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View Full Version : I LOVE MANUAL TRANSMISSIONS!!! (A Great Experience.)



woaface
09-11-2005, 07:23 AM
(I'll get some pictures soon...)

Well, yesterday a co-worker of mine offered to lend me her car for a while if I took it home and washed it, waxed it, swept out the inside, cleaned out the dash and consol, shined up the tires etc.

It's a 5-speed TDI (Turbocharged Diesel) VW Jetta. She has rims and low-profile tires on it.

Well, I drove around town to get a few things (like rain-x and tech-wax) for about 20 minutes getting used to the feel. At this point I can kind of drive a manual transmission but this is my first time driving around the city and my first time alone.

Either way, by the time I got it home I wasn't stalling and I didn't grind gears at all during the lenght of this story. I got the car all pretty, took it back to her (she was really excited and extremely impressed) and said "If I put 10 bucks worth of gas in it can I take it out for a little longer?" To which she responds, "How about I pay you ten dollars less and you can drive it all night...have fun with it."

It's 7 or 8p.m. at this point and I didn't return the car until 11:45p.m. when she was finally leaving work.

I took that car just about everywhere, I even met a turbocharged civic that was all riced out and had to be the ugliest thing I had ever seen and after dusting him from a light to 80 (on a large open highway) he replied "It's not runnin' right" and gave me the thumbs up. I told him "Well that sucks for you because it's my first time driving a manual!" (A Turbo Hyabusa immediately blew BETWEEN our cars on one wheel.)

I also got a friend and found some deserted sections of town out in the country and railed through the gears on the twisties. That was fun. I was careful I promise.

It was a ton of fun and this has definitely helped enforce my desire for a manual transmission in my next car. I need a small, cheap, efficient car for college and supposedly this thing get's about 30 to 40 mpg.

I will either buy a Marauder when I get out of college or while I'm in. If I buy one while I'm in I'll leave it back in greenville with my dad. No way in hell I'll take it around campus and stuff with no garage!:D

martyo
09-11-2005, 08:04 AM
Note to self: Do NOT let James offer to wash my car.

cyclone03
09-11-2005, 12:57 PM
You know back when I offered to wash a girls car I got to drive more than just the car.....
But I was a dog....

huot5
09-11-2005, 06:32 PM
those TDI Jettas are the hottest things going with the gas prices all jacked up as they are. great MPG's . I prefer not to drive a chick car any longer.

I'll take a V8 and RWD or AWD.

oh yeah, manual trannies are fun, but hot co-workers offering their cars are more funner.

woaface
09-11-2005, 07:30 PM
I never said she was a hot co-worker. But she is.

She's also married and has a kid. I wouldn't be suprised it she had been a cheerleader in High School.

I miss MM.net, I'm not around enough anymore. I'll get working on that...

martyo
09-11-2005, 08:32 PM
I'm not around enough anymore. I'll get working on that...

Good idea. Hurry.

LightningVic
09-14-2005, 06:28 AM
why dont you just put a manual transmission in your marauder?

wchain
09-14-2005, 06:35 AM
With all the technology and synchros, its hard to 'grind' gears anymore, and the TDI has enough base torque to be forgiving enough not to stall!

Great First car to learn and drive stick on!

I learned in a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 when I was in high school working at the Porsche/BMW/Audi/Mercedes/Volvo Dealer.

"Hey Kid? You know how to drive stick?"

Me: Uh yeah, sure

"Good, pull all the customers cars arond back and lock the gate for the night." :burnout:

Breadfan
09-14-2005, 07:27 AM
Manual transmissions ARE fun, part of me wishes the Marauder came with it, but a big cruiser like that is fine with an automagic.

I bought my '90 Mustang for the manual, it had been a long time since I had driven one, and then it was only basic learning on one. So in a sense I was starting from scratch.

I'm perfect on it now, the best way to learn is to drive around on one. Just spending 20 minutes practicing starting and stopping won't do the trick. I say buy a car with a manual trans and start driving it. If it's a second car, you can ease into where you take it. For instance, before I really learned I only took the 'stang on back roads, not into the city where you get tons of stoplights with big hills and people that hug your rear bumper at the stoplight...

I guess people like the TDI's, I couldn't do it, it sounds like an '85 Hyundai Excel that is in desperate need of a valve job...

Haggis
09-14-2005, 09:26 AM
I never said she was a hot co-worker. But she is.

She's also married and has a kid. I wouldn't be suprised it she had been a cheerleader in High School.

I miss MM.net, I'm not around enough anymore. I'll get working on that...
...a 'hot co-worker' and she is older too. :coolman:

You go James :;)

woaface
09-14-2005, 07:09 PM
What can I say Gordon, what can I say?:D

Mike Poore
09-15-2005, 03:07 PM
(I'll get some pictures soon...)

At this point I can kind of drive a manual transmission but this is my first time driving around the city and my first time alone. !:D
But....but... isn't your dad's Cobra a 6sp? Are we to understand; in all this time, he's never allowed you to drive it? :eek:


Your turn, Marty....

woaface
09-16-2005, 03:56 AM
Me drive the Cobra!? Ha!

Not quite yet. If I'm really really good I think I'll get it for Prom towards the end of the school year.