You wouldn’t know it today, but performance cars used to have manual transmissions and mastering the fine art of shifting was the sign of someone serious about driving. Learning to drive for many meant jerky starts, stalled cars and dreading that traffic light on a hill when the car behind you stopped too close to your rear bumper. Can you get rolling forward without rolling back into his front bumper? Ah, the little things today’s young drivers don’t even think about.
If you were looking for your first car, an automatic wasn’t on your radar. Slush box? No, thanks. Of course even then, automatics were available in most every car, manual transmissions, too, so the move to do away with clutch mastery was already well on its way, but the real guys knew, or thought they knew, a four speed was the only real choice. Your parents drove automatics, or your wife, but not you.
Now, try to find a stick. Sure they’re available here and there, but even pickup trucks come with automatics. Paddle shift, 8 speeds and even CVTs, what’s a guy supposed to do when he wants to feel the simple pleasure of controlling the car’s every move, selecting the right gear at the right time, smoothly synchronizing the engine speed with the transmission so the next gear slips into place without a lurch, … truly a lost art.
All of the little things the driver used to adjust, the manual choke became an automatic choke which might not work on really cold days, then fuel injection did away with any thought of it. The manual transmission became the automatic, the lights turn themselves on and off, seats adjust themselves to your preferred position, climate control maintains the temperature, … no wonder you see so many people texting and eating and god knows what else, there’s nothing else for them to do. Drive for the pure enjoyment of it and shift gears yourself? When dinosaurs roamed the earth.
I learned to drive stick in a 1962 Corvair Monza 3 speed. It was my grandfathers. To this day it was the nicest stick to drive. It wasn’t the fastest thing, but it was nimble and fun, and only as unsafe as the driver. ;) People don’t believe me, but same goes for a vw bug, just a fun car to drive.
Yes, Corvairs and VWs really were fun, maybe because they were so different from the rest of the cars we drove. The first time I drove a Beetle, I couldn’t get over how small it seemed, then it felt so neat because everything was so, … right there in front of you. Compared to other cars, it was like a go kart.
Driving a stick got so habitual that whenever I got into an automatic, the first thing that would happen was my left foot would slam into the floor depressing a clutch pedal that wasn’t there. I owned quite a few cars before I finally succumbed to the automatic.
These days, automatics are wondrous high tech marvels that work extremely well, but I still really enjoy rowing through the gears when I get a chance.
By the way Paul, its very good to see you back in full force! I was happy to see all the new updates on here and the kneeslider.
Back in the saddle, … :-D
I’m 27 years old and I’ve never owned an automatic car.
Manual transmissions are still relatively common in Australia, especially on cheap cars.
Our work utes and vans all come with manual transmissions, and most of the small hatchbacks are as well, because when people are on a budget, they usually don’t want to pay $2000 for the optional auto.
Having said that though, about 90% of new cars sold are automatic.
Manual transmissions still outnumber autos in Europe though!
That’s interesting. Here in the States, a manual is a rare and beautiful thing to those of us who like to shift on our own. Automatics are the norm with few cars even offering the option of a stick. You could probably walk through an average parking lot and 98 percent of the cars, or more, would be automatics. Might make for an interesting informal study one day to get real numbers on that split.
I’ve owned one slushbox car. it was a ’73 Dodge Colt GT, and the starter went out.
I had it rebuilt because there were no replacements to be had.
It was wired backwards and suffered damage, so the rebuilder gave me a new starter for a standard, so I used that as an excuse to convert the car to a 5 speed.
I had everything needed (had 3 of those Colts over the years, and got the clutch pedal from one, a D50 that the brake pedal came from, and an 80’s Challenger from which the trans came) except the flywheel, and got that from a guy who I raced against on dirt tracks.
If I had felt like it, I could have converted the engine plat to use the standard transmission starter, the difference was the auto had one more tooth on it but both had the bolts the same distance from the ring gear.
I put over 200,000 miles on the car before some schmuck ran into it.
If I could have found the crossmember I once had for colts I’d likely still own that car.