Bill, The car is called IowaMax because it came from Iowa. And no I don't know **** about clutches

This part was obvious... it'* all good though.

i can drive a standard, and could easily figure out the 9,13,15,18 speed configurations if i had to, i work with them all day, basically 9 positions, and a spliiter on your shift ****..dont use the clutch lol..
Only one im not to sure on how to drive is the old 3-on-the-tree.

I'm more or less a pilot...takes two hands to hold'er back...lol

I have a nice mix. I learned how to drive a manual when I was 13 (When I got my first vehicle; a 1965 Chevy Pickup) Since then my sister'* ranger is a manual and my daily driver, the Ford Explorer is also a manual. Quite nice to be able to variate from an Auto and Manual. I'd also highly recomend people that haven't learned to drive a manual to do so. You never know when it'll come in handy

The first car I ever drove was a stick. Learned on a '69 VW Beetle Convertible 1600cc 4 speed. Had a whopping 40hp. I was 14 at the time. I knew how to do it before that, just never actually physically did it so obviously I wasn't good at taking off from a stop. After about 20 min. of practice it was simple. Finding the gears is the easy part.

Between that time and when I bought my own 5 speed cars, I drove a couple friends 5 speeds. All of which were V8 Mustangs and Camaros and the like.

My second and fourth cars were both 5 speeds. With my 2nd car (my '90 Calais 442 Quad 4 5 speed) I learned how to drive a stick way better and how to shift without the clutch and all that good stuff.

The Trans Am is a fun car sometimes. For regular driving I don't even use the clutch other than to take off from a stop because its a waste of effort. Its not very light (race clutch) so I'd rather not use it more than I have to. So I've gotten pretty damn good at shifting with no clutch. While beating on it I'll use the clutch most times but for regular driving its unnecessary. I love to side-step the clutch at 5k from a dead stop too. My roomate always makes a comment or gives me a funny look or both when I pull out of our neighborhood onto the main road though. I just take off in 1st and mash my foot to the floor, once I get into traffic i put the thing right into 5th. Hell, it'll do just about 50mph in 1st gear, the speed limit is only 35 on that road so why use any of the other gears? So just foot to the floor in 1st to merge then straight to 5th. Merging on the freeway I love to do the 1st, 2nd, 5th shift as well. But other than that pretty much I use all the gears.


I love driving manuals. I used both of mine as dailys for a while and sometimes it would get a little annoying, but it was never really a hassle and I enjoyed it more times than not for sure. Even with the stiff clutch in the T/A, driving it as a daily is not a huge deal. It also gives me WAY more control in the winter. Take off in 2nd gear and whatnot. With the tires on that thing (295'* on the rear) I really needed something to help get traction in the winter. Everyone always tells me how bad it must be in the winter since its a RWD 5 speed, but honestly I think a 5 speed is way better in the snow than an auto.


I taught my little brother (14 at the time IIRC) how to drive one in my Calais when I had that. He had never even driven a car at all before and he had no desire to either. We were doing reverse doughnuts in a parking lot one day and I stopped and just asked if he wanted to learn how to drive a stick. He didn't really want to but it only took a little persuasion. So he jumps in, I tell him how to take off and he stalls it the first time. I tell him he just needs to let the clutch out a little slower and it would be great. So he takes off almost perfect. I show him how to go through the gears and downshifts and all that and then have him take off from a stop a few times and he never stalled it at all, and I think he missed like 2 shifts only because he couldn't really reach the floor and that clutch had to be ALL THE WAY to the floor to disengage. That amazed me. Out of the ~6 people I've taught that was BY FAR the easiest and he'd never even driven any car at all. Honestly him being able to steer and stop the car was harder than taking off and shifting was.

I learned to drive at the age of 12, in a stick shift 1958 Volkswagen Bug; from there I drove many stick shift cars including the tractors, trucks and even Grandpa'* 1953 Chevy Bel-Air, column, 3-speed.
In my early days, all my high performance and racing cars were stick shift. My favorites were the 1971 Hemi 'Cuda and the 1970 Hemi GTX; they were brutal. My dad borrowed the GTX at one time, (and the only time too), and left in 3rd gear. He shifted and realized it and came back baffled on the power of the car. So...I proceeded to take him in a ride on the GTX...afterwards he would not ride in the car, and also refused a ride in the 'Cuda when I got it.

It would be cool to be able to hook up a G-Force clutchless racing transaxle to a built up Bonnie.
http://www.longshifters.com/tran_gt-50.asp

hey Joe...was the Bug brand new ?....lol

I knew as soon as I posted this, a smart *** will pop-up and ask me...
No, it was not new!!!...nor it was stock either...it had a built-up 2180cc engine with twim Weber 48IDA carbs, and was street driven with an early Rhino style transaxle and 5.13 gears.