Sorry for the novel - When rocks were soft and I was a child, my parents owned 2 VW products, neither equipped with a slush-o-matic - a '69 Beetle and a '71 Campmobile. I spent countless hours watching my parents drive and they'd even let me steer the Camper on long-distance trips when the roads were straight and empty (think: Wyoming). At some point, my Mom decided to teach me how to move the Bug around the driveway - it didn't take me long to master the technique b/c I'd watched and understood the concepts.
While I drove manual transmission cars constantly, I can't say that I drove them better or worse than anyone else. Unlike a former co-worker, I don't hold the car in place by using the clutch and I have a habit of almost stalling the motor so as to slip the clutch as little as possible. When I started getting into Autocross and Track Events, I started to notice a difference between shifting quickly and shifting aggressively. My goal was to shift gears as quickly as possible but without upsetting the car's balance even mid-turn where most every instructor will scream "You CANNOT shift in the middle of a turn". This varies from a rough, aggressive shift that makes the tyres chirp and the car to lurch. Driving old American trucks didn't hurt - it taught me all about how to drive without using the clutch which came in handy a few times when I had some sort of catastrophic failure or another. I even finished a few races clutchless - the upshifts were great but the downshifts were a bit more frantic - either way, I finished and no one died (that I was responsible for killing). On Friday, August 29, 2014 9:38 AM, Larry Velez <[email protected]> wrote: I am sure you all are reading in the various car rags how Porsche seems to be abandoning the manual gear box with the latest GT3. Ferrari only sold 1% of their cars as manuals last year. Apparently well budgeted people no longer want to shift their transmissions themselves. The robots have won another battle. So enjoy your manual shifting in your 16Vs this weekend, you'll be telling stories to future generations of how things were in the old days. Speaking of shifting, Chad came by my place this past weekend and he was able to check out the patient in the garage (I am determined to get her running this year) and I got a chance to get a ride in his Jetta GLI 16V Turbo. Chad made me self-conscious about shifting too fast/aggressively. How did you all learn to shift the "right" way and are some habits better on the transmission for longevity? Larry 91 GTI 16V (New Fuel Filter installed, New Transfer Pump installed, Transfer Pump Assembly rebuilt, fuel delivery troubleshooting continues to main pump next) _______________________________________________ a2-16v-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list For list archives, see listinfo link above. _______________________________________________ a2-16v-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list For list archives, see listinfo link above.
