learning to drive a stick...what car did you learn on.

-
340john

340john

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2005
Messages
1,667
Reaction score
70
Location
Edison, NJ
My Buddy's daughter wants to learn how to drive a stick. The only car he has with a manual trans is a 69 GTO judge so that is what she is learning on. I learned on my dad's 69 Hemi Charger about 30 years ago. So...what did you learn on?
 
Ac cobra with a 427 in it. Uncle said your either go deaf or learn to drive the car right. I still have my hearing.
 
A '72 Ford F-100. But really I picked it up when I was little just watching my Dad, and then driving a forklift and front-end loader at Grandpa's lumberyard.
 
When I was 10 I started driving my grandma's Internationl Harvester Farm-All Super C. Didn't really need to shift while moving but got the clutch thing down even on hills. Then when I was 11 they got a very used dump truck for the farm which is when I learned how to shift. After all that I don't recall what car I actually had to shift.

I think back about how dangerous that old farm equipment was and how young I was - it makes all of the other stuff I did seem safe.
 
79 VW dasher diesel.

If you have anybody with a 1999-2005 VW Jetta with a manual, they are the easiest to learn on. Smooth hydraulic clutch and great shifter.
 
my adoptive dad's 69 A56 cuda 340/4speed with 3.23 gears


we still have the car ...but its been in the barn for 5 years.

i learned to drive in it and took my drivers test in it ...it was our family car till 2006 when it was replaced as the family car with a new car ....my dad bought it as a used car in 1972...it needs resto now ......the age finally caught up to it
 
'78 F250, three on the tree.

Climb in it and never looked back. Since then I prefer my sticks.
 
1980 Honda civic. Big sisters car. Also first car I wrecked. I never liked my big sister.
 
1924 Farmall "Regular"

The old girl the day I sold it, around 2002 or so. We DROVE it onto the trailer

14aykxz.jpg


Went to high school driving school, we had a 56 Chev 2 dr post, 6 cyl, "3 on the tree", a Stude and a 58 Chev, both U.S. AF surplus. They were autos

First car I drove was Dad's 55 Chev 6 cyl stick, then got my own 57 Chev. It was downhill from there, LOL
 
1993 Dodge Stealth ES in a college parking lot Sunday afternoons...
 
'66 Chevy Fleetside pickup......3 speed w/rebar stick...... in 6th grade. An uncle had given the truck to my older brother for a summers worth of work, he never got it insured and tagged so it just sat out back. My younger brother and I would come home from school and drive that thing all thru the orange groves. My mother found out and pulled the coil wire, we snagged one off the neighbors junk car and was back in business.
 
Oh and John, some advice for your friend. I figured out a long time ago how to teach anybody to drive a stick in about 15 minutes.

Tell him to FIRST teach her how to ride the clutch. Find a small incline and teach her how to keep the car still using the clutch. Then when she's mastered that, tell her how it's not good for the clutch and to do it as little as possible.

Shifting is always the easy part. It's the starting off that kills everybody at first and if he teaches her to ride the clutch right off the bat, she's got that part licked.
 
I have taught a lot of people that way and as of yet found no one that I could not teach. There's always a first. lol
 
15 years old, a 1959 or 60 Ford Anglia. I helped a neighbor [had a yard full] who made them into mini stocks and raced them at the local track, eventually was part of their crew.
 
When I was in driver's ed we were required to stop on a hill, use the parking brake (amazing that they actually work) and take off on the hill by slipping the clutch WITH NO THROTTLE and releasing the parking brake.

Of course, big 'ol 6 whangers had a lot more off idle torque than modern hi- RPM ricers.

On a side note, the only girl in our class (of 3, had to get us and the destructor all into the car) she actually managed to get the 56 from first to reverse while moving, and trying to shift to second.

(This is why you put your fingers on TOP of the knob, not the bottom, or underhand)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top