When I was a teen I had a Vega, a 4 speed. As I was driving one of my guy friends said I drove it so seamlessly, it was like riding in an automatic. No small compliment of a boy to a girl in the 70’s when girls were just known to be inferior in every way.
A couple of years ago I spied a 63 VW for sale. It was love at first sight, so I bought it. The first time I went to drive it my husband felt he needed to teach the little woman how to drive a stick (he’s from the 60’s and 70’s too.) I told him to just hush up and I just took off.
He just shook his head.
Then he says, “OK, we’re coming to a curve and you need to slow down….”
Just then I hit the clutch, down shifted into 2nd, use the clutch to slow myself, then took the curve and shifted back to 3rd, then 4th, and then used the clutch and downshifting to slow down for the stop sign. I drove a standard for so long that I never even had to think about it.
It’s all in how you work that clutch baby. In tune with the engine speed and your car.
He finally just shut up because, the truth was, I was driving better than he. He killed it several times. I didn’t kill it one single time.