My awesome classic car driving experience with two 50 year old cars!!

:thumbup2:

This past week at the Amelia Island Concours car show I got to drive a 65 Mustang and a 69 Camaro both with manual transmissions.

It was part of the Hagerty Classic Car driving experience to teach people how to drive a manual transmission.

The Mustang was a 3spd manual with a 260V8. It did fine, but you could tell it was a drivers ed car that had been beat on by younger drivers.

The Camaro did much better. This was one a 396 SS with a 4spd. It had been better taken care of I think. Better shifting and smoother.

Hagerty also had a 59 Corvette and a 1960 Cadillac to drive.

They said they will do it next year. It's free and I highly recommend!!

They still use a manual for drivers ed? My high school used them (3 on the column) back in 1968.

Looks like a great time Chris! :thumbup:

I love cars with manual transmissions and have been lucky to have driven quite a few different makes and models over the years. The thing that struck me the most about the 60's era muscle I've driven is just how easy (and fun) it is to break the tires loose. The combination of all that horsepower and the skinny tires cars make for some good times. I've always appreciated cars from that era but it wasn't until I was able to drive a few that it really clicked in my brain where the obsession with the older generation comes from. They're just fun as hell to drive.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wDsQGjn2PkU

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chris Burns

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wDsQGjn2PkU

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Highlights:

Beckley, WV shoutout @ ~1:20
Patrick C biography & shoutout @ ~7:20.
Terry & Oliver shoutout @ ~9:10.
Chris Burns's Mom shoutout @ ~11:25.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bitsyncmaster

They still use a manual for drivers ed? My high school used them (3 on the column) back in 1968.

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That's cool if they do. Back in the day (more than 30 years ago) when we still had driver's ed in California we drove automatics. In 1980 we had some ugly square Fords and some Chrysler K cars. But they did have the cool simulator trailer as well. Unfortunately, driver's ed was taken out of the high schools in the late 80's, and eventually our kids had to go to driving school, where they get a total of 4 hours of instruction, and that's supposed to be followed by 50 hours of driving with an adult. The problem with that is if the adult is a horrible driver, then the kid picks up the same bad habits.

Congrats Chris! I really like the 69 Camaro as well. It was used as the design inspiration of the fifth generation Camaro as was fighter jets like the F22 Raptor.

It's also, unfortunately, really easy to break the rear tires loose on the new gen cars. My first pair on my '10 were threadbare within 23k miles.

:rollin:

Video of the exact car I drove.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vPme-RhqCT8