It’s very easy
to go back to driving a stick, especially when you spent so many miles doing it.
Today, on a long day trip, I reached for the… coffee cup, to downshift, about forty times.
Rowing a clutch back and forth to work doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but I did it for a quarter million miles and the roads werent’ as good then as now. Maybe I’ll have to go back. They even made a Sploder with a 5 speed, though the clutch is stiff as an everclear milkshake. Now all I need to do is drive a Passat for a while, if I can do the Passat diesel and the clutch is as nice as the Jetta, I may have something worthwhile.
I drove VW sticks for awhile. They’re not your favorite BRG sports car or anything, but they’re alright.
M
If the clutch is anything like an Escort clutch, it’s easy-peasy.
I drove my 1991 and 1995 Escorts on I-294 for years, and this was before the middle part was 4 lanes each way, too. During the construction to make it 4 lanes each way.
When I bought this decrepit old Golf a few years ago, my ride home from the purchase turned into a four hour odyssey as I rediscovered the enjoyment of driving a manual trans car. Being married for half a lifetime to someone who simply could not drive a manual, I was denied that pleasure. It was not a fair trade.
Yeah. I used to have a ’79 Capri with a 4-speed manual and a ’81 Mitsubishi pickup with a 5-speed manual. I drove about 45 miles one-way to work at the time and split the miles pretty evenly between the two vehicles.
I was always looking for a 5th gear in the Capri without finding it and leaving the pickup in 4th gear when it should have been in 5th.
yeah, my intention is not to have a “Sports car” but an economical ride that will hold my tools and let me do 1500, 1800 miles on my own dime if I need to.
“Stiffer than a Sandusky’s………” Oh, nevermind.
My grandpa said that you drive a manual transmission, and you steer an automatic. Learning stick is on my bucket list, mostly because my dream car is a zippy little Mini with red paint and a checkerboard roof, and I know in my gut it just wouldn’t be as much fun without the constant lever-jiggling. Zoom.