Shift Brain in Gear Before Lifting the Clutch
by Aaron
My cross-cultural J-term trip to South Africa didn't so much start with a bang. It is more of a lurch. Rather several lurches. You see I volunteered to drive the 8-passenger, manual transmission van on the left side of the road without ever having driven a stick shift in my life. And my first opportunity came after 24 hours of flying halfway across the world. It wasn't a smooth beginning.
Lurch one: release the parking brake. Check.
Lurch two: start it in first gear not third. Check.
Lurch three: let the clutch out slowly. Check.
After several neck-snapping stops, I haltingly got the 8-passenger van out of the rental car parking lot of the Cape Town International Airport.
Lurch four: when slowing down, push in the clutch. You can't go 15 miles per hour in fourth gear.
I must give thanks to Dave for riding shotgun during my white-knuckled first fifteen kilometers. Sitting in the front was not a passive position. He was just a responsible for watching for on-coming traffic.
Plus, when you switch sides of the road and drive from the right side of the car, your whole perception of the car's position gets thrown off. I kept nearly side-swiping curbs and cars on the left side of the road. It got so bad Jannie, our trip's leader, pulled over and sent Eric, another Luther student, running back from his van to warn me.
We made it out of Cape Town in one piece. But for that whole first week, first gear was not my friend. At the very end of our first day in South Africa we rolled into Themaletu, a township near George. It was late. I hadn't slept more than four hours in three days. We had just driven for six hours across the South African veld. There were lots of people out milling in the streets relaxing after work. And we stopped on a hill.
We stopped on a hill. For anyone who has learned to drive a stick shift, they know how my heart dropped. I lifted the clutch as slowly as I could but we started rolling backward and there was a car behind us. I killed it. I killed it again. And again. People outside were starting to stare. My passengers were starting to laugh. I was starting to curse. It was not a fun experience. After perhaps 12 tries I managed to get that van over the hill and to our lodging for the night.
Moral of the story: Take patient friends with you when you travel. Thank God for Arianna, Dave, Crystal, Kathy, and Amanda for enduring my curses, tirades and frustration at my own mechanical ineptitude. My manhood was threatened by my seeming inability to drive a stick shift. But they kept reassuring me. They never complained to my face. We all laughed about my minor mishaps and everyone made it back to the States uninjured.
As with many endeavors, getting started is the hardest task. Patience and persistence is the key, along with a little laugher, especially when you're in clutch situations.
Lurch one: release the parking brake. Check.
Lurch two: start it in first gear not third. Check.
Lurch three: let the clutch out slowly. Check.
After several neck-snapping stops, I haltingly got the 8-passenger van out of the rental car parking lot of the Cape Town International Airport.
Lurch four: when slowing down, push in the clutch. You can't go 15 miles per hour in fourth gear.
I must give thanks to Dave for riding shotgun during my white-knuckled first fifteen kilometers. Sitting in the front was not a passive position. He was just a responsible for watching for on-coming traffic.
Plus, when you switch sides of the road and drive from the right side of the car, your whole perception of the car's position gets thrown off. I kept nearly side-swiping curbs and cars on the left side of the road. It got so bad Jannie, our trip's leader, pulled over and sent Eric, another Luther student, running back from his van to warn me.
We made it out of Cape Town in one piece. But for that whole first week, first gear was not my friend. At the very end of our first day in South Africa we rolled into Themaletu, a township near George. It was late. I hadn't slept more than four hours in three days. We had just driven for six hours across the South African veld. There were lots of people out milling in the streets relaxing after work. And we stopped on a hill.
We stopped on a hill. For anyone who has learned to drive a stick shift, they know how my heart dropped. I lifted the clutch as slowly as I could but we started rolling backward and there was a car behind us. I killed it. I killed it again. And again. People outside were starting to stare. My passengers were starting to laugh. I was starting to curse. It was not a fun experience. After perhaps 12 tries I managed to get that van over the hill and to our lodging for the night.
Moral of the story: Take patient friends with you when you travel. Thank God for Arianna, Dave, Crystal, Kathy, and Amanda for enduring my curses, tirades and frustration at my own mechanical ineptitude. My manhood was threatened by my seeming inability to drive a stick shift. But they kept reassuring me. They never complained to my face. We all laughed about my minor mishaps and everyone made it back to the States uninjured.
As with many endeavors, getting started is the hardest task. Patience and persistence is the key, along with a little laugher, especially when you're in clutch situations.
posted by Aaron at 6:32 PM
3 Comments:
Wow - that's awesome. I've driven a manual for years, but I remember a stoplight on a hill during my first test drive with a manual; it was exactly as you describe. I hope the transmission difficulties weren't the only memories you'll have!
Check out today's post and more to come concerning my time in South Africa.
Yeah..great!
I got transmission problem and bought a centerforce clutch months ago while we're on a trip to north.
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