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Paying it forward sharing the passion

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DGHall915

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Tonight, on a beautiful clear evening with the sun setting in the west, I took my BJ8 out for a cruise with my 17 year old daughter. After, pulling into our church parking , my daughter got her first lesson driving a stick. She really surprised me with the ease at which she caught on to the clutch and accelerator. She very quickly demonstrated tHat she could handle the clutch, so out on the road we went! With a little coaching, she worked through all the gears, 1st to 2nd, and then to 3rd and 4th. Of course overdrive was a snap. I sat back and admired the look on her face- a look I'll never ever forget, smile from ear to ear, and a giddy laugh all the while singing a little song.

What better memory could I have shared with my daughter? I told her she will never forget the day she learned to drive a stick - in an Austin Healey! We as keepers and caretakers of these machines we had better pass on our love of these LBC's to the next generation. I know we get a lot of time and money in these cars, and in doing so we get so protective of them, and might never ever consider letting a kid drive them, but that look on her face was worth way more than the car. In these days of social media, it didn't take long for her to be texting and Facebooking her friends - especially her male friends - that she could now drive a stick, and not just any stick but an Austin Healey!
 
What a wonderful experience....Your post bought tears to me. My daughter is 17 and learning to drive in our automatic BMW X-5. She's ready to move to on to a stick and I've been wondering whether my modern Mini Cooper or BJ8 would be the right vehicle for her initiation to the real driving experience. I think you just helped me decide.

When she was just 2, I installed belts in the rear jump seats were I could secure her car seat so that she and her brother, then 7, could ride safely for hours with mom and me. Many miles and many memories were logged that way. It's only fitting that she learn in the car that used to rock her to sleep so many years earlier.....
 
One day I hope my son (10) and daughter (8) will share the same beautiful experience with me as you discribed. As Dougie writes, tears where on the way, reading your story ...

Great task being a keeper and caretaker

Hans
 
I enjoy reading stories like that and will share mine as well.

After getting my drivers license, I would drive mom's 67 Mercury Colony Park station wagon. As lucky as I was to have a car my parents would let me take, driving a station wagon, wood grained, was low on the hipster scale. But I was glad just to have a car to drive.

I had been saving my allowance and money from all those small around the neighbor jobs I got, so that I could buy a car. When the time came that my parents said I could look for a car, I said I wanted a 65 mustang. It was at that time dad said, well we better teach you how to drive a stick shift.

I remember that day like it was yesterday, ok like it was 10 minutes ago.
Dad pulled his 64 Healey out of the drive way, and parked it in the street. We lived on a side street, so there was only traffic from the neighbors. I got in the passenger side, dads in the drivers seat as he explained how to use the clutch and shifting. He went thru the actions as he explained it to me. Then he started the car, and explained everything as he did it. He made one pass, turned around, did another short drive back to the front of our house, and said, ok, it's your turn.

I was the same size as my dad, so the seat was in the right place. We sat there, engine off, as I pushed in the clutch and shifted through the gears. Then I started the car, put it in first and immediately jerked the car about 10 feet and the car shut off. Little easier on the gas and slower letting the clutch out son. I remember the concentration as I tried each and every time. I remember how patient my dad was with me and how he praised me, even when the car would chug along and our heads were bobb back and forth. I remember the musty smell, how large and thin the steering wheel was. The sound of the exhaust and the feel of the wooden shifter knob and trying to push and pull it into gear. Most of all I remember how patient, helpful and supportive my dad was in teaching me. From reading the prior posts, maybe my dad was as happy with the experience as his son was. I'm fortunate to be reliving those days, every time I take my 64 out.

Cheers,
Roger
 

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Today's weather made for the perfect opportunity for my daughter to take her first "turns" behind the wheel of the big Healey. She did wonderful and treated the car with great care. I didn't think she ever wanted to stop and go home. I may never see my '65 again.....
 
Great stories, all; you <span style="font-style: italic">almost</span> make me wish I had someone to pass my car along too (the alcoholic nephew on my side is out of the question, and none of my wife's neice or nephews have any interest).

As a sidenote, Dougie about the X5; there must be a whole subset of Healey owners that I know (of) with a Healey or two, plus either a BMW X5 or a Z3/Z4 sharing the garage!

BTW, we haven't heard much from GregW since he bought an ///M Coupe; anybody know what he's been up to lately?

Great picture Dougie, the hair, headband and glasses could fool one into thinking it was a period promotional picture (not that she looks old fashioned, of course :wink: ).
 
dougie said:
What a wonderful experience....Your post bought tears to me. My daughter is 17 and learning to drive in our automatic BMW X-5. She's ready to move to on to a stick and I've been wondering whether my modern Mini Cooper or BJ8 would be the right vehicle for her initiation to the real driving experience. I think you just helped me decide.
Click to expand...

Here's my story but it was from my Dad to me. The first stick shift car I ever drove was his 100-4 which I now own.

This is a 100% true story and YES, I still hear about it some 25+ years later (although very rarely at this point):

Back in 1984 when I was turning 16 the driver's ed classes at the high school filled quickly and were given out by birth date. Therefore I had to get my learner's permit and take driver's ed in the evening from a private driver's school (A-Adams School of Driving, LOL!).

The class was in the evening and about a half hour away so your parents or a friend with a license had to drop you off, then pick you up a couple hours later. When the classes were over in the evening, all the students would hang out by the curb waiting for their rides. It became customary for everyone to chant "LET HIM (or her) DRIVE, LET HIM DRIVE..." every time a parent would pick a kid up. I think you can see where this is going.

Not knowing about this, one beautiful summer evening my Dad decides to drive the Healey over to pick me up. He pulls up, the chanting starts...and it seems to be SIGNIFICANTLY more enthusiastic than when the previous parent was there in a Dodge K-car station wagon. SO HE GETS OUT OF THE CAR AND STARTS HEADING FOR THE PASSENGER SIDE! I'm dumbfounded, here I am, probably less than 10 hours experience driving ANY car and NEVER driven a stick shift before!

This kids are going nuts as I get in the driver's seat. I start to sweat...don't screw up now! okay check mirrors, press brake pedal, clutch in, key on, listen for fuel pump to stop running. I touch the starter button and the car comes to life, all the kids were watching as they go eerily quiet. Okay, stay focused, clutch in, 1st gear...give it some gas as you ease the clutch out. Nothing, nothing, nothing, the pedal gets (what seemed to be) almost all the way out then all of a sudden the car lurches forward. Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Now I knew I had two choices, one, let the car die and have everyone laugh or two......YES, I punched it and lit the rear tire up leaving a 4.5 inch wide strip of rubber God knows how long. I shifted into 2nd gear and proceed to drive the rest of the way home at or below the speed limit REFUSING to look over at my Dad. We got home 20 or 30 minutes later, I looked over and made a comment like "sorry, I'm not used to this clutch, it's kind of grabby". He went inside and promptly told my Mother about it.

He never blew up, but then again he never came to get me from driver's school again either. Later he joked about it so...

The memories stored in these cars can not be purchased for any amount of money.

Later,
Walt
 
Upon receiving my BJ8P1 on a beautiful day in April, I was anxious to present it to my girlfriend. Excited but keeping cool and collected, I ushered her to the passenger seat and took my place behind the wheel. Coolly, I went through the gears and arrived at 4th. Exuding an air of confident familiarity, I casually flicked my little finger, without looking, to activate the OD. Suddenly, my cool was bashed by my girlfriend’s laughter as the wipers began to sweep.

Cool Ray (64BJ8P1)
 
RAC68 said:
Upon receiving my BJ8P1 on a beautiful day in April, I was anxious to present it to my girlfriend. Excited but keeping cool and collected, I ushered her to the passenger seat and took my place behind the wheel. Coolly, I went through the gears and arrived at 4th. Exuding an air of confident familiarity, I casually flicked my little finger, without looking, to activate the OD. Suddenly, my cool was bashed by my girlfriend’s laughter as the wipers began to sweep.

Cool Ray (64BJ8P1)
Click to expand...

Been there, done that too.
Now that's funny.
 
In 1967, when I was 17 I bought my first car from my cousin ... a well-used '59 Bugeye. Although I had carefully read all about speed shifting Hurst-equipped top-loaders, Wilson pre-selector boxes and Colotti 5 spds, I had never driven a stick until I bought the car. My cousin took me out on the dirt roads between the cranberry bogs and within a 1/2 hour I was driving fairly respectably. The Bugeye is a really easy car to learn on and I taught my older son to drive on my present one as well. Second son is learning on the Bugeye this year.

And if you ever doubt the need to learn to drive a MT, here's a story of some local bank robbers who met an untimely end when they tried to carjack a getaway car and got caught when they couldn't drive a stick: https://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/03/28/malden-carjacking-victim-says-stick-shift-saved-her-baby/
 
One day a few years ago, I was working on my Healey in the garage when my then 8 year old grandson came by. He said; "That's a really nice car Grandad". And I said; "Well my boy one day it'll be yours." He gave it some deep thought and responded; "Can I have a Mini instead?" Ah what do 8 year olds know about Healeys anyway. At the time, he thought Minis were WAY cooler.
Cheers
 
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