Stepdaughter learning how to drive a 4 speed

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'68cuda416

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She has aspirations of one day owning both the Demon and my 69 Mach 1 but I think only 1 of those will probably come true, LOL, but irregardless they are both 4 speeds and she is in her second session of manual transmission Drivers Ed class and is doing great for never ever driving a stick car before of any kind. I love this girl and as long as she shows interest and wants to learn I will give her 110% of my attention.
 
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I somehow screwed up the access to my pictures and videos on the One Drive on my desktop as I did have videos and a picture.......SUCKS
 
I think I actually enjoy seeing her smiles and her showing interest as much as I get out of it when I mess with the stuff myself
 
I learned to drive work trucks that were manual eveything and 3 on tree.
One was a truck that had no 1st gear unless you were 100% stopped. They could not understand not synchronized.
So others at work who were older guys killed it.
Sounds like the 2 of you are having a good time with her learning
 
Let's see if I can remember some common taunts from my youth for new or inept manual trans drivers... including one of our bus drivers who would take both hands off the steering wheel and force the bus into second gear.

A shiny gear's a happy gear!

Grind 'em 'til you find 'em!
 
Let's see if I can remember some common taunts from my youth for new or inept manual trans drivers... including one of our bus drivers who would take both hands off the steering wheel and force the bus into second gear.

A shiny gear's a happy gear!

Grind 'em 'til you find 'em!
That happened a couple times today......her leg was getting tired from pushing the clutch pedal, lol
 
We too-had an old school bus driver that would grind the gears on the old International bus. One day he pulled so hard, that he broke the shifter off. He finished the bus route out with a big Vice-Grips.
Let's see if I can remember some common taunts from my youth for new or inept manual trans drivers... including one of our bus drivers who would take both hands off the steering wheel and force the bus into second gear.

A shiny gear's a happy gear!

Grind 'em 'til you find 'em!
 
Let's see if I can remember some common taunts from my youth for new or inept manual trans drivers... including one of our bus drivers who would take both hands off the steering wheel and force the bus into second gear.

A shiny gear's a happy gear!

Grind 'em 'til you find 'em!
As teenagers walking the streets we`d yell out, grind me a pound!:lol:
 
I have a bit of a dilemma that my youngest daughter wishes to learn manual trans. I have an '03 Ford Cobra 6 speed. A '07 Ram 3500 dually diesel 6 speed. And my '69 GTX 4-speed. The truck is big. Thus not the best for a newbie. The Cobra is heavy clutch pedal and tight gear pattern (The hardest to drive.) The GTX is easy. BUT MY GTX??? 4 years ago the 3 vehicles were simular in value. But we have all seen what has happened. Especially in the B-body world.

What to do? (She wants my GTX.) lol.
 
I have a bit of a dilemma that my youngest daughter wishes to learn manual trans. I have an '03 Ford Cobra 6 speed. A '07 Ram 3500 dually diesel 6 speed. And my '69 GTX 4-speed. The truck is big. Thus not the best for a newbie. The Cobra is heavy clutch pedal and tight gear pattern (The hardest to drive.) The GTX is easy. BUT MY GTX??? 4 years ago the 3 vehicles were simular in value. But we have all seen what has happened. Especially in the B-body world.

What to do? (She wants my GTX.) lol.
We have been practicing in a ex Sears parking lot so there is a ton of open space, she just needs to pay attention to the light poles, lol, but we will continue doing that until I feel she is ready to drive in traffic.
 
Stopped on a hill test is a must before traffic.
A couple stalls on a hill with impatient traffic behind will frazzle a newbe.
I think we all been there:D
Oh definitely......we are still learning how to leave reasonably well from a level starting point and then upshifting and also down shifting throughout the parking lot.......I told her today how well she is doing but that we hadn't worked on starting on a hill yet and that will be the toughest thing to get a feel for........it will all come together in time.
 
Give her 20 years and she will have her pick of 4 speed muscle cars - nobody else will know how to drive them!
 
I've taught several young people. The way I do it is I find a slight incline and teach them to ride the clutch. Then I tell them "do that as LITTLE as possible". But that's the secret. Most everybody can get the knack of shifting right off. It's the starting off that gets them. Once they learn to ride the clutch, it's all downhill.
 
Teaching my step-brat daughter how to drive a standard in my 1970 5 speed Porsche 914 (VW motor from factory) on a ranch dirt road. After we turned around to go back to the house on the same road, I continued to bark instructions "now push in the clutch" and her response was "the clutch is gone". Well, what happened was the clutch cable just happened to snap at that moment, sending the spring loaded clutch pedal all the way to the floor where it stayed flat against the carpet. So when she went for the clutch, it really was gone! Photo is the morning I found someone had thrown a brick through the windshield in El Paso, Texas.

Porsche 914 Red copy.jpg
 
Any time I see a thread of learning to drive a,standard it reminds me of my old buddy Mark.
Back in our high school days he learned to drive a,standard in my old 1970 Duster. He learned fast as he had a gas drinking Mopar so bought an old Toyota Carrona(sp?) Not Corolla to save gas. Later got a job delivery of pizza as a side job. It was a major POS it had a broken shifter handle so we put a deep well socket and 2 3/8 extensions as a shifter. The socket fit ok but a was a little loose but worked.
Every now and then one of us would take it off while he was not looking. Mark would reach for the shifter and not have one. Ok guys they are blowing horns give me my shifter back.
 
Teaching my step-brat daughter how to drive a standard in my 1970 5 speed Porsche 914 (VW motor from factory) on a ranch dirt road. After we turned around to go back to the house on the same road, I continued to bark instructions "now push in the clutch" and her response was "the clutch is gone". Well, what happened was the clutch cable just happened to snap at that moment, sending the spring loaded clutch pedal all the way to the floor where it stayed flat against the carpet. So when she went for the clutch, it really was gone! Photo is the morning I found someone had thrown a brick through the windshield in El Paso, Texas.

View attachment 1715928717
People will tear up anything I swear.
 
I learned everything on a chopped up VW bush buggy (Way before ATV's). Shifting, avoiding road (tail) hazards and maintenance. All this when I was 10 or 11. My dad was a mechanic, and it didn't take long to learn the merits of not beating the crap out of a piece of machinery.
 
When my oldest turned 16 (years ago) and he got his licence, I came home from work and my S10 was gone. I looked out front and he was driving it around the neighborhood. I asked him where he learned how to drive a stick: "Well Google, Dad" Smart *** kid! :lol:
 
I have a bit of a dilemma that my youngest daughter wishes to learn manual trans. I have an '03 Ford Cobra 6 speed. A '07 Ram 3500 dually diesel 6 speed. And my '69 GTX 4-speed. The truck is big. Thus not the best for a newbie. The Cobra is heavy clutch pedal and tight gear pattern (The hardest to drive.) The GTX is easy. BUT MY GTX??? 4 years ago the 3 vehicles were simular in value. But we have all seen what has happened. Especially in the B-body world.

What to do? (She wants my GTX.) lol.
Let her drive it !

Give it to her later if she wants it.
Remember, we are only caretakers of these cars.
 
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