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Shifting for myself!

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Creatrixx

Creatrixx

Jedi Hopeful
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I had been convinced that I would never be able to drive standard. When I was 16, my dad tried to teach me and it was such a fiasco that I decided that I was physically incapable of shifting for myself. I didn't even consider getting a old british car until I learned that I could get an automatic mini.

But, this weekend, my boyfriend taught me how... it's really not as horrible and terrifying as I thought. It just really turns out that my dad has no future as a driving instructor.

Does this make me less of *that sort* of car girl?

~Melissa
 
Creatrixx said:
Does this make me less of *that sort* of car girl?

~Melissa
Click to expand...

Maybe to some, but not here!

Congratulations! Good feeling, isn't it?

Mickey
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]It just really turns out that my dad has no future as a driving instructor.
[/QUOTE]
No father does when its his daughter! I couldn't teach my daughter without lots of yelling by both of us...her mother did it easily.
 
indeed. I felt sorta lame that everyone else seems to be capable of shifting and I couldn't... yet I can do a head swap. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
my mom didn't even try... she just told me about how horrible her experiences were with learning how to drive, told me about all the times she broke down crying. I wasn't encouraged...
 
Way to go!!
 
Well done! You always were "one of the gang" from the first time that you decided to buy a Little British Car. The only difference now is that you became just that little bit more so! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
creatrixx, thats wonderful! ive been driving stick shift since 1963 and im still trying to figure it out. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/savewave.gif
 
If my wife can drive a stick, any human on this planet can also. Good job.
 
Same way you get to Carnegie Hall.... Practice, practice, practice!

Glad to hear you conquer'd that hill. Now on to heel 'n toe, double-clutch downshiftin' !!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif
 
Yup - well done, keep it up! My girlfriend wants to learn too, hopefully this fall I'll get her started on the clutch too.
 
My 45 year old wife, who drives a lot in her business, cannot drive a manual gearshift.

Example: I've had a MINI (6 speed manual) since Oct. '05 and she's NEVER driven it! Won't even try.

Men are from Mars, women are from ???? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/nopity.gif
 
Creatrixx said:
I had been convinced that I would never be able to drive standard. When I was 16, my dad tried to teach me and it was such a fiasco that I decided that I was physically incapable of shifting for myself. I didn't even consider getting a old british car until I learned that I could get an automatic mini.

But, this weekend, my boyfriend taught me how... it's really not as horrible and terrifying as I thought. It just really turns out that my dad has no future as a driving instructor.

Does this make me less of *that sort* of car girl?

~Melissa
Click to expand...

For me the most difficult part of learning to drive "a stick", was getting the car to start moving. Once the car was moving, everything else was a cinch.

At first, switching from one 'stick' to another 'stick' resulted in me having to relearn to some extent, because every car's clutch pedal travels different distances, and every car's clutch has a different point in the clutch travel where the "friction point" starts. Oh yeah, let's not forget about the different throttle responses in different cars... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

With more time in a 'stick', it'll switch from being a knowing the car and how much of each (clutch vs. throttle) to give to get the car moving and having to relearn each car, to "drive by feel". /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Once you've reached "drive by feel" you'll have entered the realm of motoring nirvana. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

Congrats on learning to drive a schtick! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/driving.gif
 
oh... and what's "*that sort*" of girl? Is it one that likes a "pretty car" but doesn't know how to drive or work on it?
 
My mom tells the story of how my mild mannered Minister Grandfather taught her to drive a stick in back in the day.

Went to the Rose Bowl parking lot (in Pasadena, CA) – for the first lesson. All & all according to my mom he kept his cool (don’t think I ever saw my grandpa animated) and at the end of the lesson my mom asked how she did?

Grandpa sighed & said on the way home. “Well Lucy, truthfully – I answer to a calling that tries to preach the Devil out of folks – but your scarring it out of them.”

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
"Taught" my two nieces when they must have been about 11 and 12, in an old quarry with a beat up Mazda. We all were laughing so much with me outside hanging on the door that I guess they thought it was fun and picked it all up quickly. They had no problems at all when they got their licenses a few years later.
 
That's the sort!

But, I think if I've changed out my cooling system and head, it's not quite so bad... but yeah, being able to drive stick makes me happy. ;-)
 
bah... being able to do anything to your car besides taking it to someone else to do it for you puts you leagues above and beyond that sort /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
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