After driving the 57 Plymouth which has a four speed, I got into my daily driver to run some errands. After starting it, the first thing I did was to put my left foot on the clutch pedal that is not there.
I've seen the opposite to that.. At the time, one of our works vehicle was a manual, trying to drive it was a guy bought up on automatics.. The sound of crunching gears on each of his five or so attempts to try and select low gear without using the clutch pedal was horendous. He gave up in the end..
I don't remember doing that, but I did do this. My Buddy and I were wholesaling cars. I jumped in one to drive home, stopped at the gas station, because they are always out of gas. Pumped gas, opened door and climbed in, that's when I realized I was driving a four door and had climbed in the back seat. I acted like I was looking for something for a few minutes before exiting the back seat and getting in the drivers seat and leaving.
Another event that is more related to your event. I was a young kid, my Dad, myself, and his friend Charlie were driving somewhere. Charlie points to a house with a fairly new car sitting in front of it, this would be very early 60's. Charlie says that so and so bought that car new a few years ago, but won't drive it. Charlie had asked the guy why he didn't drive his new car, guys response was, it didn't have a clutch pedal, the factory forgot to put it in. The car was an automatic. This was in way backwoods Maryland.
i drove big trucks for 30 years, most with the fuller "road ranger" transmission. as i neared retirement, companies couldn't find recruits that could drive a stick shift, so they switched to automatics. with the fuller trans, you basically use the clutch to get it going, then you "float shift." of course, in my first automatic, i still waved that left leg around!
My quirk is that after driving one of my new cars (or even my 4 speed Corvette), I jump in my '51 Ford and take off down the highway. Invariably, after reaching 50 or 55, I try to grab another gear. I gotta get that overdrive transmission installed.
I had a 66 GTO 4-speed i drove as a daily, I put my ex in a 68 400 firebird auto that I also used to street race on occasion. After driving the GTO for over a month solid we got into the firebird one Friday night and all was fine until a H-O Mustang pulls up beside us at the traffic light reving their engine, light turns green and it's on, watching the tach, it hits 5500 and I do the usual GTO clutch stomp and sidestep only to find out it's the firebirds brake pedal as I slam the shifter into neutral and about throw us into the windshield when the power brakes tried to do a commanding stop. I lost the race as the H-O shot out in front of me as the ex wife yells "what the hell are you doing !" Looking for the clutch is my reply... ..
not nearly as dramatic as any of that but this morning after doing my banking I returned to the car like normal only to find myself standing at the driver side. I was driving the '23 T there is no door on the driver side not the first time I'd done that and I'm sure it won't be the last.
I still reach for the 5 speed shifter from a car I sold 5 years ago. not sure if I go for the clutch too but that makes sense.
My 49 truck has a column shifted auto trans, 90% of my driving is in it. My wife's car has a floor shifted auto trans, but on the column where my shift lever is located, her car has a wiper control switch. You can probably imagine how many times I have turned on the wipers in her car. My 48 Plymouth coupe has a 5 speed manual trans, I don't drive it much since the truck has been on the road. For the first few times I drive it, I forget to push in the clutch, or forget to manually shift the trans, and can't figure out why its not up shifting like it should.
Been there done that as far as stomp the clutch pedal where there was no clutch pedal. Working in various shops for years I used to drive as many as 15 or 20 different rigs a day on some days and got used to being in different rigs all the time. I was switching between my 77 C 30 flatbed with 454 and SM465 and a heavy clutch and the 92 Geo Prism GSI 5 speed I had and would about shove the GSI's pedal though the floorboard after I had been driving the C 30. You drive that one very far though traffic and you have let your left leg recover when you get out and start walking.
I have : 1 RHD, LH column shift 3 on the tree, 1 LHD 4 speed floor shift, 1 RHD, LH shift column auto, 1 LHD, RH column shift auto, and 2 RHD floor shift autos. Besides jumping into the p***enger side after filling up at the gas station, I have to go through a mental checklist every time I get into something, but it all seem to fall into place once my **** hits the seat. At least my bicycle has the handlebars in the middle, so as not to confuse me.
If you have a old-school 1960s Aussie pushbike i bet the handlebars would confuse the kids today. ( or are those cowhorn handlebars still in use )
Yes I have, muscle memory/habit/routine, I drove a manual Chevy pickup for a few years as my DD and purchased a Chevy Van w/auto trans not as a DD, driving that van coming to a stop I would step on the very wide brake pedal it had with my left foot automatically using clutch pedal, that got old real quick, So I put a normal width brake pedal in it, problem solved. The opposite now, I have my OT Camaro rag top, 5 speed manual, 37 years 65 K miles now and when I come to a stop I occasionally forget to push in the clutch, drive it a few times then it's OK, for the rest of the cruising season.
My 2 manual cars are my '59 Ford with a 4 speed and an OT Mustang with a 6 speed. With the Ford, I find myself reaching for the phantom 5th gear now and then.
I had a '62 Nova that I was working on, originally an auto car, but I planned on putting a 4 speed into it, so had the clutch pedal just hanging down, not connected to any linkage yet. Took it to the alignment shop, parked it outside and went in, told them what I needed. Gave the tech my keys so that he could pull the car in, but he came back in about 30 seconds later and told the owner that they couldn't work on the car because the clutch was shot and the pedal was on the floor. He never lived it down.
Back when I was younger and going out with my buds I was picked up by a very ***y a VP of an insurance company and was driving her BMW 850i back to her place and was so used to driving a stick that I stomped the brake pedal thinking it was a clutch and put her into the windshield Needless to say that was embarr***ing and thank goodness she was very understanding (drunk) and forgiving (didn’t remember ****) we dated for quite some time
I remember driving my brother's Barracuda that had a m***ive brake pedal. When I reached for the clutch pedal, I felt this unexpected decelleration.
I drove an electric forklift for years as a job. Fwd/rev lever is left side of steering wheel. I can't count the number of times I backed my car up, then hit the turn signal lever to go fwd.
I got in my 2005 newer dodge truck after pulling over on flat ground to take a piss, when I first bought it used. I jumped back in the truck and it was stuck in park. WTF....... I must have been there 1/2 hour trying to figure out if the linkage, or steering coloumn was fudged up. Called a dodge dealer even. Turns out you have to put your foot on the brake to get it to come out of park. Who's stupid idea was that? .
I don’t care what the DMV say’s. Manual or auto, there’s always a pedal under my left foot. Even p***ed my driving test driving an auto with both feet.
Do this often and I haven’t driven stick regularly in years ! another I do is after a day working on forklifts , the directional lever is on the right side of the coloumn just fwd and rev I’ll jump in my truck and turn my left signal in while trying to reverse outta my parking spot !
They still use those handlebars , but the right way around. No-one has a kit bag to carry on them anymore. The only thing I get confused on is nowadays is which side of the column they put the indicator or wiper switches. I rarely drive anything late model ( my daughters 2010 Korean model), but I will always end up turning on the wipers instead of the indicators. The Eurotrash cars have them on opposite sides of the column.
I pull the wiper lever in my Toyota I been driving for 22 years because my Dodge pickup had a column shifter, I drove it for 20 years.
Habit Joke Buddy Hackett https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lawr...content&utm_medium=g_dt_web&utm_campaign=copy
I drove a '64 Plymouth with a push ****on Torqueflite for several years. Then switched to a '92 S10 with a column shift automatic. It didn't happen frequently but I would occasionally hop into the Plymouth and reach with my right hand for a shift lever that wasn't there. Or I'd get in the S10 and try using my left hand to lift the park lever that I thought was where the A/C air deflector was on the LH side of the dash.
I routinely drive the A Vicky with a 5 speed and when I switch to the Cabriolet with a 3 speed .....reverse is where first has been....so far so good but please don't give me a phone call to distract me when I am sitting at a red light with a car stopped behind me.....old and distracted isn't a good combination
When I was in high school my best friend had a mustang 5 spd. Me and all my buddies piled into my station wagon for an up north camping trip and on the way up my buddy was driving, and when out exit was coming up all the sudden the brakes locked up and we all went flying to the front seat. My buddy wasn't thinking and went to hit the clutch and floored the brakes, lmfao. We didn't let him live that one down for a few years...
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