Learning to Drive

[LongRanger]

It’s funny, sometimes --- the things that I don’t remember . . .

I don’t remember learning how to drive . . . the first time I held a steering wheel, felt the brakes bite, the car move under me --- using a stick + clutch

I know we had dual-control training cars at my high school --- back when Drivers Ed was a real class with real cars at a real school. Plymouth Volare. And Coach Anderson. Not the quickest guy on the brakes, maybe . . . but boy --- when he hit ‘em . . .

I’d been on mini-bikes and motorcycles since I was about 12 --- which was about when I learned to ride a bike. Bicycle-license testing used to be about the most humiliating part of grade-school for me. Anyway, I’d been driving my Step-Dad in golf carts on courses since I was tall . . . which was, like, forever, so . . .

Never much mystery to driving, for me

I do remember the first time I drove a car by myself, though. My Mom’s boyfriend David, just threw me his keys, this one time. ‘Git me some cigarettes, will ya?’ I only had a learner’s permit --- I think . . . but I didn’t feel the need to go into any trivial/inconvenient/embarrassing details about my qualifications, so --- don't need to ask me twice. I jumped into his car --- this impossible Buick Electra Coupe --- light yellow/padded top, parked out front . . . then tooled on down to the local Tic-Toc, got his smokes . . . then took the long way home. Slow + easy --- automatic

I only learned to drive a stick on the first/last New Car that I’ve ever owned . . . a ’78 BMW 320i coupe . . . Reseda Green Metallic, beige vinyl, sunroof. I’d never driven a manual before --- so I think that my sister must’ve taught me ---- and on that car. I’d bought the thing over the phone, after shopping every BMW dealer listed on a back page of an LA Times Sunday edition. Negotiated a price, hooked-up w/ a bank --- my Mom still needed to co-sign me but --- I had like, 25% to put down. Sanwa Bank

Anyway, it came time to pick-up My New Car. My Aunt + Uncle were visiting from AZ, so my Sister + I took my Little Cousin, jumped into my trusty 10-year-old Plymouth wagon + drove 200-some miles to Santa Maria BMW, got the car. My Sister had been driving a stick-shift Bug to school for a year-or-so, so . . . she would drive My New Car back. I still remember watching her bunny-hop/stall the first few starts, leaving the dealership

And I remember teaching my kids how to drive. They learned on sticks . . . The Boy on my Roadster, The Girl on The X’s VR-6 Golf ‘driver’s edition' . . . aka the Screaming Yellow Zonker . . . and that was what The X called it. No kidding --- somebody had done something to that car . . . motor howled like a wolf, + hard

Anyway . . . both kids b!tched + moaned about having to learn how to drive on a manual, but --- and I told ‘em so . . . sitting behind a power-assisted steering wheel, pushing pedals is NOT driving

Besides . . . as long as I was payin’/carin’ for their cars? . . . I was gonna get something that I liked, too --- something cheap/durable/manual . . . + interesting --- Audis + Subarus, as it turned-out. + AWD

Anyway . . . the 2nd of Zovig’s Ungrateful Offspring just turned 16 and'll be getting her Learner’s Permit here, shortly, so . . .

. . . dialing-up the old Way Back Machine

Al’s been driving --- sorry . . . sitting behind a wheel + pushing pedals . . . for a while, now --- with her Mom + her Dad. She goes out on week-ends and sits/pushes in some big warehouse parking lot --- so she’s already got some seat time. We even had her driving all of us once, on this deserted stretch of country two-lane, going up to Sequoia, last Summer. But it bugs me that I’m the only one in the house who can drive My Cars. I haven’t owned my own automatic-anything in 30 years

Anyway --- Al had some time --- + interest . . . on her hands . . . + so did I, so . . .

Saturday? I introduced Al to manual transmission operation . . . on My Trusty Every Day

1) Using the handbrake
2) Ditto the Clutch
3) Starting the engine
4) Gear selection
5) 1st gear
6) Moving-off
7) Driving
8) Stopping

Usual/coupla OMG moments --- stalling in gear, lights flashing, bunny-hopping, w/ Rick’s pride-&-joy dying underneath ‘em = no big deal

After going over The Basics, we did some laps --- local H.S. parking lot . . . then finished-off w/ 10 stops + starts. Her and I spent maybe an hour-or-so? . . . then we headed home

No pictures


Yesterday, we went back. Her Brother joined us

Hov’s been steering/pushing for a coupla years, now, but hasn’t learned to drive a stick, yet. Anxious to, though

So, we all went back to that H.S. lot. Hov got out, and waited on the sidewalk, watched while Al + I picked-up where we’d left off the day before . . . with ten more stops + starts

I figure the best way for anyone to learn anything is to have them try to teach it to somebody else, so . . . .

I got out of the car . . .

. . . had Hovig to get in to the driver’s seat . . .


. . . then asked Aleen to teach her brother how to drive a stick


Pictures this time




Maybe I don’t remember learning how to drive . . .

. . . but maybe they will

[Flieger]

My first driving experience was at the Jim Hall Kart Racing School at their first, beach track. First drive on public roads was over on some quiet industrial park roads on the weekend in my dad's leased 2002 Boxster S. Did the usual stalling but got the hang of it after enough practice.

My memory gets a little confused after that. Oddly, I don't remember the first time I drove the 911. I guess all the exciting and fun drives in it have overwhelmed that one. But I think it came after I started driving the 1983 BMW 320i that my dad had got me as my first car. Drove it about 50 miles round trip every school day. Had to go from the suburbs into the San Fernando Valley and back so I got lots of practice with the clutch pedal and hand brake. Drove it throughout college too until the motor required a rebuild (blowby on the rings) and I didn't have the money to fix it so it got sold. Great little car- manual gearbox, unassisted steering.

Currently in a soul-sucking cage with a slushbox, longing for a way to turn off the power assist and shift my own gears. I actually prefer manuals even in traffic. Can't explain why, I just do.

[tpdorsey]

Great story. Best way to learn is to teach. Preach it!

I remember my first drives, because I was chomping at the bit for ages. My first lessons were in mom's '78 Pontiac Catalina. It was a boat, and to this day I'm pretty good piloting on the water. Unfortunately they traded it in before I started dating. Ahem. My enduring memory of that car was that you could take your foot off the gas pedal and it would serenely idle up to 35 MPH without any input from the right foot. Perfect for cruising.

Shortly after learning the basics on the Catalina, my father tried teaching me to drive a manual on his '80 Scirocco S. The first day out was a disaster. He is not a patient teacher, and I am not particularly deft in the coordination department, nor am I a quick study. I was determined to learn, though. Spent the evening visualizing the movement, slept on it, tried again the next day and BINGO! I had mastered the skill that led me to wrecking three cars in two years. Like I said, slow learner.

My first experience with a hydraulic clutch came a few years later when, on a lark, pop and I went to test drive the then-new 944 S at Niello. I couldn't get a feel for the bit point and spent the first few blocks chirping the back tires away from each stop sign and traffic light. The salesman was practically crying trying to hold in his laughter. Then I somehow took the long, looping ramp from 680 to highway 4 at 85 MPH. "You might want to check the spedometer," he says. Oh. Awesome car. I'd be dead now if we'd bought it.

A great BMW CCA instructor at Lime Rock finally taught me how to heel-toe downshift. Again, hugely frustrating to pick up, and I didnt' really get the hang of it until spending an entire afternoon of Skip Barber racing school on it. That opened up a whole new world...

Now the two little ones are starting to ask about when they'll learn. A few more years to prepare for that, thankfully.