Got to drive a Z06 vette this weekend!

[MsDano85gt]

Like the title states I got to sit in and drive a Z06 vette this weekend,

unfortunately it was only from the front of the shop to around back to do a windsheild repair!

man the heads up display on some of the gm cars is so cool !!

unfortunately i never really left first gear and did not get to get down on it!

I thought my transmission in my 106k mile saturn had a noisy transmission, that corvette tranny was all sorts of noisy and it had only 20 k on it! its a very high torque motor for sure when your cranking it up you can hear the draw on the starter i guess from high compression??

nonetheless very cool !! made my weekend also drove a turbo beetle with a 6 speed,

why do people who drive standard shifts act stupid and assume that everyone cannot drive their car?? 8 out of my 10 vehicles have been standard shift, i find it offensive when someone asks do I need to drive around?? Heck no I got it i'm cool like that!

just remeber folks german vehicles no matter how old or how new ya need to push the shift lever down to get to reverse!

[chitownbri]

because surprisingly 8 out of 10 people dont know how to drive stick shift!

[Tom Geiger]

because surprisingly 8 out of 10 people dont know how to drive stick shift!

Yup! One time I drove my '65 Barracuda (3 on the tree - heavy duty clutch) to a restaurant. After about 15 minutes a valet sheepishly came into the restaurant to find me. None of their guys could move it.

Our first family car was a 1981 Nissan Stanza with a five speed. My wife had learned to drive on a stick and we agreed we wanted one. She got lots of looks from people that she was driving a clutch. Even when I took her 17 year old sister out looking for a car, we just assumed everyone could drive a clutch so we bought a Chevette with a 4 speed. I had her driving it by nightfall. And she bought a bunch of stick cars after that!

The funniest one was a couple that my wife and I are friends with. Back in the day, I got a call early on a Saturday morning. They had bought a new Mercury Topaz at a mall sales event. They got to the dealer to pick it up and discovered it was a clutch car... and neither of them could drive a clutch. So I had to go fetch them, and then spent the day teaching them how to drive it. The funny part was that the wife took better to the clutch than the husband, which led to some stress... but since then they've owned a string of clutch cars too.

[espo]

Only one car left in my garage now with a manual transmission. We have an '09 Jeep Wrangler, and the dealer changes the oil and filter for not much more than it would cost me to do it myself, and I don't worry about disposing of the old oil. The only problem is that they don't have any lot boys who can drive a stick. I think it is partly a generational problem. When I was first learning to drive that's about all we had. If you wanted a performance car, and that would be me, a stick was always faster then the automatics of the day. As automatics improved and the demand increased more and more people just bought automatics. Now you have a couple of generations of drivers with little or no experience with a manual transmission. Manual transmission owners do need to be careful about who they let drive a stick shift because many people find just driving a real challenge without worry about a clutch.

[MsDano85gt]

I just find standard shifting so much mor e enjoyable I feel one with my car, and more in controll, my revs, what gear i want to be in........ I only need a clutch to get started, after that you actually don't need a clutch just drive up to about 3k rpm's and as the revs fall usually to about 2 k the shift lever will slide into the next gear of the tranny without grinding or hesitation! pretty cool that impresses even other stick shift drivers!

[Jeff Johnston]

All my cars are standard. My wife and Daughters cars are both Auto but my wife also likes to drive my cars once in a while. I made my daughter learn. In fact its time to make her practice again. My son is like me. Stick or nothing... Daughter hated driving the stick so her car us auto. But..she can do it if she had to.

[fantacmet]

I hate you, that you got to drive one. Vette is my #1 car and a pipe dream. I have driven Vettes before, I've driven ALOT of exotics come to think of it, and it all comes back to the Vette. I might of had to pull a Ferris Buellers Day off with a Ferarri kind of thing with it in your shoes. LOL.

The stick thing? I can drive them just fine. Generally I don't care what kind of transmission is in my vehicle, I just get the vehicle and that's that. If it's auto, great, if it's stick, great.

Though some vehicles I have a preference in. My Grand Cherokee? Auto. Pretty much any SUV? Auto. Small car? Stick. Van? Auto. Pickup? Don't care. Other Jeeps? Stick. Racecar? Don't care, though if it's an auto I'll probablymanually shift it. The newer the vehicles get however, the more I want the small stuff to have a stick and the more I want the trucks and such to have auto's. Sports car? Stick, with the exception of a Vette, which I don't care what it's got, give me one and I'll keep it forever and be happy about it. Generally though I just don't give a hoot what style of transmission is in my vehicle.

I once had a 68 F100, technically had a 4 speed. Practical usage, it had a 2 speed. 1st was a granny gear, 4th was an overdrive. 2nd and 3rd were normal gears. Like most trucks 1st and 4th. The shifter locations were EXTREMELY vague as well. 3rd was somewhere over yonder, 4th was somewhere back in that general direction passenger rear corner of the truck. Reverse? Yeah buddy that was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out about 160 miles in the general direction of north east. However it could be directly north or directly east depending on the mood of the car gods. The clutch was pretty much the same way, and the steering? Oh yeah, with 1/2 revolution of the steering wheel being a dead zone, and the tires being TUBED bias ply, it was definately an adventure to drive. Especially on the freeway, or zipping down side streets, with that 390 and the 15 inch blue streak racing muffler circa 1973 underneath it. Women and children ran and hid. Big tough guys grunted until they saw it, then they ran and hid. Not from fear, but out of disgust so nobody would ahve to see them puking. It was a horridly ugly rig. Old farm truck. Ok enough rant, have fun y'all.

[charlie8575]

I wish I could drive a manual transmission.

When I was learning to drive, Dad had a 5-speed Aries. I tried to drive it, but could never get the hang of the clutch, and burned it a few times. After that, I was driving Mom's Cutlass. The Aries was assassinated by an inattentive driver before I got my license. Since then, everything's been automatic.

And I could never talk any of my friends into teaching me how to drive stick.

Charlie Larkin

[checkmate]

Got made learn to drive in a manual as did virtually all my mates, it's easy as and after years of doing it you don't even think about it.

I don't mind either though both have there uses and advantages.

[MsDano85gt]

I don't mind either some cars were mde for either auto , or stick, I just prefer stick i'm always doing something or in motion, whereas auto's I feel like dozing off at the wheel

[Tom Geiger]

I just find standard shifting so much mor e enjoyable I feel one with my car, and more in controll, my revs, what gear i want to be in........ I only need a clutch to get started, after that you actually don't need a clutch just drive up to about 3k rpm's and as the revs fall usually to about 2 k the shift lever will slide into the next gear of the tranny without grinding or hesitation! pretty cool that impresses even other stick shift drivers!

It all depends on where you are driving. Many years ago I got a job that was 50 miles one way on the New Jersey Garden State Parkway.... that's an hour and a half driving in the morning and usually two hours driving home! The world's biggest parking lot. After a week of driving my 5 speed Geo Tracker in that stop and go nightmare, my hip started to hurt. So I switched off and I put the second 100,000 miles on my Crown Vic instead. There are times like these when you just need an automatic!

Edited April 17, 2014 by Tom Geiger

[High octane]

After owning a few vehicles with stick shift, and having to shift all the time in traffic to and from work, it got "old" after a time. And now that I have two knee replacements, there's NO more stick shifting for me. It was fun many times, especially when I was drag racin' either on the street or strip. Oh well.....................

[Agent G]

It all depends on where you are driving. Many years ago I got a job that was 50 miles one way on the New Jersey Garden State Parkway.... that's an hour and a half driving in the morning and usually two hours driving home! The world's biggest parking lot. After a week of driving my 5 speed Geo Tracker in that stop and go nightmare, my hip started to hurt. So I switched off and I put the second 100,000 miles on my Crown Vic instead. There are times like these when you just need an automatic!

Traffic here on the 15 is a nightmare during my commute. I go out of my way and take the 95 south toward the dam, then cut over. I gave up the stick just before moving here and am glad I did.

G

[Modelbuilder Mark]

In the not too distant future, manual transmissions will not even be a part of the new automobile landscape. (trucks etc will have them)

Even on high end sports cars, the automatic shifting with the electronic manual override (think paddle shifters on many modern cars) will be all you need to have a fun driving experience. You can still shift if you want, but will not always need to, and you will certainly not need a clutch.

[Quick GMC]

Well, that was anticlimactic

[MsDano85gt]

everytime i stop in to see if the gulf coast mitsubishi has gotten any "lancer" base models with a 5 or 6 speed manual transmission the sales person(s) always come bolting out to my saturn asking if i want to sell it throwing rediculous low ball offers for my awsome supercharged manual car
and then discust me by trying to sell me some "paddle" shifty triple clutchy automatic type thing car some evo somethig or another! I always tell em they won't give me what i want for my car which is the truth, and unless they find me something with 3 pedals on the floor and 5 or 6 speeds in my hand they are wasting their breath! I don't care how cool or how fast the little triple clutch paddle shifty car is i want a regular manual thank you end of story just look at my avitar pic of my 85 gt stang pure awsomeness

[checkmate]

In the not too distant future, manual transmissions will not even be a part of the new automobile landscape. (trucks etc will have them)

I don't know about anywhere else but the number of new trucks out here that are autos is amazing. So even the heavy duty crowd are going auto.

I don't mind either but driving a cammed, cranky, manual through traffic for extended periods is both challenging and frustrating, that's why I try and avoid cities.

[JM485]

Me and pretty much all of my friends have 5 speeds, just the way we all felt a car/truck should really be I guess. I honestly get borred out of my mind driving an automatic, and I think I probably fall victim to distracted driving much more whenever I am forced to drive one. With the stick, I'm much more in tune with my truck and it keeps me focused, not to mention you have a lot more control over the throttle. I think they should make everyone do their drivers test in a stick, that way we could weed out a large majority of the people who lack the corrdination to properly handle a vehicle. It won't ever happen, but I think it could solve a lot of problems.

[MsDano85gt]

Me and pretty much all of my friends have 5 speeds, just the way we all felt a car/truck should really be I guess. I honestly get borred out of my mind driving an automatic, and I think I probably fall victim to distracted driving much more whenever I am forced to drive one. With the stick, I'm much more in tune with my truck and it keeps me focused, not to mention you have a lot more control over the throttle. I think they should make everyone do their drivers test in a stick, that way we could weed out a large majority of the people who lack the corrdination to properly handle a vehicle. It won't ever happen, but I think it could solve a lot of problems.

well stated i get bored out of my mind driving auto's, i fall victem of wanting to take naps behind he wheel of auto's

[Quick GMC]

Me and pretty much all of my friends have 5 speeds, just the way we all felt a car/truck should really be I guess. I honestly get borred out of my mind driving an automatic, and I think I probably fall victim to distracted driving much more whenever I am forced to drive one. With the stick, I'm much more in tune with my truck and it keeps me focused, not to mention you have a lot more control over the throttle. I think they should make everyone do their drivers test in a stick, that way we could weed out a large majority of the people who lack the corrdination to properly handle a vehicle. It won't ever happen, but I think it could solve a lot of problems.

I'm a manual guy, but I have an auto in my GMC. It has a shift kit and 3k stall converter. I can hold any gear I want, throttle is snappy and it will shift faster than anyone can shift a standard 5 speed. The truck and two cars I had before this were stocks, and I definitely have a lot more fun driving them.

[teardrop96]

My first car was a 1965 Olds 442 convertible, 345 HP, posi-trac, and a Hurst 4 Speed. My brother drove it home from the carlot. By the way I paid $995 for it in 1969. I learned how to drive it by backing it out of the driveway and pulling back in! I was a 17 year old hotshot(right). This weekend was a blast a buddy of mine has on 08 Z-Vette, and we went cruising in the hill country west of Austin, lots of curves, which we took at 90 mph, and at one point we were doing 130 on a straight a way! My neck snapped a few times when my buddy hit them gears. I Love that stuff...

[sjordan2]

After a lifetime of owning manual shift sports cars -- Alfas, Porsche, Corvette -- I currently have an automatic Infiniti. But I still leave my right hand on the shift lever constantly out of habit. The "sports shift" feature is really just a placebo that makes you think you're shifting. But without a clutch, it's hard to finesse the performance.

[Quick GMC]

After a lifetime of owning manual shift sports cars -- Alfas, Porsche, Corvette -- I currently have an automatic Infiniti. But I still leave my right hand on the shift lever constantly out of habit. The "sports shift" feature is really just a placebo that makes you think you're shifting. But without a clutch, it's hard to finesse the performance.

all those things do is delay the shift. It's pretty much like tow mode. on some of the higher end cars, they will actually alter fuel delivery and some other stuff, but I don't think they do on the Infiniti's

The Jaguar S Type had a variable intake manifold like the old Taurus SHO and it would actually re-route the air, but in their other cars it just delayed the shift by 500 RPM.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

After a lifetime of owning manual shift sports cars -- Alfas, Porsche, Corvette -- I currently have an automatic Infiniti. But I still leave my right hand on the shift lever constantly out of habit. The "sports shift" feature is really just a placebo that makes you think you're shifting. But without a clutch, it's hard to finesse the performance.

Depending on the car, some of the auto's with "sport" mode actually prevent the auto from shifting out of the gear you choose, and also incorporate an "auto-blip" function for the down shifts to boost the revs. The forumla one guys are not even using cluthes anymore, just paddle shifters..

I have the paddle shifters, and use them a lot, but still find myself with my right hand resting on the shifter from time to time.

[Stuntman Mike]

Here in Germany you have to teach people how to drive an automatic car. 90% of all people here tend to use their left foot for braking when they sit in an automatic car for the first time. And if the foot (that is used to hammer down the clutch pedal) gets in contact with the brake pedal...well...ever seen an unexpecting face smash into a steering wheel?