I was 17 years old back in the day 1996 and my aunt had a then new Mitsubishi Eclipse in Boca Raton, FL . She made me go 60 in a 30 . She now has a 08 328i vert. And yes, I drove that car about 3 months ago
My first standard shift was a tractor, in the early 70's. In 1978 I started with cars and trucks and learned to drive a stick on a column! A 1961 chevy truck with "three on the tree". Next, a 72 VW bug with a stick that my parents bought during the other big gas crisis. Now I have an '08 328ic with a six speed stick on the floor. Giddy Up !
I think it was a Plymouth Satellite. Maybe 1969? Probably 4 on the column. But my real learning how to drive a stick was a 5 speed stepvan in NYC.
Other than dirt bikes, my first manual car was an old late 70's Honda Civic. The "flying egg" as we called it. That thing was bulletproof!!
That must have required skill to shift on the column. I have seen it done before in real life (haha) but haven't tried it. Stick in NYC= Pics of the flying egg?
Shifting on the column was certainly a different feel. But like anything, once you get the hang of it... Still, there were not many speedy shifts, and it was a long way from 1st to 2nd. Hell, I was like 15, I would have been happy driving anything. Imagine beiing a kid with a dad with a BMW, and he let you drive it?? That bug used to powerslide nice in the snow...
I learned to drive stick on a tractor when I was 11 or 12. When I was 15 I started driving my dad's diesel Jetta stick with a boat trailer attached to it in the drive way. It was great practice for understanding how everything works. Passed my drivers license on the first try in that car. My dad said I would impress the police officer giving me the test if I was in a manual shift. Probably true. The down low torque in the diesel was fantastic. It was difficult to stall. On a flat road it was possible to get up to 5th gear without touching the throttle. You had to really feather the clutch between shifts. You would be rolling along at about 20mph while the motor was idling in 5th gear!!! Pretty cool trick. I have driven a Nissan Pick-up truck in Africa with 5 on the tree! Now that is pretty good. My dad's Kubota tractor has four on the tree. My grandfather drove stick most of his life. Many of his cars had the shift on the column. When he was getting older in the late 60s he went to an automatic. One day when he was driving down the road in the automatic he went to "shift" and pulled it into reverse!! Hell of a lot of smoke, noise, and other not so good things. Fortunately he didn't wreck and I think the trans lived to see another day. GR
My eta could do that! Diesel power in a petrol package. Sweeeeeeet. I did that once in my mother's car. I put 'er into reverse because I thought I was shifting for some reason (slushbox crap, mind you) and the engine just stopped. I stopped the car, put it back into Park, started, and everything was fine! I guess that goes to show you the advances in technology in automatic transmissions, even though they are still essentially the same life-sucking boredom-inducing pieces of crap they always were... I actually learned to drive manual in THREE cars. I never got a full-on lesson in driving manual; it was always a piece here and a piece there. My longest session was about 15 minutes. The first time out was in.... wait for it............. my brother's E39 540i 6-speed!!! My God I loved that car. The second was a '94 Nissan 240SX. Not so memorable and could care less. The third car was the one that completely perfected my skill, and it was in a 74hp Russian car, a Lada 110. In the first few minutes, I was screeching the tires in first gear at every stoplight. And then it all smoothened out and the Lada was the finishing touch to my partial experiences with the E39 and the Nissan. But how many people get to learn in an E39???
Could it have been a 3? It was a long time ago. I think it was a 4 speed. Who knows? The 70s took a toll on me.
1975 Yamaha Trail 60 dirtbike, then 1978 Ford Pinto station wagon with a 4 speed, what a pair of machines!
I REALLY learned when I worked in an open pit copper mine. I drove dump truck as a summer job while attending university. The truck had a 5 speed transmission and 4 speed rear-end; 20 gear ratios in total. No synchromesh. I completely stopped using the clutch after a while, except to get going. The coolest things were the air brakes and the bouncy air-suspension driver's seat. Obviously, Bilstein didn't make air-seat dampers.
I learned on my father's 78 Jeep - CJ5 I believe - but I got my first car at 21 when I graduated from college and it was a 83 VW GTI. It ruined me for life!
If it was indeed a Plymouth of any kind and it had a column shift, it was a 3-speed. The only 4-speed column shift cars I know of were European. ISTR some French cars had them. Maybe a couple of German ones, as well. My own stick shift background started in a Frogmobile: a '67 Simca 1000 with a 4-speed on the floor. I remember floating it in water after the remnants of a hurricane (Beulah?) hit Ohio on the Fourth of July in 1969. Took my first steady gf out in it, too. Just recently found, and bought, a 1/43 replica of that very car, right down to the exterior (baby blue) and interior (light tan) colors.
I'm not into major conversions like that, especially when there are plenty of cars out there with factory installed manuals. We have the modified 540 auto so we can both drive it, and there was no M5 that Bev could drive at the time.
I learned to drive stick in the most lovely car in the world...... 1967 BMW 2000 CS, BUT I learned in the Dominican Republic, it was VERY hot that day, no a/c, no power windows, no power steering AND the gas pedal pad was missing, just that metal flange there, HAHAHAH
'71 or '72 Plymouth Road Runner with a 440 magnum (circa about 1976 or so) that belonged to a high school friend. Had a pistol-grip Hurst 4 speed. Hell of a car.....
