Fast and furious and grinding

We’ve all seen the movies with amazing drivers. The peel off in a cloud of smoke, pull sharp maneuvers, drift through corners, all while going at high speeds. It makes you want to become a stunt driver when you grow up, no matter what age you actually happen to be. But in most cases, there’s a little fact that’s overlooked. 

Sometimes, the driver is actually shifting. This means that he or she is driving a manual car, a near unheard of thing here in the U.S. While manual transmission cars are quite common in Europe, the same does not ring true in America. I see this as due to American laziness and the initial difficulty to learn to drive a manual car. 

A manual car differs from an automatic transmission car in who has to shift the gears. In automatic cars, the car itself senses when the revolutions per minute get too high and it needs to change to a larger gear as to not potentially damage the gears and/or engine. In a manual transmission vehicle, the driver controls when the transmission changes gears, using what is called a clutch and a gear shift. The driver pushes in the clutch, a pedal, using their left foot. This disengages the spinning engine from the spinning wheels and allows the driver to shift to a different gear. The driver then moves the gear shift to a different position, changing which gear will be engaged once the driver lets out the clutch. (If this doesn't make sense to you, just Google it, there are much better explanations out there than mine.)

That is part of the reason that learning to drive a manual car is so difficult. You have to let out the clutch and give the engine just enough gas so that the gears catch correctly on the engine. It is most difficult to get started from a stop, which might be why many choose to not drive a manual. It tends to be very frustrating at the beginning. However, once you master first gear, the others come easily. 

There are some benefits to driving a manual transmission vehicle. One is its gas mileage. Most manuals can be more gas efficient than their automatic counterparts, due to numerous factors, one factor being that automatics require more power to operate the mechanisms that automatically shift gears. 

Many people decide to drive a manual simply because it is more fun. Since you get to control the gear shifts, you can keep the transmission on a smaller gear for longer, allowing the car to accelerate more quickly than an automatic could. While it may not be a smart way to drive, it does make driving more fun. 

Either way, a manual car essentially works the same way an automatic does. It will get you to your destination the same as an automatic, it may just get you there at a different rate or with more “work” from you. Personally though, I find that manuals are more fun, and make driving a more enjoyable experience.