Any interesting or funny stories about when you were learning to drive a stick or teaching someone else?

Mine's not that funny or interesting but I'll share it anyway...

Never driven a stick before and I was doing some community serv- uh volunteer work at a golf course and one HOT day there were a couple of tasks that had to be completed; one was lugging a pile of railway ties from one spot to stack in another spot... not far enough to use any kind of vehicle for and the other was taking a load of garbage to the dump in the old F150 and the boss gave me the choice, so of course I said I would take the garbage to the dump and he asked if I new how to drive a stick... Yep! Well, it took me about five minutes just to get it into reverse to back out of the stall. Before I left he added another couple of pickups/dropoffs right downtown. Needless to say I stalled it more than a few times but made it back in one piece.

 

ive only ever taught one person to drive stick (wife is unwilling to learn) used a cj-7 jeep and drove around a small town in 4-low with the hubs unlocked. i learned on a '74 F250 with the 300-6 and creeper 1st 4 spd. funniest things that have occured to me: once i had my ears suctioned out, i had drove myself to the hospital, i was dizzy and disoreinted when i walked out, got in a civic wagon, forgot it was stick turned the key, and promptly slammed into the curb behind me. 2nd one was driving my '77 nova, which is a automatic, i was coming up to a stop sign, forgot it was a automatic, picked up and put down my left foot and caught the corner of the brake pedal. and in drivers ed, we stopped at a park, i had left it in "D" when i shut off the motor. we had gotten out and the car started rolling backwards.

 

I learned how to drive a stick on a old f-100 with three on a tree, no power steering and no power brakes. Dad figured if I learned how to drive that old truck, I could drive anything. He was right , rest his soul.

 

When i boguht my truck i knew the how your supposed to drive stick, but never did it myself. I had the truck at work where i was working on it, and i figured i'd do some practice in the parkinlot.. well lets say that i gave the starter a workout before i got the hang of getting going. then before i knew it i was getting into 4th in the lot. i love the way that when you give it alot of gas it dosnt downshift and it feels so much more connected.

 

my truck (RIP) was wat i learned on.... in the BUSY parking lot of a Hastings store... well to say the least there were quite a few SCARED pedestrians

 

I learned to drive a stick when I was 11, we lived on a ranch. Unfortunately, the truck was a '61 C---Y, ex-Forest Service beater with a 235 straight six and compound low. I loved to put it in low and rev the crap out of it, one day it made a funny noise while I was doing so and lunched the engine. I felt bad at the time, but for some reason I don't now! -TD

 

First time I drove a standard was when I was test driving my '02 neon. Told the sales guy I wanted a neon without a bunch of options, and the one they had was a stick. He asked me if I knew how, and I told him I knew. Never done it before, but I knew how!

I was very cautious, and inexplicably, I didn't stall it once. I was a bit jerky, but with concentration I did ok with it. Took me about a week to get comfortable with it, but it was a great car, until I totalled it in '03!

 

I learned to drive a stick when I was 8 on a 78 F250 supercab. My dad was to drunk to even walk so I took the keys and drove almost home until I turned a corner and hit a parked car and drove it into another car and that car into a telephone pole which fell down and landed on a house... Sorta a CRASH coarse

 

This is a tad long, but a good story.

I taught an ex-girlfriend how to drive a stick on my '99 Jetta. This car was not very user-friendly. After driving the car for 50,000 miles, I STILL could not get it to shift smoothly, and I've been driving a stick for a long time.

This girl never swore. At all. She even didn't like me swearing, which is kind of an uphill battle. She was using a word when I met her that she didn't know the meaning of (unrepeatable here , and it wasn't one of the 7 dirty words) and when I explained it to her, she never used it again. She just had this thing about never swearing.

Anyway, we were out driving around. We got stuck at a light and there were a couple cars behind us. She panicked and couldn't get the car moving again. She stalled it a couple times. I stuck my hand out the window and started waving people around. When she calmed down, she got it moving again. We went down a side street, and stopped at a stopsign. She came to a complete stop, and stalled it AGAIN when she started. She screamed a curse word out REALLY loud and hit the steering wheel. She was SO frustrated, and I couldn't believe she did that. Then I laughed hysterically for about 10 minutes.

Can't understand why we broke up.

 

I learned when I was 13. Still getting better every day.

 

Learned on the tractors and F600 on the farm. All level ground.

My uncle got drafted and left his 65 or 66 Mercury Montclair-- a big Galaxie sized boat-- 2dr, 390 4V 4speed, for my old man to sell for him.

So I'm on my learner's permit and the old man lets me drive this thing. I ended up rolling backwards 200 feet down a hill in town. Didn't hit anything, but that was an experience.

Much better with a stick now, I'm glad to say.

 

My father "taught" me how to drive a standard on his 1987 F250HD. (Via the dope-slap method) I used to live in Arlington (TX) at the corner of Brown blvd and Collins. (You know the one.) There's a steeeeeeep hill there. I had a real hard time remembering the 2nd gear is one position to the left and down from neutral. (1st is Low on the 5-speed and rarely used in normal driving.) Down from neutral is of course and unfortunately 4th gear. At the top of the hill was a traffic light. I get all the way to the top of the hill and of course, the light turns red so I stop. Light turns green, I put it in 4th and stall. Then, I remembered where 2nd was but because there was honking traffic behind me, I rushed through the carefully orchestrated ballet of starting on a hill. I put it in second, gently revved the engine to 4000 rpm and dumped the clutch. The engine speed started to drop quickly so I floored it and pushed in the clutch and dumped it again. I got moving but very slowly. There was also a lot of smoke coming from under the truck and a burnt brake pad smell. Nice job buddy. Giving it just a little clutch was new technology to me and still months away from becoming part of my automotive repertoire. It drove like crap after that little maneuver. I quietly limped it back to my parents house and left it there before my dad got home from work. My dad calls me later and says "About my truck you borrowed, would there be any reason why I have to rev the engine to 3500 rpm while in 1st (Low!) on level ground to get it barely moving?" Me: "Huh, no..." So then, I learned how to replace a clutch disk, pressure plate, throwout bearing and pilot bearing. Also I received a super-sized dope-slap.

On the flip side, earlier this year, my wife let me drive her car to the grocery store and back. She hates driving. Unfortunately for her, I've driven mostly stick shifts since I got my license; My dad's 5-speed 87 F250, 1987 Yugo GV with a 4 speed, 99 F250 5-speed and now a 03 F250 6-speed, not to mention all the manual trucks at work. Getting out of the grocery store parking lot and merging into traffic, I look down at the tach which was around 2000 rpm. What does this mean? In my F250, it means I need to shift gears. So I reach down for the gear shift. Ah! found it, I firmly press the clutch pedal and surprise!! The damned car screeches to a halt and BAM! We get rear ended. Ah yes, I forgot, it's an automatic and that wasn't the clutch, it was the brake pedal. The guy who hit us was furious. A dope-slap is still pending.

 

I learned to drive a stick in our 68 bronco, but i never got to drive a stick much until recently. I tried several times to take off with the the parking brake on in a cj7 before thanksgiving until i relized my mistake. Then i was just fine, no other incedents yet.

 

I learned on my dads ranger in the back of a Food Lion parking lot. Before I completely grasped the concept, we were looking at 5 spd trucks. I found one just like his, only a smaller engine, non 4x4, and Blue instead of green. Felt right at home, lol. Now i'm in the process of trying to teach my girlfriend to drive my truck....she's scared she's gonna hurt it...after all it's been through, there is no way she is gonna hurt it any worse. I've got her to know the order of the gears and let her shift when she's in the passenger seat, you know, give her the signal when I press the clutch, etc. I'm making progress.

 

I was sitting in the showroom on a slow night at a Chevy dealer and I decided I wanted to learn how to drive a stick. So, I looked through the glove box of a Renault LeCar and was thrilled to see the owner's manual explained how to drive a standard, unlike teh American cars. So, I followed the directions and pretty soon I was buzzing around the lot. So, I decided to drive that home as my demo.

I use to wind that thing up in high RPMs and scoot around town and the corners power shifting. It was a fun little car and I drove it a long time until winter and then I used a Subaru DL AWD and use to launch the thing over the snow banks at the end of my driveway so I would not have to shovel. I had a blast learning how to drive a standard.

Then my boss's friend had a 1976 Harley Sportster (special annv. edition?) sitting in the show room, so I decided to try to learn how to drive that. So, I got it started, did laps around the show room, waved to the guys in the bodyshop and service shop showing off. Then I got waved down to come in because a customer/up came in.

So, as I slowed down to drive the bike into the showroom, I turned back the brake handle on the right hand and closed my hand on the throttle by mistake and the thing took off and buried itself under the rear bed of a repo Datsun pickup and caved in the whole side of the bed.

I went over the bed without any protective gear. Luckily all I did was wreck my suit, bent the fender of the bike, and hit a repo. I forget if I sold the person a car, I must have been a sight with scraps and blood dripping off the rips in the suit. I found the bike was not traded in YET and the guy that owned it was not too happy with me. He ended up forgiving me for my stupidity and it was the last time I rode anything with a motor, only two wheels, and no seatbelt. Though I did learn to ride a standard shift bike.

I was much older and wiser when I learned how to drive a semi, I did it the same way. By reading the owner's manual. I think it was an Freightliner. Guy at a local freight company next door taught me how to back them up and hook them up. I have taken dual axle tractors (slightly) off-road and up hills. You can do pretty well until you hit ice and then those hard as glass tires leave you stuck. I think the scariest thing I ever drove off-road with a standard was a septic truck. They have locking diffs. but they track really wierd and feel like they are going to tip and slide out whenever going around corners.