Save the manuals
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
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From: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, SoCal, back to Boston MA
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 34,988
Likes: 515
From: Riverside County Southern California
Co-winner 2020 C4 of the Year - Modified
2018 Corvette of Year Finalist
2017 C4 of Year
2016 C7 of Year Finalist
St. Jude Donor '09 thru '20
You can tell someone pushed that cat in.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 3,204
Likes: 4
From: Midland Georgia
St. Jude Donor '06
Amen brothers and sisters!!!!!! SAVE THE MANUALS!!! ZF FOREVER!!!!!!
10 best automatic vehicles
1. School buses
2. The bus from the retirement home
3. Taxis
4. Delivery trucks
5. Soccer Mom SUV's
6. Posers SUV's
7. Gangstas' SUV
8. V6 Mustangs
9. Paris Hilton's cars
10. Auntie Emily's Skylark
11. The fat couple with the new C6 Corvette who join the local Corvette Club so they have someone to go and eat with... (Yeah, it is more than ten on the list now... but these people just had to be added to pick fun at the C-5 C-6 "Drive and Dine" set.) The local club in town is about 65-70% "Drive and Dine." The husbands all wear those white orthopaedic walking shoes with the velcro laces!
I am going to go shifting... see ya!
!
Last edited by jakers; Jul 22, 2010 at 11:24 AM.
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 34,988
Likes: 515
From: Riverside County Southern California
Co-winner 2020 C4 of the Year - Modified
2018 Corvette of Year Finalist
2017 C4 of Year
2016 C7 of Year Finalist
St. Jude Donor '09 thru '20
Race Director
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 17,551
Likes: 26
From: El Paso Texas
Hollywood douchebags
When I was a kid growing up in New Mexico, you could get your license at 15 with drivers ed. The very morning I turned 15 I was at the DMV.....I counted the days until that magic birthday. I can't believe the kids today are such apathetic slugs that they don't want their licenses the second it's possible. Of course, they're just gonna buy Hawwwndas and put fart cans on them, so no big loss I suppose.
Manuals are great fun.....Until you're stuck for an hour in 5 mph bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway after some moron that was texting stuffed it into the guardrail and took out 5 other cars in the process. Automatics become a real blessing at that point. I'll keep my auto, thanks.
It is sad to see the manuals dying off though.....I learned to drive on a 1970 Ford Maverick with a three on the tree.
When I was a kid growing up in New Mexico, you could get your license at 15 with drivers ed. The very morning I turned 15 I was at the DMV.....I counted the days until that magic birthday. I can't believe the kids today are such apathetic slugs that they don't want their licenses the second it's possible. Of course, they're just gonna buy Hawwwndas and put fart cans on them, so no big loss I suppose.
Manuals are great fun.....Until you're stuck for an hour in 5 mph bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway after some moron that was texting stuffed it into the guardrail and took out 5 other cars in the process. Automatics become a real blessing at that point. I'll keep my auto, thanks.
It is sad to see the manuals dying off though.....I learned to drive on a 1970 Ford Maverick with a three on the tree.
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Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 7,030
Likes: 10
From: Edmonton, Alberta
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 3,204
Likes: 4
From: Midland Georgia
St. Jude Donor '06
Hollywood douchebags
When I was a kid growing up in New Mexico, you could get your license at 15 with drivers ed. The very morning I turned 15 I was at the DMV.....I counted the days until that magic birthday. I can't believe the kids today are such apathetic slugs that they don't want their licenses the second it's possible. Of course, they're just gonna buy Hawwwndas and put fart cans on them, so no big loss I suppose.
Manuals are great fun.....Until you're stuck for an hour in 5 mph bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway after some moron that was texting stuffed it into the guardrail and took out 5 other cars in the process. Automatics become a real blessing at that point. I'll keep my auto, thanks.
It is sad to see the manuals dying off though.....I learned to drive on a 1970 Ford Maverick with a three on the tree.
When I was a kid growing up in New Mexico, you could get your license at 15 with drivers ed. The very morning I turned 15 I was at the DMV.....I counted the days until that magic birthday. I can't believe the kids today are such apathetic slugs that they don't want their licenses the second it's possible. Of course, they're just gonna buy Hawwwndas and put fart cans on them, so no big loss I suppose.
Manuals are great fun.....Until you're stuck for an hour in 5 mph bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway after some moron that was texting stuffed it into the guardrail and took out 5 other cars in the process. Automatics become a real blessing at that point. I'll keep my auto, thanks.
It is sad to see the manuals dying off though.....I learned to drive on a 1970 Ford Maverick with a three on the tree.
You do have a point about Rush Hour traffic. When I drive through ATL, I pray for smooth sailing! Otherwise it is like torture if the traffic slows. Like doing 1500-2000 one legged leg presses at the gym! In this part of Georgia teens are still excited about getting a DL. It has to be over 95%. MSA is about 200,000 people with limited access to public transportation and a fair amount of semi-urban sprawl so if you are a teen you gotta have a car!
Last edited by jakers; Jul 22, 2010 at 11:32 AM.
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 4,971
Likes: 9
From: The reason time exists is so everything doesn't happen at once
I learned to drive on my father's 59 Rambler with a three on the tree, and even though there was a period of about ten years when I only drove automatices I never forgot how to drive a manual trans car. At one time in order to get a driver's license in the UK you had to take the test on a manual car. I'll admit that driving a manual in bumper to bumper traffic can be a pain, but at least the hydraulic clutch in my 93 makes it somewhat more bearable than the one legged thigh master in my 69.
Slingshot
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,817
Likes: 24
From: Charlotte NC
Roadster Madness. 😠
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 6,292
Likes: 2,362
From: Ventura Co Ca
SoCal Regional Events Coordinator
St. Jude Donor '13, '20-'21
When I got my license, I had part-time use (nights and weekends) of a '63 T-Bird. It had a 390 that was begging to be worked on, a four barrel carb, and everything else needed attention but the interior and the paint. It was a classic design and a car you could figure out how to fix and there was plenty of room to do it. Computer, we don't need no stink'in computer. 
Pro
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 504
Likes: 2
From: Rockville MD
Amen brothers and sisters!!!!!! SAVE THE MANUALS!!! ZF FOREVER!!!!!!10 best automatic vehicles
1. School buses
2. The bus from the retirement home
3. Taxis
4. Delivery trucks
5. Soccer Mom SUV's
6. Posers SUV's
7. Gangstas' SUV
8. V6 Mustangs
9. Paris Hilton's cars
10. Auntie Emily's Skylark
11. The fat couple with the new C6 Corvette who join the local Corvette Club so they have someone to go and eat with... (Yeah, it is more than ten on the list now... but these people just had to be added to pick fun at the C-5 C-6 "Drive and Dine" set.) The local club in town is about 65-70% "Drive and Dine." The husbands all wear those white orthopaedic walking shoes with the velcro laces!
I am going to go shifting... see ya!
!
Pro
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 730
Likes: 0
From: LaGrange Highlands IL
I couldn't wait to get my license either, I went on my 16th birthday and unfortunately failed the test. I was probably too anxious. I always bought manuals when I was younger so my 5 sisters and 1 brother couldn't ask to borrow my car, none of them knew how to drive a stick. To me a sportscar isn't a sportscar without a manual transmission. I'm not trying to offend anyone that's just how I feel, and my Corvette isn't my DD.
Joe
Joe
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 33,046
Likes: 6,551
From: Rochester NY
St. Jude Donor '09 thru '26
I learned to drive on my folk's auto, then learned a stick on my "three on the floor" C-1! For just plain fun, I love a stick but the Vette is an auto so "she" can enjoy it too. A small price to pay for her support in my having it, and gotta say there are times I don't mind an auto after all.
As for kids, our granddaughter lives in Tennessee and has her permit at 15. When she and her brother came here for a visit recently she was bummed to learn none of the states between there and NY, nor NY itself, allowed her to drive on a permit. I gave her the obligatory safety speech a few times while in my pickup or the wife's Jeep, but I DID treat her to a Vette ride complete with an on-ramp! Her eyes got REAL big on that part of the ride!
For just plain fun, I love a stick but the Vette is an auto so "she" can enjoy it too. A small price to pay for her support in my having it, and gotta say there are times I don't mind an auto after all.As for kids, our granddaughter lives in Tennessee and has her permit at 15. When she and her brother came here for a visit recently she was bummed to learn none of the states between there and NY, nor NY itself, allowed her to drive on a permit. I gave her the obligatory safety speech a few times while in my pickup or the wife's Jeep, but I DID treat her to a Vette ride complete with an on-ramp! Her eyes got REAL big on that part of the ride!
Race Director
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 17,551
Likes: 26
From: El Paso Texas
My sis ran the crap outta that car with minimal maintenance for about 7 years....other than the shifter issue, it never missed a beat.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 776
Likes: 3
From: Ottawa IL
I really liked/like the shift on the wheel , could still have some fun and the girlfriends could still sit right up to me with their arm over my shoulder since most cars had big bench seats back then, BIGGER seats in the back..... ahhhhhhhmmmmmmmoooooo
(I digress Too bad it still isn't an option on cars and pickups. In snow country like where I am at, the manual would get you out of a bad situation in most cases better than an automatic.
Besides, you could really give dad's tires a work out - and the service stations always made good money on clutch work (don't ask how I know
) Takes me back 40+ years - it was fun being young and dumb
Last edited by ottawabarber; Jul 22, 2010 at 08:14 PM. Reason: spellin'