Last night, I depressed the clutch of a standard car for the first time ever. Coming home from an errand, a friend pull into a church parking lot rather than in front of my house to park. Although she’d said nothing about teaching me to drive stick, I knew when she parked the car that such were her plans. I got the car moving on my first try and we did a couple laps of the parking lot and neighbor hood streets. Later in the evening, we went for a half an hour drive on both highways and city streets. I stalled at a couple lights and hit the gas while I had the clutch in a few time, but no completely awful sounds were heard. Was I nervous? Sure. However, while I’m still quite bad at driving stick, I now wouldn’t have second thoughts about driving a standard car if there was a huge need for me to.
[Note: Before anyone gets on me about my having never driven stick before, there’s a decent reason. After my parents got rid of their 280Z when I was three or four because my head would hit the roof when they went over bumps (Yes, mom and dad I still owe you another 280Z), my family only had automatics. While I’m sure if I’d beg some people I know to try on their car they may have, that’s not my MO and there was never a pressing need for me to learn.]
