I learned how to drive stick today!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well, as of a few minutes ago, yesterday. My dad took me out in his Mustang and let me putz around my old high school parking lot.

Gist (sp?) of the adventure:

Me: Manual! Wooh! Like all those speed channel shows!

Dad: why am I letting her do this to my baby?

Dad: Now, lets take it slow here. Try revving to 1800rpm.

revves to 3000, then a perfect 1800

Dad: Nice. How about putting it in gear? Remember, keep the pedals even.

Promptly revvs way too high (I think 4000) and kills the car.

grins, starts up the car, and tries again. Gets startled when the car actually starts moving

rinse and repeat, eventually making it up to third gear. Glad the car brakes fast, since the parking lot isnt that long

I then moved from the parking lot to the actual streets. Quickly becoming a menace, I go about ten over the speed limit (oh the horror!), stall out the car at stop signs, and wait for big breaks in traffic before I pull out into semi major neighborhood streets. I then attempt to pull onto the freeway access road, but my dad freaks out and tells me that while I can drive the thing, pulling out into traffic might not be the wisest decision at this moment in time.

On a side note:
Anyone here drive a 2003 Mustang GT? Third gear hates drivers. If you shove it into gear like you do with all four other gears, you’l miss and put it in fifth. You have to push into neutral, wait for it to shift over on its own, then shove it in. Annoying little design flaw. Also, the clutch is freaking hard to push! I felt like my mother, looming over the wheel so that I was pushed forward far enough to even reach the clutch. Stupid short legs.

Why am I, a college girl, learning how to drive a manual car? Because once I can drive a manual, I can get my own car! (Subbie Impreza wrx) If I am getting a relatively spry car, why put a sludgebox in it? No street racing for me, but some weekend rallying looks like fun.

Now, I wonder if I can wrangle some more drive time later this weekend…

2

Better check with your insurer that this is covered.

3

Pretty cool. I’ve driven a manual for more than 20 years now. Last time I tried to drive an automatic I kept hitting the break when I would go for the clutch. I keep saying my next car is gonna be “an old man’s car” because I am tired of sitting so low and want the extra space. But I dunno if I would want to give up driving a stick.

4

Lucky you! I learned to drive a stick in my dad’s VW Rabbit. Can you say “all four gears before getting to 50”?

5

I learned how to drive a stick a few times, actually. I first learned to drive with a stick shift, but then had an automatic in driver’s ed. Afterwards, when I tried to drive a stick shift again, I couldn’t do it at all. I don’t know how I so completely lost it in such a short period of time, but I did. I finally relearnt it a few years later, and can still do it, but the one thing that I still cannot manage is starting on a hill. Maybe someday. . .

6

If you own/drive a manual I’m betting you reduce the chance for the vehicle to be stolen.

:smiley:

7

I learned that, too, even though I was in the New Orleans area at the time. It’s just like starting on a level ground except you need to work the emergency brake at the same time as the clutch & gas.

8

I got my license when I was 16 years old.

I spent 20 years driving all sorts of standard transmissions. For a long time, it was a requirement in any vehicle that I purchased.

I spent a couple of years driving tractor trailers with 10 to 18 gears.

This year, as I was starting to look for a new vehicle, I had an epiphany.

I don’t want a standard.

I got myself a new 1/2 ton with an automatic.

Very happy with the decision.

I don’t want to drive a sports car any more.

I don’t want to race or rally drive any more.

I don’t want to spill coffee because I had to shift any more.

Yes - I’m well on my way to geezerdom. And I’ll get there without a clutch.

9

Fun, fun, fun! One of my few sources of genuine pride is that I have driven several std. shift cars, all of which were of exceedingly advanced years, and never had to replace a clutch on any of them.

I do recall a few harrowing moments when I was just learning, though–there’s a railroad crossing near my house which creates a large bump in the road, and every time I had to stop at the that intersection, I would stall the car and go rolling backward toward the poor slob behind me. I used to scare the bejeezus out of myself that way.

Otherwise – great times! Automatics suck.

10

I think I have probably told this story here before, but not for a long while.

My dad was the’ throw in in the deep end and they’ll learn" school of thought. My dad one day just stopped our old truck in the middle of going up a long steep dirt hill. He got out and told me to get in the seat. He went through the procedure and I tried a couple times, but stalled out of course. Not paying attention to the rear-view, suddenly there was a honking behind me. I threw on the blinkers and waved him around. He refused to go around, even though he had at least a quarter mile of clear visible road, and just layed on the horn.

I and tried to go again but paniced. I revved to about 6000 and just dropped the clutch while flooring the gas. The guy got half-buried in the shower of rocks and gravel as I spun out hard. I was scared to death, but My dad was laughing his ass off and said he knew the guy, and he was an asshole who deserved it.

11

Unless that model features a very different transmission from every other automatic I’ve driven, it’s really not that different from the others. You just have to get used to easing into every other gear as well.

That aside, there is a nice feeling of accomplishment that comes along with this milestone, dont you think? Keep it up, and you’ll be able to drive anything out there.

Unless it’s a fairly steep hill, you should be able to move quickly enough to get going without rolling back (at least on a car in good shape). And even if it is, I don’t generally bother with the brake unless there’s someone stopped right behind me.

12

Yeah, if you’re a wuss. :stuck_out_tongue:

13

Remember, this was in the New Orleans 'burbs. Virtually no hills to speak of so I learned by going back and forth over a steep hill next to the river. :wink:

14

I learned to drive stick a long time ago, when I found that I was dreaming about it all the time. I guess my sub-conscious was trying to tell me something, because I love driving a manual transmission. In the little fuel-efficient, gutless cars that my husband and I drive, driving a stick makes all the difference in the world in get-up-and-go.

Use the emergency brake on a hill? Not me. I can’t see needing to do that once I get a good feel for the clutch on the car I’m driving. I get a little perturbed by the idjits who get within a couple of feet of the rear of my car on a hill, but they shouldn’t be there in the first place, should they?

Anyway, good for you, Tamryne. Stick is fun. Makes you feel more like a driver and less like a passenger.

15

<<sigh>>

I miss driving stick. But given the long commute I have over back roads thru hilly country I’m just as glad to have an automatic now.

The only vehicle I drive anymore that has a manual clutch is my diesel tractor. It’s just not the same.

16

Ah, memories. Teaching my then girlfirend to drive a stick in my '62 Beetle. Then replacing the clutch plate and throwout bearing. :stuck_out_tongue: