Folks Of Interest Did you learn to drive a stick or a automatic?

Growing up on a farm we learned to drive as soon as you could reach the pedals. 50 Chevy PU with a 3 on the tree was probably the first one but about the same time had to drive a 44 Chevy 1 1/2 ton grain truck during harvest. Non syncro 4 speed, had to learn to double clutch real early on.

 

59 Ford 4 dr station wagon with 3 on the column.

 

Four speed, 1963 Sunbeam Alpine.


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Hello,
I learned to drive (handle) an automatic car by having my dad let me sit on his lap and steer his big 49 Buick Roadmaster down the block to our old house in 1950. (My mom told me that two years earlier, my dad used to let me stand on the seat and steer his 41 Buick coupe in the parking lot where in the area where we lived.) I was able to do this for almost 6 months, everyday, when my dad came home.

But, my next driving experience was to take a 56 Mercury 2 door Hardtop (auto) out for a spin around the block at age 11. Some local girls asked me to take them out for a spin around the block in this piano teacher’s (neighbor) 56 Mercury Hardtop. I actually used all pedals to drive around the block, actually 4 blocks. It was fun.

Then at age 13, I learned to shift a Model A 3 speed on the floor. I got really good in the 5 times I was allowed to drive the Model A around the block. That was short lived as my brother sold it weeks later to buy his first Chevy Impala.

Finally, the 58 Impala was a 3 speed 348 and I drove that for several years. At first, the stronger clutch was a pain, but I learned to use it quite well in everyday street driving and racing. My first 40 Ford Sedan Delivery had a flathead and a 3 speed LaSalle floor shifter.

My favorite driving experiences came with the C&O Stick Hydro I had installed in my 58 Impala. (when it was officially mine) That had both the manual stick through all of the gears and a complete auto while in drive. The best of both worlds. The shifts from that modified C&O were certainly “neck snapping” in any gear. Now, there was no 3rd pedal to worry about while racing. Even my mom would drive this Impala to go shopping. But, floor it and watch out...!

Jnaki
Since then, every time I purchased a new car that had a 4-5 or 6 speed, it was learning all over again. The most intricate part was adapting to the stronger clutch action and “brake starts.” I like driving and it is always fun to drive either set up in a car. But, that C&O Stick Hydro was a neck snapper for sure and a pleasure to have in a powerful car. Today, with computerized transmissions, a DCT or SMG units are similar in shifts and convenience.

 

29 model A, brother restored several years ago


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49 Chev pu

 

Semiautomatic Brunswick & AMF pinsetters. Triples. Jack E/NJ

 

I learned to drive in my dads 1950 Nash Rambler convertible. If I remember right it had a four speed on the column.

 

Dad taught me to drive in an automatic 58' Ford with a 332 police interceptor engine. Soon after I got my 57 Chevy Bel Air, 6 cylinder/powerglide. Saved up and dropped a 1964 Corvette 327 and a 57 three speed, complete with a Sparkomatic shifter, funds were getting low. Dad didn't know I was warming up a flathead dirt track car at the Reading Fairgrounds, so stick was covered. He insisted I take him out to prove that I could handle stick. He made me go down to the 11th street hill, go half way up, stop, pull out, and turn around at the top. No problem, however when we headed back down the hill the single brake cylinder took a dump, I told him the brakes went out, the look on his face was panic, what are you going to do, he said. I responded by grabbing a hand full of emergency brake and stopped at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. All he said was take me home and I never heard another word about my stick shift abilities.

 

If you don't know how to drive a stick - You really don't know how to drive!!!

 

'63 Impala SS HT w/ Powerglide. One of the most beautiful cars ever made.

 

My uncle had a 30-speed truck; 5spd tranny, 3spd granny, and 2sp rear end.

 

One of the ugliest cars ever made;
1961 Plymouth Valiant 4 door , slant six, with a FACTORY 3 speed ON THE FLOOR!
I could not kill that car ( it rotted away).

 

216/3sp '48 chev coupe, 14 years old, logging roads,... no license .....never caught!

 

1957 ford truck 3 on the tree.

 

Automatic, drivers ed car in school. I didn't learn to drive a stick until I was in my mid twenties and my boss told me to take the company car, and I said I don't know how to drive a stick, so he showed me. I'm a loser, I know.

 

First I put countless imaginary miles on my Grandparents 36 Dodge while it sat in the garage then actually learned in a 54 Plymouth Savoy SW (the pilgrim) with 3 on the column.
The Pilgrim may/may not have been involved in teenage hijinx which I will/won't elaborate on.

 

Farmall 350, 5 speed, hand throttle, Super K loader, I was about 9, (1970) I loved that tractor. I enjoyed turning sharp with the individual brake pedals. Learned to back up trailers on that tractor too. And finally a grain wagon with a steerable front axle.

 

We all learnt on manuals
105e Anglia
1955 F 100
And any of the other pom bombs Dad had
Autos were for rich lasy people

 

Most of my "learning" to drive happened in the '40 stake truck that I now have. When I was around 13 or 14, I drove it around my uncle and aunt's property on the north end of town.

When my older daughter was learning to drive, during the whole "cash for clunkers" thing, a guy couldn't buy a car for less than $3000. I found a 5 speed '92 Miata for her first car for $2000. She wasn't happy that she "had to learn" how to drive a manual transmission, but after she started driving it, she loved it.

 

If so many prople could stick shift. Why does everyone put autos in?

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A picture of me when I was eleven learning to drive a car (had driven a go kart for over a year but of course it had no shifter). My grandfather bought me the car in the summer of 1962 as a surprise. He had what was basically a race track at this business location. Wasn’t planned as a racetrack but it was a circle probably about a half mile or so with buildings in the center. Front stretch was paved (as well as the turn the car is sitting on) and the backstretch and far turn were cinders. My grandfather had a few businesses and two of them were asphalt paving and then hauling cinders. The tanks behind us hold calcium chloride which was another business.

My grand parents loved to document everything on file or movies so my grandmother was taking this picture with my grandfather next to me showing me how to drive a stick. It appears I may have my hand on the shifter which I am sure I thought was cool stuff. I probably had not even driven the car yet when this picture was taken. Carried this picture for years which is why it is so dog eared. Handmade boattail body with a Crosley Hot Shot motor and three speed manual. Put a lot of miles on this car and still own the car today. Makes me smile every time I see it or the spare engine that I trip over in my shop.

 

man... all you lucky blokes who learned to drive stick in cool cars! I'm jealous.

I got broke in on a giant landscaping flat-bed crane truck after the regular driver caught a ride home and I was the only crew person available at the end of the day.

I was a teenager, and my only prior experience was motorcycles.

I got in the truck and did just fine until I had to cross an inclined bridge and the clutch started slipping something terrible. Radio'd my buddy in the truck ahead of me, he said "Oh, yeah, meant to tell you that clutch was going on that truck. Look at the bright side-- you won't stall it at a light."

I limped over the hill. Being in flat south Florida, no hills, I just got back to the shop OK. I learned what clutch smoke smells like that day, too.

 

Woah, far out! Hows the car look nowadays?


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I have not driven it in years. It has been in storage locally for about 20 years and that storage went away so I brought it home. The color has changed (my grandfather had his guys in the paint booth paint it after some vandals broke in and did a number on this car and a midget and an early 30s Austin) and the boattail is only a memory as my brother hit a grader when we were young on the same turn as the original picture above. We laughed at the time but now I wish the boattail was still intact. A lot of projects in front of it but don't have the heart to really say good bye to it. Leather seat cushion is MIA. Someone wanted it I suppose.

I am sure if I put some time into it I could make it run. Not much to these cars anyways. I have a little race motor and a stock motor.

 

41FORD 2 dr.

 

One of these. Only uglier. 3 on the tree and a 6.

 

Shame it's not its former self, but really cool you still have it. I hope one day it's the next project on your list.


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Driver's training- Cheboygan MI- it was a Chevy on loan from dealer- 61 or 62- 6-stick- not many hills in town but any with a stop sign was part of the instructors fun-

 

Stick, in 1963, my Dads 1953 Willys Jeep pickup with a 1950 Ford flathead V-8, 3 speed, 4 wd, 2-97 Ford carbs, 8' snow plow, man would that truck burn tire good thing my Dad owned a Sunoco station.