then we could drive any car.
I let my eldest use my stick Dodge Neon to learn. Like all of us after years of driving an automatic he hopped in a stick (Mustang) and after a few minutes it all came back to him.
My youngest refused to learn a stick which is just as well. Try to find one nowadays.
I’m an American and can drive a stick shift. My father was such a cheapskate and liked them so my family had nothing but manual cars, and one of them got passed down to me. I didn’t absolutely hate it except when I was driving in Duluth, but when it came time for me to pick out my own car I got an auto. I don’t see why I should do any more work when we have cars that can shift gears anymore than I should wash clothes in an an old fashioned bucket and wringer when I have a washing machine to do the work.
American, yes. Though I learned on an automatic and then bought a stick. I wish I had a stick now, but stick was only available in the smaller engine package and I knew the vehicle called for a bigger engine. Next car, I hope to get a stick again.
(I do struggle with an automatic, though. Worst car that I ever had was an automatic. It’s getting ever more difficult to even find a car in the States offering a manual transmission.)
You got it–one day, whenever the opportunity should present itself, I am all over that. And should I survive, I will tell everyone in IMHO all about in all detail.
10 of the twenty cars I have owned have been sticks. That includes one of the two I currently own (The SAAB 96. The Buick Park Avenue Ultra was only available as a 4-speed automatic). I have seen reverse above first, a three speed floor shift would have that pattern, simple H, reverse top left, 1st bottom left, 2nd top right and 3rd bottom right. I seem to remember the Morris Minor (NOT the mini) had reverse at far right bottom, almost touching the passenger seat (Or was that what I told her). I actually learned at Driver Ed in HS, we had two otherwise similar 66 dodge coronets, one was a slant six with automatic (the blue one) and the other was 273 V-8 with three on the tree (the tan one). I owned a couple of motorcycles before I had a car, both manuals (automatics were almost unheard of in the 1960’s motorcycles other than the semi-automatics on a few 50cc starter bikes)
Non-American, learned to drive with a stick shift car. All my cars were manual until the last one, which is an electric and thus automatic. But I like driving a stick shift when I can.
I guess that, with time, stick shift cars will become rarer and rarer … and stick shift driving will end up going the way of multiple other skills: forgotten, or kept alive only by a handful of obsessive hobbyists.
I didn’t use both feet but -------- a friend asked me to drive his classic car with an automatic for inspection while he followed in his mother’s car. We started out, the revs increased, I went for the pedal on the left ------ and he hit the rear; basically wrecked both cars (light damage) at the same time. :smack: When I have to drive an automatic now I pretty much fold my left leg under the seat.
Most of my vehicles have been sticks. Taught my wife with my S10. My oldest son with my Wrangler. My second son bought a Cougar with a stick for his first car. I drove it until the weather got nice enough to teach him to drive it. He used my truck at the time which was an automatic as my oldest had rolled the Wrangler which is about when he gave up a stick forever. My third son bought a Focus last fall after learning to drive my Ion with a stick back and forth to work last summer. My teenage daughter has driven the Ion a few times and will be back in it for further practice this coming spring. Too much snow/ice lately to trust her with it. My wife has used it quite a bit when daughter needs mom’s car. So we have 6 drivers, all can do stick at least somewhat, and three manuals in the yard.
When I was at the age where I could learn to drive, Automatics were rare in New Zealand. Most of my friends were eager to learn to drive, or had already done so on their farms, but I had no interest, and was a little bit intimidated. As time went on, and I started living in more urban environments, I didn’t see the need to learn, and thus it has been ever since.
Gears are not intuitive for me to understand, but I guess I’d figure them out soon enough if I had lessons. I now feel I’ve passed the age where it is worth the effort, though.
The majority of cars in Europe are manual, aka stick shift, but automatics are available and fairly popular. Not sure what age group uses them most.
Rental: in most cases you would be able to get an automatic for the model of your choice in most of Europe.
Do you need the skill? It would certainly be useful. If driving a commercial vehicle, essential.
My viewpoint? I personally don’t like automatics on the basis of driving them a few times, but not recently. More convenient in traffic, but I don’t like them things like parking, I feel it could get out of control quickly. In a manual I can just press the clutch and it won’t run away.
I have heard it said that manuals are better on snow. True or false?
My daily driver truck is standard, and I very much like it. Eventually it will die, and I’ll have to replace it with something a little newer. I would like to stay with a manual transmission, but if something with a newer auto is available in my budget I wouldn’t necessarily object to owning it. Most of the vehicles I’ve owned have been bought primarily based on cost, and the era they came from tended not to have great auto transmissions (the one on my Silverado that I ran as a business vehicle made me want to tear my hear out on the Interstate) so I’ve always leaned towards manual for reasons of both cost and driving enjoyment.
I also can drive 18-speed transmissions on ten-wheelers, albeit not with any great amount of skill.
Starting the car in second in slippery conditions does help prevent spinout. I do use second here in Chicago when conditions are slippery to help me get out of snow. That said, a lot of newer automatics have “tiptronic”-style (I don’t know what the general word is) manu-auto modes where you can move the gear shift to the right or left of D and select gears directly, and they let you start in second. Also, it seems some of the regular automatics that have RND21 gear settings will start in 2 when you select 2 (although in the automatic vehicles I have owned, 2 simply limits gears to 1 and 2, and it still starts in 1.)
American, No.
My dad tried to teach me when I was 16, in an old VW bug. I nearly crashed the car into a fence and he’s refused to try again.
Now, very much an adult, I asked him to teach me again. Unfortunately the only stick shift we have available is his beloved Shelby Mustang which he absolutely refuses to even let me near. So I don’t see myself learning any time soon.
