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pimple
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: March 2006
Messages: 375
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Greetings-
I just spent the weekend teaching my almost 16 year old pseudo-grand kid how to handle a 5 speed.
Of course the clunky old Accord wasn't cool enough, it had to be the sports car, and as a doting old fart - I allowed him.
I live way out in the flat lands, we could have seen an oncoming car miles away, so that wasn't an issue (and the cops still all have gumball machines on their roofs).
The first thing I noticed was that all the x-box/playstation skills in the world don't seem to help that much when it comes to 3 little peddles. It was nerve racking but fun, and I know he was thrilled - when we changed places to drive home he was blushing as he got out of the driver's seat, and I then noticed the bulge in his sweats! Oh to be a boy!
My first experience was when I picked up my new $2,200.00 Ford at the dealer and had to drive home in rush-hour traffic. My father spare the time to teach me, and an automatic cost $500 extra. I had driven a tractor, so I sorta knew, but there is a difference between an open field and a three lane road.
Regards
Simon
Joy Peace and Tranquility
Joyceility
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You mean, can I change gear?
Yes.
It's illegal in the UK to drive a manual car unless you have a manual license. To get one of those, you need to have learnt to drive and to take the test in a manual car.
On the other hand, a manual license allows you to drive any car. So most people in the UK learn on a manual, and hence most cars in the UK (so far as I know) have manual gearboxes, as they are the most familiar. Automatic gearboxes are for stupid people who couldn't pass their manual test. 
No offence intended to Americans, but, from what I hear, your driving test is definitely easier than ours.
David
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pimple
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: March 2006
Messages: 375
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Greetings Deeej-
Why oh why would the Queen (or her government) care if you fuck up your transmission? The rules of the road (albeit the wrong side of the road) are the same no matter the transmission - right?
So you were taught by a pro, perhaps that would take some of the stress away from the teacher.
Regards
Simon
Joy Peace and Tranquility
Joyceility
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>Why oh why would the Queen (or her government) care if you fuck up your transmission?
She doesn't. She cares if you kill someone, though. Driving tests are not to prove you can get the car down the street without taking it into a hedge -- driving tests are there to prove that you can do it safely. Release the clutch at the wrong moment, or hit the wrong pedal by mistake, and you could kill someone.
I learnt to drive under a professional instructor (a few lessons -- she's a friend of the family) and my parents (mostly). Most people over here have at least a few lessons with a professional instructor, because there are so many tiny little things that the examiner can fail you on -- even good drivers won't notice many of them.
If you learn to drive on a manual car, the first thing you need to learn is the clutch. Maybe it's easier to try an automatic first, then learn the clutch -- I don't know -- but most people don't have that luxury.
David
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13801
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Getting hard from driving? Wow! Never happened to me. Ah, maybe it was stroking the knob?
For some reason we feel it is more manly to have real gears and a real gear lever. We pooh-pooh automatic gearboxes. Though I certainly prefer mine.
In the UK it is hard to find a rental car with an auto box. They cost extra. Same in Europe.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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pimple
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: March 2006
Messages: 375
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Greetings Boss
Here the automatic is 'standard' and the manual (use to be called standard) is the add on expense. You sir seem to have forgotten how unrelated to anything a youthful erection can be. Working on the chalkboard in class seemed to always be able to get a rise out of me. (do chalkboards exist in classrooms today, or is it all white boards?)
Deeej
I would think that learning the rules of the road on an automatic and then "back-tracking" to learn gears and clutch would be the best way to learn.
Regards-
Rick
Joy Peace and Tranquility
Joyceility
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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I taught myself when I was 15 to drive a stick.
I have also taught several dozed teens how to drive one.....
I find a nice steep hill..... put the student behind the wheel and say.....
Take it to the top without rolling backward.
It usually took several tries but in an hour they had the process mastered.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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pimple
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: March 2006
Messages: 375
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but pretty much the same theory. The game is to get the car into second without ever touching the gas peddle. If first is a real 'tree climber' it can be a test.
Regards
Simon
Joy Peace and Tranquility
Joyceility
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>I would think that learning the rules of the road on an automatic and then "back-tracking" to learn gears and clutch would be the best way to learn.
You are quite possibly right, and presumably that's the logic in America.
In the UK, the differenciation between manual and automatic licenses tips the balance in favour of learning on a manual, to give maximum flexibility.
I still think it's a soft option to drive an automatic, though. (I say that despite never having driven one, so I don't have any real authority to say that!) It's fun revving up through the gears, or jamming straight from fifth into second and coming to a virtual halt in just a few paces. You feel more in control.
David
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›Getting hard from driving? Wow! Never happened to me.‹
Nathan has just become a credible character. [see story shelf]
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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There is a widely-held perception among Brits that automatics are for wimps and old ladies (sorry, Timmy!).
I've always enjoyed driving, and when practical I'd rather drive the three hundred miles or so to London than take the train or fly. And I avoid motorways whenever I can. I've never had an automatic, so I have to acknowledge that I'm talking without personal experience, but I would really miss the fun of using the gears for fast cornering and superfast overtaking. I'm probably a retro case, though, as I refuse to have satellite navigation because it would imply that my personal navigation skills are not up to the job (occasionally they aren't, but it's all part of the fun!).
My son has been car-crazy since he could walk, and he's had a licence for around seven years. He and a large crowd of his mates are into dirt bike racing (only because thay can't afford to race in cars) and they travel the country at weekends following both motorcycle and sports car races. Not one of them has an automatic, either, so I'm obviously still in with the young and virile crowd!
(Preens himself and rockets away from traffic lights, tyres squealing!)
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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I let Kevy do most of the driving now......
he sees alot better than I do....
Well, that and I just don't like doing it much anymore.....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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David you are probably correct about the skill needed to pass an American driving test. In my day there were still a lot of people who had obtained their original driving licnese simply by paying for it. We used to joke about bad drivers as having gotten their license by sending in a dollar and two box tops from a Wheaties cereal box.
It makes no difference here what you take the test on nor what you learn to drive as long as you know the traffic laws and can actually get around the driving test without hitting something. (Well I hope a bit better than that, but judging by the drivers I see every day, I doubt it)
I do know how to drive a stick shift as I have driven one for years but I dont know how well I would do try to shift with my left hand vs my right hand. It would probably not work any better than using it to JO. lol
Ken
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pimple
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: March 2006
Messages: 375
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Greetings Ken-
The first time I drove in London scared the #$%^#$ out of me. I had picked up my car from a rental joint across the street from Albert Hall. I handled the peddles well, but knew I was in trouble when I shifted the turn signal indicator into reverse!
As long as traffic was coming toward me, it was managable, but there were some empty one lane roads out near Oxford that were a panic when a car would show up my natural reaction was to steer toward the 'wrong' side of the road.
Regards-
Simon
Joy Peace and Tranquility
Joyceility
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13801
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Commute by car into London in the rush hour and you will never want a manual again!
Anyway I have a pseudo gear lever for howling past other cars.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Actually, I've been rethinking the "learn automatic first, then learn gears as needed".
When I first started learning to drive, it was hell to know when to change gear -- it was by a sort of "rule of thumb", which isn't always right: (mph) "0-10, 1st; 10-20, 2nd; 20-30: 3rd, 30+, 4th". It was irritating and distracting at the time.
The thing is, now, I feel I have a much sounder idea of how the gearbox works, when to change gear, I understand what engine note I should be aiming for, I'll instinctively drop to a lower gear to accelerate, etc. I'm not convinced I would know all of these if I had learnt on an automatic.
The more one knows about how one's car works, the better, really -- it puts one more in control. Not to mention that it gives one the flexibility to drive any car (both practically and legally).
David
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