I didn’t learn to drive on anything normal. My first attempts behind the wheel were in a Peugeot 505 turbodiesel with a clutch that felt like agricultural equipment. One early lesson involved me backing it out of the driveway while my dad stood outside the car, calmly trying to teach me how to release the brake without dropping the clutch — something I absolutely could not figure out. I stalled that poor diesel over and over while a very patient stranger waited, smiling, for us to clear the street. By the time the Alfa Romeo Sport Sedan —my first car — arrived a year or two later, I could shift and clutch without thinking — which only made the Alfa’s twin‑cam drama and crunchy synchros hit even harder. The Peugeot taught me the mechanics; the Alfa taught me the joy. Together they set the tone for every car I’d love afterward. What follows is the full lineage of every manual I’ve driven, owned, borrowed, or survived since.
The Peugeot I learned to drive on looked exactly like this one.
Which brings me to the list itself... here are some of the more interesting joy toys I've owned or driven, from the 1983 (may have been an 84 or 85) Peugeot 505 STi TurboDiesel 5-Speed that I learned to drive on to the 1967 Mustang GT that my uncle bought brand new (and gifted me on my 30th birthday) to the most recent 2018 Fiat 500c Pop Turbo Cabrio that I've owned for a week now.
Below you'll find a curated list of only manual-transmission equipped vehicles I've owned or driven, along with some interesting details on each, including a "fun" and "weirdness" factor rating (table crafted by Claude.ai).
13 cars, 1967–2018 — every manual transmission I’ve driven, owned, borrowed, or learned on.
289 V8, 4bbl, A-code. The keeper. Predates every other car on this list by a decade and sounds like it knows that.
My first car — technically dad’s. Alfetta or Giulietta era, rear transaxle, twin-cam. Starting out in an Alfa explains a lot about every car choice that followed.
Second car, also technically dad’s. A French sports coupe sold in the US just long enough to confuse everyone. Wraparound glass hatch. The name means “fire.”
Dad’s car — what I learned to drive on. A French turbodiesel with a 5-speed, sold in the US during Peugeot’s brief American chapter. Learning a clutch on a diesel is actually great training. This is an insane origin story.
GT trim meant the twin-cam turbocharged engine and sportier feel. Shared its platform with the MX-6 but wore a suit. Competent and well-sorted, often overlooked. Technically my mom's car (she loved to drive, too!). (I managed to total this one in a single-vehicle accident. Whoops. I think my mom has yet to forgive me.)
Pure appliance car. Light, reliable, honest. After the Fuego and the Alfa, probably a welcome change of pace.
E39 generation — widely considered the last 5-series made by engineers for drivers. Came to me via dad. Sport package, 5-speed, silky M54 six. Heavy but composed.
Suspension handling-tuned by Lotus Engineering — same Hethel team that sorted the Elise. A budget car with genuinely communicative chassis feedback. Almost nobody knows this. Was my youngest's first car.
The hot version of the not-hot car. 175hp, 6-speed, sport suspension. Legit sport compact that took SCCA seriously. Stacked next to the Lotus-tuned Spectra, a weirdly sophisticated run of sport-economy cars.
Rebadged Daewoo Lacetti with Pininfarina exterior styling, sold under the Suzuki name. Forgotten almost immediately. Probably the most obscure car I’ve personally owned. Before the 2nd payment was made, it was totaled by neighborhood kids tossing a roman candle into the cabin.
Dad’s R56, borrowed a couple times for business trips. Enough seat time to confirm the go-kart reputation is mostly earned. The 6-speed base spec is the honest driver’s choice.
Lightest car on this list by a wide margin. 84hp in 2,246 lb is scrappier than it sounds. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro — an absurd pedigree for a city microcar. Fun at its limit, which arrives at legal speeds. My son's second car, which was "totaled" in the William Carey tornado (despite us driving the car home, every body panel showed damage, and the insurance company thought it would be more expensive to repair than it was worth).
The current daily. Turbo four, cloth convertible top, Italian charm. Spiritually appropriate for someone whose first car was an Alfa Romeo.
13 cars • 51 years of production • all manual transmissions
I like to drive. Hopefully for quite a few more years. Maybe you'll enjoy this list; maybe you've owned a few. I've had many others (including a 2015 Chevy Volt that was kind of odd sitting juxtaposed to the 1967 Mustang GT in my garage for years) — 42 to be exact (counting a Suzuki SV-650 motorcycle and a 1985 Ford E350 Diesel Box Truck that I bought instead of renting one three times over a multi-month period) — with the Fiat being #42, the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment