What age did you learn how to drive a stick?

14, valmet 361 (not really a car)
17, driving school. focus,celica and focus diesel..
 
When taking my drivers license at 17 years of age. In an Audi A4.
 
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. :)
 
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."
 
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."
:rofl:

This inspires two thoughts from me. First, "That sounds just like Bo." Bo is one of the guys at the track. He has a fondness for driving backward, handbrake turns, etc. The second is, "My mother would never allow that." My mother is actually the one who insisted I learn to drive on a stick, and would not have given me an option, even if the Sable had been fully functioning. :)
 
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.
 
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!
 
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?
 
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?

If you're going to enter this word, enter it in style.
 
I'm sure few other people can say they learned a manual at Laguna Seca at race speed.
 
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.

You want a heavy clutch?

Dodge-D600-Truck-4.jpg


(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.
 
I'm sure few other people can say they learned a manual at Laguna Seca at race speed.
I stalled equiraptor's Miata trying to learn how to drive a stick on a track! :lol:

Slowest lap of Harris Hill Road EVER.
 
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two weeks ago(i'm 17) i got started when i got my car. stalled a few times(and will many, many more times i'm sure), but i'm having a ton of fun.
 
First time I drove anything with a stick shift was a Ford 7610 tractor when I was 14. I was 15 the first time I drove a car with a stick shift, a 1992 Ford Scorpio 2,9 4x4. We still have it, although it hasn't got much time left; the rust might have won, and with 315000km on the clock, it's led a long life on salty roads and pot-hole-infested dirt roads.
 
I realise this isn't really a thread for Europeans, but I've never driven an automatic.

Honest. Never fancied it.
 
15 yrs old on a '93 F-150 that had a bad clutch (which my dad didn't feel like fixing)- he would make me start from a stop going up our driveway (uphill gravel)- once I mastered that I could drive any manual car. I still remember the first time I drove my moms car after all that ('02 TDi golf) and was AMAZED at how easy it was to drive in comparison, haha. In fact, every vehicle i've had has been stick- up to my new truck, which I got last summer- didn't really want a stick shift in something that big living in Pittsburgh.
Through most of high school though, I drove one of these (ours was a '76 with the pop-top that went straight up- I think it was called the california top): (also stick- obviously).

0.jpg
 
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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.
 
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.

Having only driven two manuals, it's hard for me to say, but I noticed the same about the Hyundai Tiburon (last gen before Genesis). Not knowing what I was doing I found it annoying, but is a long clutch advantageous in some way?
 
It was in an old honda civic I borrowed from a neighbor. That was only for like twenty minutes. I stalled alot and it was super hard. Then my dad bought 1953 willys overland with a chevy 283 small block v8. So much easier than the little honda. It was almost impossible to stall. I make that conclusion because I never stalled it, therefore it must be near impossible. I was 16
 
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