I grew up in the suburbs of L.A./Orange County, Ca., and never drove anything until H.S. driver ed class in the mid 1970s. My stepfather (I refer to him as such, even though he and my mother never married) was working at the time as a car salesman (one of the many things that he did) and had use of a new or nearly new at the time VW Beetle, in which he taught me how to drive stick shift. He was always a wheeling-dealing type of guy, and we had many different vehicles come and go through the years. An early Honda car, an AZ600, if I remember correctly (this is before the first Honda Civic made) was a regular for me to be seen driving around. It had a 2cylinder with a 4spd. My mother said she always had nightmares of me getting in a wreck with that little car. I had my own VW Beetle later, in fact, I had 2 of them, a '64 and a '67, both stick shifts. The car I regret selling (idea for a new thread starter) was a 1970 Dodge Challenger RT/SE, not knowing how rare they were even back when I had it in 1980. I have to honestly say that the Challenger was too much car for a reckless idiot like me. A 440 six-pack, auto, and a posi that I installed that my brother came across.
Don't hate me, but when I sold the Challenger, I bought a 1974 Ford Pinto. Yes, a Pinto, on November 1, 1981. I still have that Pinto to this day, 2.3L with a 4spd, although it quit running back in 1996, before I bought a 1979 Datsun pu with a 4spd. Next, in 2001 came my Caballero, a gift to my wife and I from her father, a factory 200ci v6 with 3spd Saginaw. That engine/transmission combo wore out, so now it is a 307sbc with a Borg-Warner T5.
Like someone said in an earlier post, "still rowing the gears"
