OK-this is hilarious. My wife asked me if I could teach her to drive a stick in the spring. I said "sure, what do you want to learn on?" She replied...
"On your Corvette."
Yes, she said this seriously. After I stopped laughing, she became angry when I told her I'd buy her a Yugo to learn on, I wonder why?
I love her dearly, but I also love the other woman in my life. I also love replacing clutches.NOT!!!
Have a great day everyone.

SHe must be outta her mind. Even me, being a female, would not want to learn stick on something I can ruin so easly. GO buy her a VW or some POS like that!

This IS FUNNY!!! It would be more cost effective to rent a stick shifter for a couple of weekends and let her bang it out on that(I hope none of you are car rental owners!) I taught my youngest daughter to drive a stick that way. My wife said, "No way was she letting her car go for training sessions!" Of course, my cars were out of the question! For about $35 per day for 3 Saturdays, my daughter learned how to drive a stick and then I rewarded here with a stick shift Camero for graduation.

Pete

When my oldest daughter was 17, now 25, she tried a stick in my Dodge D50 mini pickup(long gone). The first many several times she stalled. I kept saying, a bit more gas, slower letting out the clutch. Well she finally gave it more gas, a lot more, and didn't slow down on the clutch. The road was wet, recently rained. The right rear tire spun at about 25 mph, the truck didn't move, and my shocked daughters eyes were the size of the tires. She was too stunned to know what to do, and I was laughing too hard to tell her. She gave up.

Ken Styer

When I first got out of the service my kid sister asked if I could teach her how to drive a standard. So I took her to a large parking lot and she sat behind the seat of my new Firebird Ram Air 400, gave it a little gas and let out the clutch to fast and it stalled. I told her more gas and let the clutch out slower, well we flew in that parking lot and we finally stopped half way up a hill. She walked home that day and I never taught her to drive a standard. A few years later her husband taught her on his Porsche.... better him than me.

A long time ago I let my wife drive my POS Ford pickup, 3-on-the tree, My 6 year old daughter had to remind her when to shift . Shift Mom shift I finally decided it woyuld be easier just get automatics from then on out. No she doesn't drive the Vette!!

My wife is actually the one who prefers stick shift cars. She learned to drive in an old corvair when she was 16. Her 65 year old mother still drives a stick shift. Now that my daughter is going on 16 she is going to learn to drive a stick, too. We'll start her off with my station wagon, then she can graduate to my wife's solara. She won't be sitting in the drivers seat of the vette any time soon, though. Joe

|UPDATED|1/9/2004 5:21:57 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I taught my girlfriend how to drive stick back in '89 on my '88 Ranger I had. I thought that I was going to get a bad case of "whiplash" first time out. It took her awhile to master it, but now she's capable of driving vette "with a vengeance!" It's kinda scary for me now.
Sarge

I've taught my wife and two daughters to drive sticks. My wife learned in a 73 Datsun pickup with a bench seat. She's 5'-1" and I'm 6'-1" so I had brused knees before she caught on. Daughter #1 learned in her own VW Bettle and it took about 5 minutes to become proficient with that soft clutch. She later taught her boy friend how to drive a stick when he bought a Mustang GT and she still prefers sticks and has a 6 sp in her Camaro. #2 bought a Ford Probe with a clutch that had a lot of bite. It took DAAAAYS for her to catch on, I thought sure we were going to have to try to get the dealer to take it back. Back to the little woman, she too short to see over the vette dash very good so she doesn't want to drive it. Prayers are answered!

Waaaaaaaayyyyyyy back when I had a '69 Cougar coupe with a 351 and a 3 speed on the floor. My girlfriend at the time wanted to learn how to drive it so on a bright Saturday afternoon we went down to a city park along the river. The instructions I gave her for getting the car rolling were to slightly rev the engine and then to slowly let her foot off the clutch. So she revs it to around 2k and then slowly moves her clutch foot toward the driver's side kick panel - SIDEWAYS! Well with the fairly stiff spring that clutch had the pedal about flew into the back seat, the 'Cat lurches forward with a chirp of the tires, the engines stalls, and the tires chirp again as it aburptly stops. And to top it off all of this happens just as a cop passes by going the opposite direction...!!! It was a good thing I had my seatbelt on otherwise I would have been curled up on the floorboards from laughing so hard. That was the end of the driving lesson and she never asked again while we were together.

My wife (of 26 years) learned to drive a stick on my '75 Toyota Corolla coupe (aka 'The Green Sneaker'). Drawing from my previous experience I gave her some slightly revised instructions on the clutch release and then wisely observed from curbside of the high school parking lot chosen for the practice spot. The memory of that little green car making like a frog hopping across that blacktop still brings a smile. But she did master the clutch and for years drove our '82 F-150 (302 w/4 spd) on a daily basis. She has driven "The Toy" a couple of times but doesn't like the non-power steering and brakes so it imtimidates her enough to enjoy the ride from the passenger seat.