americanv8
Active Member
Yeah, I grew up all over, including Europe, so learned manual as that was the only option. I was surprised to find this mentality at home in the US among some car enthusiasts. The fact that automatics are so prevalent in the US is actually because of how rich we are, road infrastructure as a whole is fantastic and cost of owning an automatic is cheap for us, so most people will opt for it. But then you have some kids thinking they are "special" because they can drive manual as it's not commonplace, and believe that's what makes them "real" car enthusiasts. That's how you get an entire thread about "die hard manual guys", lol. Some of these guys talk about manual like they drive around with the shifter up their ass to feel really connected to the car.As an European fella, I find it quite funny all U US guys, can get such a rise out of this 'can U drive a stick' thing. Here (in Denmark) probably 95-99% of cars are manual. Until 3 years ago, manuals were mandatory when taking a licence, so everbody can drive stick. Nothing special. Now its possible to take an 'auto-only' licence. But if U later wanna drive a manual, U have to take a new test in a manual.
I looove my manual GT, but I rarely think about it in my work van. For normal driving its just second nature. But in the GT I'm, much more aware about my shifts, especially my heel toe downshifts.
But I also drive around in a rolling thunderstorm, so shifts are much more pronounced.
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