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I recently turned 18, so my parents signed me up for driving school. When I showed up at the academy, I was surprised by the cars they had available for students to learn on. They told me to pick whichever I liked best, and I chose the Mercedes-Benz G500.

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[–] Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Driver's Ed: 1986 Chevy Cavalier and it was a horrible brown color.

Parent's Cars:

1986 Buick Skyhawk: Very crappy car. The gas pedal didn't so much produce acceleration, but rather an eventual increase of the angular momentum of the tires.

1970 Chevy Impala: Loved this car. Huge and had a 400cid small block with a 400 Turbo Hydromatic with a 12 bolt posi rear end. It's the car that really taught me how to drive. It eventually ran 13's in the quarter mile.

Learned how to drive manual: 1983 (I think) Ford Escort

REALLY learned how to drive a manual: 1949 Willys Overland. A friend's Dad's car. Why did it REALLY teach me how to drive a manual? Easy, it had a non-syncrho'd transmission, much like the big rigs have. This car taught me rev-matching, double clutching, and an appreciation about how cars really work. It also had a column shifter. Once I learned how to handle the transmission, it was a lot of fun to drive. It made me a much better driver.

The car that taught me how to race (there were two):

1985 Toyota MR-2: Was a friend's car that I Autocrossed (Pro Solo) along with him. He actually made it to Nationals with this car several times. Later he won Nationals with a Supra Turbo. This was in the mid-90's.

1985 Corolla GT-S: This was my car. It was the AE86 platform with the same engine as the MR-2. Absolutely ferocious car. It didn't handle as well as the MR-2, but it was soooo much fun. This car taught me "trail braking" and a lot of other performance driving skills. This remains my favorite car I've ever owned, even to this day. I'd love to find one and restore it.

[–] densefever@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 hours ago

My sister’s first car was an 86 cavalier. It was blue and had a manual transmission. She stalled the engine going over train tracks once and the train crossing lit up as she was trying to restart it. Panic ensued…