Page 6 - KCRPCA May June 2019

EDITOR’S COLUMN
Stan Thorne
These days I prefer a manual. There is something about being more connected to the car, telling it what to do, and accomplishing a perfect heel-toe-shift as you go from third down to second and then back up.
The other weekend I was at my mother’s. She has a ‘99 Boxster. We’d finished Easter dinner, and I looked at McKenna and said, “Wanna learn to drive a stick?” She instantly responded with, “Uh, ya!”
My mom’s Boxster was a gift to her from my father before he passed away. So, it seemed only fitting that McKenna, now 14 with a learner’s permit, should drive the Boxster as her first manual.
I am proud to say we rolled away on our first attempt. We only went first to second since we were on neighborhood streets. We practiced starting and stopping in first gear. There were a few stalls, but she did great. She did not even seem that nervous. Maybe she was thinking about what to put on her Snapchat post.
Lesson is one complete. There will be more. Maybe I will let her drive the little red Boxster to go see her grandfather at Mount Moriah. She can tell him how well I taught her. I think he would be smiling down from heaven if that happens.
- Stan
A Tradition Continues
DLRIVING A MANUAL
a lesson I am now have been blessed with teaching my daughter.
My father taught me how to drive a “stick” on a Nissan 300ZX. It was a sweet ride for the ‘80s, silver metallic with blue cloth interior and enough glowing orange buttons to make the interior look like a spaceship at night. My father was patient
earning to drive a manual car is a and I picked up the pattern of clutch-gas- right of passage. It is a lesson taught shift pretty quick. I do remember taking from one generation to another. It is the long way home to avoid hills though.
All in all it was fun.
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MAY / JUN 2019