but for some reason they decided to put R at the bottom right Reverse in the bottom right is the “normal” 5-speed reverse spot no?
> Reverse in the bottom right is the “normal” 5-speed reverse spot no? I've driven a lot of 5-speed manual transmission rental cars over the decades, and my impression is that reverse in the top left is (or certainly was) the far more common layout: R 1 3 5 2 4 Our previous car, also a VW, had this layout too.
I have a 2007 Alfa Spider (Brera without a solid roof) and the pattern is the same with a 6th gear below 5.
To get into reverse there's a gear stick collar to pull up.
Wow, I could write almost the same article about my '85 Westfalia Vanagon.
I was thinking exactly the same thing, except ① it was '83, not '85 (and thus air-cooled); ② it was an aftermarket camper van conversion with some slight design issues in the pop top, not a Westfalia; ③ after I rebuilt the engine a second time we sold it, so, blessedly, it's not mine anymore. My engine rebuild survived for a couple of years until the new owner drove it in second gear for an hour at highway speeds, ov…
Mine's an aftermarket high top, with what I believe were salvaged Westfalia interiror components, because nothing really fits right :)
This writing is brilliant edit: just got to the author’s blurb at the bottom. He was an engineer on the original Miata, so it’s no surprise that he knows what he’s talking about.
The irony being that the Miata is none of this. Notably reliable and easy to drive.
I love seeing old timers on the street. The ones that get preserved are usually so much more aesthetic than contemporary cars.
The old cars have better or worse aesthetics? Something can't have "more" aesthetics, it's not quantifiable. That's like saying something has more temperature, instead of a higher or lower temperature.
I’m not a native English speaker so pardon me please.
On the flip side, I know a ton about cars and actually own a german sports car of roughly this vintage and this rings incredibly true (and also hilarious). My car can't be locked due to fear of it never opening again, starting the engine requires a delicate balance of the right amount of throttle and prayers the battery has enough charge, and selecting first is a preposterous mixture of a delicate ballet and sledgeha…
> selecting first is a preposterous mixture of a delicate ballet and sledgehammering it home. Double declutching is a lost art, it seems. It involved moving the shifter into neutral, revving the engine still in neutral, and clutching and shifting into the gear when the RPMs were "right". Skilled double-declutchers could shift nearly as quickly as ordinary drivers with syncromesh. Common in older cars when I was young…
When I was 14, a family friend from church decided he needed help around his sizable property. He figured the easiest approach would be to teach me to operate his machinery and come over on weekends to work with him. He got brush cleared and I learned to operate, among other things, a farm tractor from the 1950s. I learned the combination of finesse, force, swearing, and prayer needed to shift such a beast. When I started driving my first car, an old Buick Century with an automatic, it almost felt like cheating.
On the actual flip side, there are plenty of people who properly maintain vintage sports cars instead of just talking about how much they know about them. I get that door handles and lock cylinders are often made of easily-broken pot metal, but most owner communities have figured out solutions, or just live a little and recognize that a locksmith can easily get you into almost any vintage car if necessary. The starti…
The locks are stupidly expensive, like $1000 a door. I'd rather just not lock it. The starting issues are due to the carb needing a rebuild. It's on my list, but there are bigger fish to fry. The battery is due to it being a former race car with a tiny, super light battery. It's only designed to crank the engine a few times before it's dead to save weight. 1st gear in non-syncro, so it's for sure not that. It's likel…
Regarding the door locks, I live in a part of a city where some owners of older cars keep their doors unlocked so thieves won't break a window getting in.
Speaking of security through obscurity, my car is a 96 Nissan and it's had a few attempts on it. It's easy enough to steal, but it's getting hard enough for me to find replacement parts that I'd be surprised if thieves have everything, so I take some bits of the car with me if it's sitting for a while. I have a quick release wheel to deter the average opportunist from breaking my glass and ignition barrel, and with s…
Modern cars have gotten so hard to steal that we're seeing more car jackings.
I was thinking exactly the same thing, except ① it was '83, not '85 (and thus air-cooled); ② it was an aftermarket camper van conversion with some slight design issues in the pop top, not a Westfalia; ③ after I rebuilt the engine a second time we sold it, so, blessedly, it's not mine anymore. My engine rebuild survived for a couple of years until the new owner drove it in second gear for an hour at highway speeds, ov…
Mine's an aftermarket high top, with what I believe were salvaged Westfalia interiror components, because nothing really fits right :)