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Featured: To Drive A Manual Is to Learn a New Language

To Drive A Manual Is to Learn a New Language

By Jonathan WC Mills
September 10, 2013
34 comments

Driving a stick is like learning a language.

Rowing one’s own gearbox engages the driver directly into the automotive equation. Whether it’s the satisfying mechanical ‘snick’ that comes with the metal gate of a Ferrari, or the light flick of the Miata, the stick connects a driver to a car in a way automatic, sequential, paddle or Doppelkupplungsgetriebe transmissions simply cannot.

It can be an arduous process, learning how to sing with a car. The action of depressing the clutch, disengaging the motor, moving the lever, shifting a set of spinning cogs and gently letting out the clutch again while feeling the motor engage is a bio-mechanical duet that, in a V12 Ferrari on a crisp fall day, the song can swell to operatic levels.

Of course, like any form of speech, there are those that take pleasure in conversation and those that do not. For many years, drivers didn’t have a choice—every car had a manual transmission. Nowadays, if you want to speak with your automobile, the transmission lever is the only way. It’s direct communication; removing the computers, the wires, the decision-making software. You can drive angrily, and the car will be there with you, shrieking and howling…or you can drive smoothly, the wind gently flowing through your hair. The tone of the conversation is up to you.

These days, the stick is an anachronism, an ode to a different era. The very notion that a vehicle requires actual effort has become a foreign concept to the vast majority of drivers, which means fewer men and women will ever learn to enjoy the sublime joy of a new language.

Too bad—it’s the only language I know.

Tags Learning to Drive Manual/ Manual Transmission
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Gary Stokley
Gary Stokley
2 years ago

It’d be great if learning a new language was just as easy. But in reality, it takes a lot of time and effort. I recently needed an english to polish translation and had to ask for help with this. And although I got a high-quality human translation, I realized how important knowledge of languages ​​is. After all, this gives us not only more opportunities during travel, but also in the post-day life.

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Andre Basson
Andre Basson
4 years ago

“The very notion that a vehicle requires actual effort has become a foreign concept to the vast majority of drivers, which means fewer men and women will ever learn to enjoy the sublime joy of a new language.”
Proof please. Do you have the statistics to support this statement?

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Jon Harder
Jon Harder
4 years ago
Reply to  Andre Basson

As a mechanic I can verify this statement (can’t tell if you actually need proof or not) But the idea of being responsible for
ones cars well-being, and that it would be in their best interest to maybe check their oil or tires once and a while, which requires some level of effort has definitely escaped this era for the most part. IMO

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ZER0GAS
ZER0GAS
4 years ago

The Manual transmission is the connection between you and the machine’s soul!!! That’s why when manufacturers remove the stick, the car dies!!!

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Anthony Poirier
Anthony Poirier
4 years ago

Born in 1975 almost all my cars have been manuals. From spirited driving, to better fuel economy or being able to control the car in snow.

When I was younger automatic transmissions were more expensive but I never bought a new car so it didn’t matter! My 03 Civic was the perfect Canadian all year car until I could obtain my summer car. Even my daily driver Subaru is manual. It’s the only way to go.

As many of my modern friends mock the manual and brag how paddle etc is the new way; Top Gear says you need to own an Alfa to be a real car guy. A muscle car man means its rear wheel drive, V8 and manual only. You can’t be a real car guy unless your classic is a three pedal chariot.

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jura
jura
5 years ago

one of the best

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Felipe Covarrubias
Felipe Covarrubias
5 years ago

There are beautiful poems, pure art reflected in a canvas or many forms of expression, but these lines written with the heart of a true enthusiast … have no price … this is to understand the true art of before, driving in its purest form … thank you very much!!

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Munro
Munro
5 years ago

I’ve always thought the prevalence of automatics as a very American phenomenon, however things are changing fast elsewhere too. In the UK in 2004 only 15% of cars were automatics, by 2014 this had risen to 25%, but I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that it’s expected that market share may reach 45% this year. Still nowhere near America where I think automatics are about +90% of the market. Whether it is globalisation of models, increased congestion, or other factors, there are now European models that have no manual option and are only available as automatics.

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Jim Levitt
Jim Levitt
5 years ago

Why is there a boot on that (pictured) Ferrari Daytona. None ever came with a boot, someone is covering that gorgeous aluminum, gated shifter plate.
I learned stick when I was 12 on a John Deere tractor.
No synchros, so I really LEARNED. I could smoothly drive a XK120 Jag at 16. I could drive a Triumph TR3A with blown synchros, I could drive pretty much anything when I was a teenager and had a few months of driving under my belt!

By the time I was 19 I owned two cars. One fast toy that was a stick and an automatic something or other to get back and forth from work in heavy traffic (always heavy)!

I feel bad for the kids today (including my two 40 somethings). One can’t, (and won’t learn) to drive stick, the other doesn’t care anymore.
No one is in full control of their SUV/CUVs and until we’re fully autonomous, it’s pretty deadly out there. I’m glad I grew up when I did, life, in general, is not that much fun anymore…

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Sean Haley
Sean Haley
5 years ago

Wonderful article! I learned to drive, and took my driving test, on a manual transmission and haven’t looked back since! There’s nothing like it!

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StephenZ
StephenZ
6 years ago

Just reading this for the first time, but, amen….I learned stick with my dad on his 81′ 308 GTSi…when I was nine years old..(yes, my dad was brave and very cool). I’ve barely had any automatic cars in my decades of driving, and my kids will definitely learn stick when that time soon comes…:-). I don’t drive to get from point A to point B. I drive to enjoy becoming connected to the experience.

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Kermit Alexis
Kermit Alexis
10 years ago

Today’s roads are extremely busy but there is no reason why you cannot learn to drive if you find a company whose instructors have the experience to judge your ability and your progress. The Above Tip By: [b][url=”http://www.autogenerit.info/learn-to-drive-with-an-experienced-instructor.html”]Generic Names[/url][/b]

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Schnell87
Schnell87
10 years ago

I’m so used to my ’87 Carrera forcing me to mechanically and definitively select a gear like instruction from a German housewife, that when I had the pleasure of driving my father-in-law’s ’63 E-Type on a 6 hr drive across Wisconsin backroads, I truly experienced what Jonathon described above. Getting used to what RPMs the engine desired in which of the four gears and where those gears were underneath the cracked leather of a preservation car’s boot was a totally new (and beautiful experience). My wife commented by the end of the trip that I had gotten “in sync” with the car which was one the best compliments I could have received.

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Balazs Barna
Balazs Barna
10 years ago

Manual transmissions are no joy any longer in modern average, overcomplicated, super safe, computerized cars, where the accelerator feels like a sponge and the “amount of going” is in the hand of some “low emission motivated box” and all its sensors. But in some lovely old fashion car with a “happy to rev” engine…. oh yeah. I’d definitely stick with the stick.

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JB21
JB21
10 years ago
Reply to  Balazs Barna

You nailed it. It’s not really due to people who don’t wanna bother with the third pedal. Auto industries, reviewers, and to many degrees, we enthusiasts have focused so much on the stuff that’s not quite what made man-machine interaction interesting for so long, we pretty much killed it. I mean, most 4 cylinder engine today have twin cam, but you can’t even tell what it is, there’s no “on the cam” feel at all. And because of the drivability and the flexibility of the engines today, manual is more often than not just simply mismatched but redundant, especially with auto trans being so bloody good these days. So we’ve got very easy to live with engines that makes gazillions of horsepower but not much in a sense of mechanical connection or sensation. It’s so hard to fall in love with today’s cars, they are all bit like a fridge. Even great, high-end cars like 458 Italia feels like a really good, outrageous, passionate, red fridge. Having said all that, I still opt for manual. It’s like smoking. I don’t really smoke any more, but I always have a pack around, just in case I want to light one up in the defiance against social conformity of health and safety that’s totally killing us.

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Mathieu Echallier
Mathieu Echallier
10 years ago

I’ve always owned manual cars, I’m from Europe and only a few people around me own an automatic. When I had to dirve an automatic, I found it sad, without this “connection” with the car it felt like it is mute. Driving a manual allows you to express your own personnality through the car.

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Andreas Lavesson
Andreas Lavesson
10 years ago

In Sweden you don’t get to drive a manual if you get your license in an automatic. You get a special, restricted license in that case. However, I don’t know or even heard about anyone that’s ever gotten that kind of license.

Up until just a few years ago, almost every car sold had a manual, but automatics are rapidly taking over. My brother thinks I’m “counter-evolutionary” or something when I talk about manual transmissions, but I couldn’t care less. Sure, an automatic is very nice when you’re in a traffic queue, but a manual is unbeatable when you intend to actually “drive” and not just transport yourself.

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Erik StGelais
Erik StGelais
10 years ago
Reply to  Andreas Lavesson

And yet, I love oddly love dealing with a manual transmission in heavy traffic. My friends all think I’m crazy, going into downtown at rush hour and putting myself on the steepest hills in the city. Complaining about the asshole behind me that’s so close I can’t even see his hood. To me, it’s part of owning a car. Sure, my clutch would probably rather I avoided the hills and heavy traffic at all costs, but if I’m going to get into a car that I own, it’s going to have 3 pedals.

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Vincent P
Vincent P
10 years ago

The only pre requisition I had with my wife when we got married some 14 years ago was that she learned to drive a manual. I left my MK1 GTI with her at school and said if she wanted to visit she best learn to drive it. Well some 2 weeks later she made the 300 mile drive to where I was and had finally mastered the manual. She might have popped the clutch and hit a wall but the damage was all but forgoten when she pulled up in that special car.

Long live the manual…

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Jon Warshawsky
Jon Warshawsky
10 years ago

The cable-operated clutch, where you actually had to modulate the pedal, has been gone and forgotten for years. And syncromesh long ago took most of the skills out of driving a three-pedal manual. So yeah, sorry to see the third pedal die off, just like it was sad when carburetters bit the dust, but the notion of a three-pedal-and-lever manual in a modern car is sort of bizarre. I don’t even think Ferrari offer an old school three-pedal setup anymore.

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Jim Levitt
Jim Levitt
5 years ago
Reply to  Jon Warshawsky

Carburetters?

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Richard H
Richard H
10 years ago

What a great article – nothing better than rowing through the gears and finding that oh-so-sweet torque curve.

If only the guy driving the ‘stang would wear proper shoes… thong sandals? Those only belong on the beach or in the showers at the gym.

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Schnell87
Schnell87
10 years ago
Reply to  Richard H

Haha! Great catch. Although if they’re thin enough you might even feel the pedal’s well enough to heel-toe 🙂

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John
John
10 years ago

Dammit I love this website. I taught my wife to drive a manual on our honeymoon in Costa Rica in our Suzuki Jimmy rental. What a memorable experience for us both. Plus it was much more forgiving than our P-car.

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Robert Goldstein
Robert Goldstein
10 years ago

I learned how to drive a manual on an Alfa Romeo Spyder Veloce and have never looked back. Whether it was my Toyota Celica, Jeep CJ7 or one of the many of the BMWs I have owned, they have always had manual transmissions. Unless I am physically unable to work a manual tranny, I will always have one in my garage.

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Mosca Valerio
Mosca Valerio
10 years ago

With a manual transmission you can do also a heel-and-toe technique that made a fantastic sensation if you do it right…

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Steven Stamopoulos
Steven Stamopoulos
10 years ago
Reply to  Mosca Valerio

Absolutely. That noise when double clutching/heel and toeing is magnificent, and you can feel your car appreciate it, when the gear slots in without any effort.

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Joe Gomez
Joe Gomez
10 years ago

A long time ago my first Car was a push button Automatic Doge Lancer My next Car was a 55 Chevy wit a 327 Corvette engine and a 4 speed manual and have not looked back since !

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Alex Clise
Alex Clise
10 years ago

Nice piece. It reads like the introduction to the Rosetta Stone of Standard Transmission driving.

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Adam Holter
Adam Holter
10 years ago

I learned to drive stick on my old ’69 Chevy C10. The previous owner had converted it from column shift to super-long-throw floor shift…1st gear was about a half inch into the bench seat cushion, second was up roughly where your knuckles would start banging the dashboard, and third was uncomfortable rubbing the leg of your riding partner. Fun, though!

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john tolle
john tolle
10 years ago

Save the Manual !
Driving is so much more than 0-60 time or quickest time around the track. It is a language to those who care to learn it. E.g., can any enthusiast really imagine driving a Jaguar E Type without a manual ? It’s rapidly approaching that true 3 pedals will not be available in new cars, but I’m not welcoming it.

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Steven Stamopoulos
Steven Stamopoulos
10 years ago
Reply to  john tolle

In this era of emissions and fuel conservations with 8 and 9 speeds approaching, there is no way cars will continue to have 3 pedals. Fortunately for us the best cars ever made had only 3, 4 or 5 forward gears.

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Chris Mann
Chris Mann
10 years ago

Nice piece Jonathan. Probably resonates more with your readers in the USA than over here in Europe, where most of us drive manuals!

Having recently returned to having a manual 2001 VW Polo GTI and a 1983 BMW E30 316 (4 speed) from a year on Autobox controlled V8 in a 1998 Audi S8, I certainly feel much more connected to what the car is doing…especially in the BMW.

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Vintage Son
Vintage Son
10 years ago

It is, in a way. The first car I drove with a manual was an AAR Cuda, and I stalled a lot. Then I got another try with a 440-6 Cuda, easier but still a lot of stalling problems, let alone getting to learn how to handle the power of that car. I recently got a 91 Shelby Daytona, which has a stick, mainly I just wanted to learn. Problem is, previous owner installed a high performance pressure plate. Man is this thing a handful for regular use. But now I am confident I can drive just about anything with a stick, it’s a great feeling most of the time.

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