how did you learn to drive stick and when

[look 171]

The Stick Shift thread about the car thief got me thinking. I turned 16 in 1983 naturally I wanted a car real bad and it had to be a stick or nothing. My original plan was a Socorro. So I ask the use car salesman to show it to me. it was a $1200 car. I told him that I was a little rusty with the clutch. He was very nice and said lets go and drive it. I understood the concept, but got it going in my second try. A few weeks later, I bought a 80 Celica GT with a $1500 gift from my father. which I later paid back but he wouldn't take my money. My second try at driving stick was with my beloved Celica. By the end of the day, I was a master. It did take me a couple of days to not rollback on our hill. How about you?

[slodave]

I had a few early, aborted teen attempts. I was a master with reverse, 1st, not so much. The make it or break it moment, was when my dad and I went on a Summer father/son weekend trip to Mammoth Mountain in my mid teens. He rented a Chevy S-10 manual 4x4. He drove it towards the end of town and let me have a go through a quite residential street. Then we headed up a mountain with switchbacks. That was the real learning experience! There were turns that needed good clutch work and at certain crucial points in the switchback turns, if you did not get it right and get it rolling in 1st, you'd roll backwards off the road and tumble down the mountain.

[Rick V]

At huge party over in the valley one evening and we were running out of beer fast, The only vehicle we could manage to get out of the jammed up driveway/yard was an old 60something Chebby that had a converted three on the tree to a floor shifter. Somehow I was elected to drive this POS to make a beer run. We were in a little area named Verona, which happens to be in the mountains. I was just drunk enough to pull it off.

[Boomtown Rat]

When I was a kid, we had a 100 acre farm with a befriended family in "Downstate NY". Besides the tractor, an old Ford, we also had a 1942 Willys Jeep as our farm vehicle. I was 12 and digging ditches as a summer job, when Rolf, the farm's co-owner dropped me my lunch packet one afternoon (he had a restaurant and was between the lunch and dinner seatings) and to check up on me (this was 1981 - no cell phones, etc.) because it was a typical 95/95 day. Because it was so hot and I'd made good progress digging, he suggested I take a dip in the brook at the other end of the farm. He tossed me the key, said "have a great afternoon" and took off. I spent the rest of that afternoon learning the intricacies of the Jeep's 3 speed manual. Needless to say, progress on the ditch slowed somewhat in the coming weeks of that summer, but I got a lot better at driving... If I ever get the space (and the necessary small change), I will get myself one of these Army surplus Jeeps. Very fond memories...

[sc_rufctr]

I was 14 and in Europe on holiday with my family. Such a great time in my life.
My uncle, the farmer owned a tactor an he taught me how to drive it. Pretty easy from memory.

He was a very old school European Gentleman. God rest his soul. He didn't suffer fools.

Ironically while I was learning to drive his tractor my 78 911 was being built in the Stuttgart factory not far from my uncles farm.

[Jferr006]

2002 the reason I remember is because it was the year I started college and I bought a new car. A few failed attempts while in highschool and a few people less than enthusiastic about letting their car be the trial and error car. So I just bought a stick and figured it out. About a year later I got pissed off about the problems I was having(car not starting and such not the clutch ) with it even though it was a new Honda, and I bought a Tiburon. which is actually my favorite stick to this day.

[sc_rufctr]

What about your 944 Janet?

From memory a 944 Shifts sweetly. Or at least the one I drove did.

[Jim Richards]

When I was 15, a 16yo friend of mine had a '39 Buick with a three-on-the-tree. He let me drive it when were in a rural area, so I had plenty of room to get used to it without worrying about other cars. It wasn't pretty at first, but we and the car survived.

[Hard-Deck]

Age 12, 1980, drove a 1950 5-ton dump truck all summer on our farm; 5-speed split. Then drove it to school a lot starting at age 13.

[gprsh924]

I was 14 and my dad and I had just finished washing all the cars, including the 924S. He tossed me the keys and asked if I wanted to learn how to drive. I did ok.

I mastered it when I turned 16 and it became my daily driver.

[gamin]

Learned to drive on my mom's automatic. Found a 53 Ford I wanted. Took owner to bank and gave him almost all my savings from working. Got in the car and it had an "extra" pedal. Asked what it was and was told that I would figure it out. And so I did, lurching, bucking, and stalling down the road. This was in 1958. Still in high school and working. Learned a lot with that car.

[Oh Haha]

Around 1988 ,my best friend gave me a VW Rabbit Diesel when he got a new car. He taught me the basics of a manual gearbox. It died and was sold less than a year later.

In 97 I bought his 94 Z28 with a 6 speed which was pretty easy to drive. After that car was sold I went without a manual until I bought the 911.

Talk about going backwards in technology!

[KFC911]

Wow...I can't recall. Like many, I had been driving plenty of vehicles since about 12 (not on public roads). I purchased a new Jeep CJ5 (with money I'd earned working during those years) when I was 17 and I was a veteran with a "stick" by then. I reckon I killed those brain cells somewhere along the way

[Jferr006]

What about your 944 Janet?



From memory a 944 Shifts sweetly. Or at least the one I drove did.

I haven't driven it yet and probably won't get to for another few months. I imagine she'll move to the top of the list after that.

[on2wheels52]

I was a farm kid, so was probably about five with a B John Deere (dad was alongside). They had a hand clutch (and of course, "all ate up with torque") so was easy to start out. Probably by seven I was driving them alone.
I think I was 14 before we got our first car with an automatic, had been driving three on the trees for years by then.
Jim

[BReif61]

When I was 16 I just HAD TO have a 5-speed Integra. I found one, went to the dealer with my dad who test drove it, bought it, and he drove it home. Once we were home I made a disastrous attempt to take the family to WalMart in it, but by the third day it was gravy.

[herr_oberst]

Ahh, yes, it was the summer of '73.

City sponsored drivers ed. (Boise)

Yellow VW bug.

Good times.

[redstrosekNic]

My dad taught me in our backyard when I was 9. He joked about me being a "3 pillow driver". Hey, at least I learned in a Porsche...

[yetibone]

In '86, a Farmall Cub with a 6 foot mower, and 7 acres taught me how to operate a clutch. Also, a wood stove, a Super A, a tobacco wagon, and a woodpile were part of my studies.

[NY65912]

It was 1972 and I was 17 and working at a local gas station filling cars and changing oil. A customer had a 1971 Z28 with a stick. My boss asked me to take the car out of the stall and park it.

Yes, that's how I learned. It took me a ˝ hour or better to find a parking spot'

Did not burn the clutch just taught myself to drive a stick. I had the basics from asking and watching others.