I have one with a big duct tape flag/handle. Stays in the phone kit with spudgers, tiny screwdrivers, etc.

Resetamatron, hahaha.

I clicked… Dammit I didn’t know I needed these.

They’re easier to use, but a monotasker, so yea, gimme a paperclip

You just watch me

The US doesn’t have licenses differentiated for automatic or manual, well, none of the 8 states I’ve lived in anyway, so there’s no way for Romania to know.

Though I’d hope Dad would prevent that

Hondas (90s) have been the easiet manual to get moving I’ve ever seen. You practically can’t stall them. (Toyatas too, 90’s Corollas are something else).

And I disagree with the truck - those can make learning harder. One of the hardest I’ve ever driven was a Ford from the 90’s. Heavy as hell clutch that was too small, terrible gear ratios so starting off was a bitch, with big gaps between the gears so you had to run out each gear until you ran out of revs.

But I’ve also driven old trucks with granny gears - an extra-low gear below first for getting moving with a heavy load. Those you just let off the clutch and the truck moves at a walking pace.

Meh, you’re not going to hurt a modern manual with a learner. They’re not even likely to hurt the clutch.

Internals of a transmission are primarily made of 3 materials: brass, aluminum, and *hardened steel".

Aluminum is for shift forks, I can’t even imagine a way to break one.

Brass is for synchros, which can be worn by grinding - which isn’t really easy to make happen anymore, plus but it’s not like you’re gonna sit there and hold it while it’s grinding, you’ll release it quickly. The last car I remember having grinding issues was because they didn’t use a synchro for second gear so you got a short little growl if you didn’t shift “just so”. Last time I drove that car it had 250k on the odometer.

Hardened steel is for the gears themselves. And those things are beefy.

I’ve seen dragsters miss-shift on 1960’s gearboxes that weren’t built for 450hp/500lb torque, and they’ve survived it fine (I’ve also seen them fail the same way). A new driver in today’s cars just can’t do that kind of damage unless it’s intentional - and that would take some time.

You can learn to drive stick in 20 minutes with the right teaching approach.

I learned in about 10 minutes, with my brother teaching me… Not exactly the teacher of choice. And these were cars without tachometers or hydraulic clutches.

The key is learning how the clutch engages, where it’s “catch point” is. Using the “No throttle” method, people pick it up, fast.

Plus with cars today you don’t have to rely on downshifting to slow down - Brakes are just that advanced now (though you still want to brake in short cycles for long downhills to prevent overheating).

A learner could destroy a clutch (I’ve seen it, though it was a long time ago when clutches weren’t as good as today), but it’s not likely these days. Plus I’m not going to let a learner destroy a clutch by using a method that helps them really get a feel for it: have them get the car moving without using the gas.

Hard revving and riding the clutch out would be far harder on a clutch than the slipping needed to get moving without touching the gas.

Yea, I think this is kind of “the way” to teach manual. It really focuses on getting a feel for a clutch and the non-linearity of friction in it.

“clutch portal”… I’m not really sure where that portal goes… Lol

Yea, getting the lesson from Dad is probably a great thing. He’ll enjoy helping, it’s good bonding time, and he’ll have stories for the future!

A NATO country is a different thing, which was part of the discussion in the beginning of this.

Yea, a sibling did a DNA analysis and it doesn’t match what we know (our family history is well understood due to people tracking it since the 1700’s.) meaning the genes are from all over, while we know the origin countries of forbears.

Most people in the US with my surname come from a very small set of immigrants (3 or 4) from about 1700-1800.

The thing is, my genetics are heavily influenced by who each generation married. Easy to see just on the US tree how quickly genetics mix, and it’s not like those immigrants were purely anything either.

Well, the Normans invaded Britain in 1066, this changed Old English to Middle English, so…

Hahahaha, I like your style

Two places I don’t shop at already.

Lol. Hard to fight that one.

This will just create an underground DNS system