Re: V8 Stuff (Manual vs. Automatic transmission) (longish)

[Alex Kowalski (audial@aol.com) (Law Guest Account) <lawguest@wppost.depaul.edu>]

William Elliott wrote:

> Most of the people on this list seem to be enthusiasts who are 
> concerned with what they drive and how they drive.  This fact
> alone sets this group well apart from the average American
> who drives a "normal" car...finds manual transmissions abhorrent
> and would not consider a car with one.

Exactly.  I've never owned an automatic-transmission car.  I learned to
drive on one, but I switched over to a manual as quickly as I could.  I
grew up riding motorcross bikes and couldn't stand not being able
to shift for myself, use the clutch, pick my speed with the tach
accurately, etc.  It is sad that the manual transmission is so hard
to sell in a luxury car - even I have to admit that I have been conditioned
so much that when I first saw the interior of my 5KCSTQ, with the 
leather, etc., and the manual knob sticking out of the console,  I
experienced a second or two of "somehow this doesn't fit".

Lots of people buy their cars as appliances, but I don't.  Every drive 
that I take in my car feels like a unique experience to me.  I anticipate
even little hops to the 7-11 for the opportunity to revel in my car, to shift
it and feel it accelerate, to monitor its health and keep mental tabs on 
everything I have worked on and that needs work, and to plan when I'm
going to do it to improve the driving experience.  I'll cop to it -- it's an
obsession, more benign than most, that allows me to enter a larger
social network (rather than the reversed, more pathological kind), but an
obsession nontheless.  It's hard to explain and justify to my girlfriend -
"It's just a CAR!".  Then again, she opined the other day that all tires
were basically the same, so why did I bother ordering mine specially
through the mail, etc., etc.  It was pointless to try to explain past a
certain point, and sometimes when you do you wind up unconvincing
_yourself_ by the time you're done.  So we have a deal - I don't bug her
about or belittle her bimonthly $125+ haircut/dye appointments (the
benefits of which are just as tangible to her as my car's seductive
aspects are to me) and she doesn't bug me about my "little problem"
with the four big red rings on the grille.  And it is nice, on those rare
occasions, when the car really comes through and she acknowledges
that there's something special about it (maybe not special enough after
all of that work, but...).

We rented an automatic-equipped Toyota Camry when we vacationed in
Florida over the summer.  It was a very well struck appliance...reliable,
quiet, the A/C worked great, utterly painless to drive...but bloodless,
numb, distant, unreachable.  I could never fall in love with it, and I need
to have a car that I can be in love with, and it must have a stick shift.  I
guess that makes me a flawed individual.  When we got home, the first
thing I did after putting my bags in my apartment and kissing my girl
goodbye was find a reason to take a drive in my Q.

In short,

"I'm nuts!  I'm glad I'm here!"  - Dan Ackroyd in SNL mental-ward skit.

Best Wishes,
Alex
'86 5KCSTQ