USVI-On-Line

I leanred on my mom's automatic and then learned stick soon after. I've owned both, plus a few motorcycles...but drive an automatic now.

Sticks really suck in traffic but are great fun otherwise and offer more "control"...if you are a control freak....hehe

Sports cars gotta have stick..IMO.

I learned on an automatic but when I was 17, my sister-in-law asked me if I wanted to trade my bike for her car. My nephew needed a bike so what could I say? Heck yeah! It was an old Opal Cadet. The stick shift was about 36" long and was a hoot to drive. My SIL even tought me how to drive it. Sometimes I had to shift into first gear just to go up a hill. We just returned from a trip to Spain where we rented an Opal. I cant remember the model but it was a manuel shift. Nice 4 door, roomy car. The cool thing about it was if you were stopped on a hill, it wouldn't roll backwards when you took your foot of the break. They don't sell these cars in the states but I wish they would. It was fun to drive!

cjroyer wrote:It was an old Opal Cadet.

CJ - I had a '71 Opel GT that would scream around the country roads. I probably drove by JT's place doing 80-ish...very short throw on the stick. Fun car.

If you went by my place at eighty I probably tried to hit you with a rock! When Iwe bought our place 32 years ago the road was gravel, but the SOB's paved it between the time we signed the contract and the time that we settled. The speed limit is 25 mph, but now people use it as a cut through.Our house is quite close to the road, so I do get a case of the ass about Opel GT's going 80-ish!

hahahaha...Barnesville, Bealsville, Comus, Bucklodge, White's Ferry...we were grinding gears in the 70's. Apologies. We were young and bullet proof... loved that stick