You're lucky you didn't have my dad; you would have had to learn how to drive in the Sable. His reasoning would be, "Once you know how to drive everywhere backwards, driving forwards will be easy."When I learned to drive, my parents owned a manual 1984 Toyota Camry, a manual 1989 Ford Topaz, a manual 1984 Ford Tempo, and an automatic 1987 Mercury Sable. The automatic was stuck in reverse, at the time, and Dad didn't feel like getting it fixed. As a result, I learned to drive on a manual. While my first time behind the wheel was in the Topaz, I really learned to drive on the Camry. This started the day I turned 15 (and got my learner's permit). How long did it take me? That's difficult to isolate, as I was also learning to drive. However, I didn't stall the Camry. Ever.
You're lucky you didn't have my dad; you would have had to learn how to drive in the Sable. His reasoning would be, "Once you know how to drive everywhere backwards, driving forwards will be easy."
Let me correct myself.
I first learned to drive a manual when I blasted out of my mother's womb in a '52 Studebaker Starlight coupe. Beat that!
Okay....
I was conceived in a 1964 Corvette with a 4 speed, so driving a stick was part of my genetic memory.
And what was a 1952 Studebaker Starlight coupe doing in your mother's womb?
I was 14 and I did it in the classic way of "borrowing" my father's car at dawn for weeks, until my brother decided I'm tall enough to reach the pedals of our Cressida wagon . However, at 16 yrs old the car was too easy that I didn't even need to balance the clutch with the throttle so they got me a '92 foxbody mustang known to have a very heavy clutch pedal and changing gears wasn't as crisp as other Japanese cars. In the end that Mustang is still in my top five best cheap drivers cars.
I stalled equiraptor's Miata trying to learn how to drive a stick on a track! :lol:I'm sure few other people can say they learned a manual at Laguna Seca at race speed.
You want a heavy clutch?
(Except ours was blue, and the body wasn't mounted completely straight, and the windshield was quite spiderwebbed.)
Most of high school had to drive that thing regularly. It was fun, in an odd way.
Well, I was a short skinny teenager. Anyways, did anyone from down under drove a R31 skyline? cuz I think the clutch pedal has a very long travel.