Hi all;
>From the nature of some of the posts, it seems I may have offended some of
our friends on this list, for which I profusely apologise. Just to clarify,
you'll be aware that I stated to Pat "I think it is going to be very
difficult to teach her how to drive a manual gearbox correctly". Significantly,
I most definitely did not say that she could not learn to drive a manual
gearbox correctly, which are two very different things. I am sure she could
learn to drive a manual gearbox car properly, but for most it takes time,
usually on their own once the basic lesson is over. So, I believe the result
of the 'teaching' bit might not seem all that successful. The result of
the 'time and experience' bit, on her own, might well be. I also want to
clarify that I was not being sexist, nor ageist, in my comments.
Perhaps a good approach might be to negotiate with the niece's parents so
that the niece gets a manual gearbox car as her daily driver. Pat then
teaches niece how to drive it, then occasionally rides with niece in the daily
driver until happy with how it's being driven, then moves her on to the TR.
I happen to be very picky about how my cars (especially my historic ones)
are driven, and that comes into the equation too.
So, without wishing to beat a dead horse, I definitely was not saying,
Pat, that your niece will never learn to drive a car with a manual gearbox. I
think once the initial lesson is over, it just comes with experience and
time.
On a lighter note, while we're exchanging banter on our first car
experiences, I learned to drive on my dad's vintage racer in the mid '70's, a
1926
Bentley 3-Litre boat tail with a centre throttle (yup, brake on the right),
an outside gearchange with no synchro on any gear and only rear brakes,
actuated by cables. He sold the car for 200 quid in 1974, because he wanted
to concentrate on getting our TR3A back on the road.
And Jim: Yes, I did teach some farm kids how to pass their Advanced Driving
Test in the UK. I could never figure out why they would begin to pull away
smoothly, then in the last couple of millimetres of clutch travel, the car
would jerk and they'd stall it. Once I moved to Canada and began to
understand tractors, I developed the theory that it was because I realised
that
tractors have a governor that helps prevent them from stalling. Modern cars
have anti-stall devices as part of an emissions system, which again makes
them easier to pull away.
I hope my apology serves to dissipate any offence.
Tim Dyer, Kings Creek Trees and Ornamentals
427 Kings Creek Road, RR3
Ashton, ON K0A 1B0
Canada
Phone/fax: 613 253 4126 Website: _www.kingscreektrees.com_
(http://www.kingscreektrees.com/)
Proud member of Landscape Ontario (the Ontario association for
horticulture professionals), the Canadian Nursery and Landscape Association,
the
Ottawa Botanical Garden Society, the Carleton Place Horticultural Society and
the Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario
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