The Deed Is Done...

I can just see all the boyfriends now driving around wiff her and you not knowing whatz up. Shti you say shes late.

Ah yes, the wonderful world of parenthood!!!!! The stories I could tell of raising 2 boys.... How I ever survived is beyond me!!!!

Well, my step daughter got a car on her 16th birthday. Not from us, but from her dad. He also let her go with him to the dealership and let her pick it out. Schmuck. She walked away with a $20K Pontiac Grand Am. He was hoping to spend $10K on a base model.

THAT DAY we had the cops at our house looking for her... When she first got home, I noticed that the front end of her car smelled like she had been racing it. I called her on it, she denied it.

Then the cops showed up...


Dumb sh!t...


So I hope you didn't go out and pull something equally stupid.

My advice to teach driving a stick shift is take her out on a dirt road..... She wont tear the clutch out of it because the wheels will spin in the dirt.... Once you get past that, you can have some fun with her, if your up to it!!!!

Here's what I did with my boys:

I took them out on said dirt road & let them get a feel for things.... An hour later they were both pretty confidant & I saw a hill coming up.... My son was driving along & I said "stop" right in the middle of the hill.... I said now get goin up the hill.... That ended up in several coughs & stalls before he got up the hill...[snicker] Then I made him turn around & do it again 4 or 5 times before he got it.....

We drove another hour so & it was time to head on back to the house.... I switched driving & was now behind the wheel & the boys were feeling awful confidant & smug in there new learned skill.... That's when I popped their bubble!!!!!

At a light I said to the boys, well you know all about a stick shift now don't you???? They both said they knew all about it without a doubt!!!! I just calmly said well, you know you don't have to use the clutch to shift a stick then???? They looked at each other & said to me no way can you shift it without a clutch!!!! I just started from the light & shifted into second without touching the clutch..... They looked at each other & said dad you can't do that!!! I said that's funny & shifted into 3rd without the clutch.... They couldn't believe it!!! You can't do that dad..... Having where them I wanted them I said well lets see & I down shifted from 3rd to second without the clutch......

By the time I got home with the boys there world had been shaken!!! They went to school the next day a asked there buddies if you could shift a stick without the clutch & all there buddies said no way!!!! So I taught them how to really use a stick shift to it's full potential... Drag racing my GTO I never touched the clutch on the 4 speed.... They still talk about learning to drive a stick as one of the greatest times they had with me growing up....

A good time & a great memory was created that day!!!

It paid off for my oldest son just recently.... His slave went out on his clutch & it wouldn't disengage the clutch.... He was able to drive it home without the clutch so we could pull the tranny & fix it.....

There were no automatics when I grew up, really..... I had many clutches out that I'd helped tear out..... No money for a new clutch..... I'd drive them without the clutch for a month or two...... Hit the brake to & choke it down to stall it..... Then hit the starter & let it crank it back up..... Hard on the starter, but they were a lot cheaper to swap out than & clutch!!!! The old days for sure!!!!

I never clutch a bike either...

My sled is a CVT.... It just cranks until it's out of power... It does shift in steps though... Belts are very important with a CVT.

That all depends on how well you know how to use a manual tranny..... Nothing wrong with down shifting any more the up shifting..... Shifting it right with the shift point & RPMs the clutch doesn't even come into play, it's locked up while the shift is being preformed....

I was trained in the Military on trucks with crash box transmissions.... They have no synchronizers in the tranny at all.... They also had Hi & Low axle transfer, 2 speeds..... The only way you can drive them is by RPM & the right shift point up or down.... We'd haul anything from a M1A1 tracks to earthmover's..... Anything we could get on them really.... We hauled anywhere that equipment was needed in Nam..... Up & down all the passes that virtually had no road left from the craters.... These were 10 ton tractors with all wheel drive & a huge winch on the back over the 5th wheel to drag dead tracks on the low boy with....

You actually shifted two sticks at the same time.... The move was called a split shift..... You would shift one stick to 2nd & the second stick to over at the same time... Then you'd shift the one stick to 3rd & the second stick to under by swapping both sticks on the split, with the shift point, without a clutch..... That was a one gear shift.... You repeated that up through the 5 gears x 2 + 10 gears... You had to put your arm through the steering wheel & steer it with your elbow while you were shifting either up or down....At times you would go to the third stick that kicked in the front axle.... That was a shorter stick, closer to the floor.... Good for pulling the rig over the top of a pass in the monsoon...

These trucks & drivers were the elite of the motor pool in the Nam & I'm more than proud to have been one of them!!! They were so hard to drive & so dangerous at the same time...... Like I say no sycncros.... When you started down a pass, if you blew a shift you couldn't get the truck back in gear until you got it stopped..... With god knows what pushing you down the pass, being able to stop with the brakes & a run away rig was deadly situation.... I can't tell you how many men & equipment were lost that way over there....

It taught me a knowledge of manual trannys that most people will never understand or know about..... That's what I taught my sons when I taught them how to drive sticks....

It came in handy not too long ago... A friend of mine bought a dump truck that had a crash box tranny & he couldn't drive it home.... He wanted to use it to build a pond with his back hoe... He asked me all about it & I told him how to drive it, but he couldn't figure it out well enough to get the thing home.... After about a week of coaching him I finally said I'd come & drive the truck home for him & teach him how to drive it..... That's the way it got home & he couldn't get the basics down to be able to use it.... He ended up selling the dump......

BTW driving my 10 Ton was by far the greatest driving I've ever done in my life.... It was also one of the best times I've had in my life, even though it was in a war zone.... The pride of pulling a load no one wanted to touch has never left me to this day!!!!

Here's a link or two for you....

http://www.vannattabros.com/truck6.html
http://www.olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_m123.php

I panic when I'm driving an automatic.

'Where's the clutch? WHERE'S THE BLOODY CLUTCH?!?'

Yeah, long ago in my youth it was embarassing picking up my girlfriend in my old Impala (The booby sedan) and I was confused looking for the clutch and floor shifter after driving the work state truck all day.
That truck was a one ton with synchro manual. Easy to drive.

The old Passat used to have an odd quirk where the one side of the back seat would suddenly fall off and land in the footwell. The hinges were completely f___ed... that had severe repercussions i.t.o. sex life.

Lolz, Ws.

Sweet! mate. Sweet!

I was perplexed as to where the thread was going, until I noted your final remarks.

Good on your daughter! May she drive safely... and not have drunken sex with lads in the back seat [/Bomber ruins another family-friendly moment]