Stick shift stories

[bgd73]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I've read about failed carjackings because the city-boy thieves, once in, couldn't figure out the m/t. Sofa King We Todd Did.

that is funny.

My dad was kinda gung ho at my life when I was 12, I was very much a runt, (outgrew that , thanks god) he sent me driving around parking lots randomly with his piece of crap 1981 cabover international with a big cam 350 cummins.

I understood popping the clutch and still moving, the splitter at fifth.
two feet on one clutch pedal, I had no choice but to ride the idle to get moving.

That turned out to be a bad start (pun) the next truck I tried to learn was 3 on the tree straight six, around 15 then, 18 inches taller than 3 years prior (seriously I bumped into everything and anything for no reason)....in that big bad rig, one has to ride the clutch a half hour, as if a ballerina, to get the slob moving...

Then yet another hard time to the phony cable linkage of a FWD rabbit. Horrifying...

I did manage to get through it all, and have a great time today giggling at my ten speed subaru.
a cross between.

[Clev]

Originally Posted by bgd73

I did manage to get through it all, and have a great time today giggling at my ten speed subaru.
a cross between.

LOL. My friend had a Mitsubishi Cordia with an 8-speed (a four-speed shifter and a two-speed shifter.)

[Laurentiu]

this thread is starting to look very nice... you "SentraSE-R"

I just remembered something from my childhood days in the mid 80's growing up in Romania, only very few people had personal cars in those days and it was just bus/train anywhere and it was very-very crowded most of the time. We used to visit my grandparents every other weekend and that was about 1 hour away by bus. Those buses were horrendous back then, slow, always having a strong smell of Diesel inside that used to make people feel nauseous.

Anyway, the stick shift part of the story is that these buses were all stick shift, as pretty much any vehicles (automatics were a rare site) and being very old those things were something of a battle for the driver to change the speed. It was also located quite far from his chair, sometimes they would have to lift up from the seat..Also those things had a huge travel, going like entire feet each way and being that the bus was always packed to the brim and people were always standing on the corridor, sometimes the drivers had to tell people to move so he can change gears. It was fun for me as a small child but my parents and other adults were always frustrated about the transportation. If I found some pics of the cabins of those old buses I will post it.

[tasdrouille]

When I learnt to drive, in a 91 Jetta TD with a stick, we lived by a lake at the end of a dirt road and there was a pretty steep grade before getting to the lake. We left the house with my father driving, and then right in the middle of the grade he stopped and told me to take the wheel. That's how I leanrt to drive stick, in a high torque car, on a dirt road grade...And it was propably the only proper way to learn.

That car could take off from a standstill in 4th gear without giving it any pedal. The clutch didn't like it for sure, but it coud be done.

When I get friends or relatives in my car to demonstrate hypermiling I sometime will shut the engine off to glide for the longest distance when coasting to a stop. They see me shut is down with the key, and then I always laugh when I see the look on their face as I leave the stop while they ask "how'd you start it?"

Everytime I get in an AT car, you can be sure I will clutch in on the brake pedal at the first stop, curse, and then remember myself to pretend I'm in a golf cart.

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by wdb

When the car started they found had 1 forward speed, and 4 speeds in reverse.

After my Mom's Mazda 626's engine got a crack and had to be replaced, the engine check light kept turning on. She spent lots of $$ at the Mazda service station on diagnostics until she got fed up and went to a small "Bob's garage" place. Within 20 minutes the mechanic found that a sensor was hooked up with reversed polarity. Ever since we've been joking that if the Mazda guys had replaced the trans instead of the engine, she'd have 1 forward and 5 reverse gears.

Here is my m/t story. Some European cars (Opel, Renault) have "front reverse" transmission,



instead of the standard "rear reverse".



After driving around Poland in my Grandma's Opel Corsa I came to the US for a few months. Mom asks if I want to drive. "Sure". The car is parked facing a ditch, so I had to back out. Being used to the "forward reverse" stick, I threw in what I thought was "R", but was in fact "1". Lucky for us, I'm not the kind of person who floors it. Plus the motion sensor in my ear was in good communication with my reflexes. What makes this ironic is that it all happened in the parking lot of the local DMV, where I had just renewed my license.

[luvit]

i just had to throw this in here. if i remember right, i had to pull the stick straight up and stick the mg midget into reverse. i was wondering when i;d pull the stick out of the socket..

[MadisonMPG]

I drove a dog leg transmission once, fun times.