Carjacker Couldn’t Drive Stick – IOTW Report

Carjacker Couldn’t Drive Stick

Road&Track

A gunfight erupted between carjackers and a car owner in San Antonio Thursday morning leaving one of the alleged thieves wounded in the head, police say. The suspects were apparently unable to steal the car they targeted due to struggles with its manual transmission. More

23 Comments on Carjacker Couldn’t Drive Stick

  1. Until around 30 plus years old, virtually all my cars were manuals, going from 3 on the tree, 4 speed, and 5 speed.
    Now, we have automatic with paddle shifter overrides.
    I refuse to go to the CVT sloppy bands/pulley crap transmissions.

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  2. I have a Tacoma with a 5 speed manual I say it is anti theft device. I took my road test in my Dad’s 72 Mercury Capri 4 speed. He sold it to me at about half the blue book value in 1975 for my high school graduation present. 900$. Drove to California and Rosarito Baja California and back to NE Ohio that summer. Good times.

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  3. Or old vehicles with manual steering which we called armstrong steering. My 56 Ford F 100 P/U with a 4 on the floor had armstrong steering and a hard as hell bench seat which would beat you to death and cause a sore back if you drove it on long trips. I drove it to San Diego from Spokane (it was a 3-4-day trip) when my month-long leave was done in Sept. 1974 so I could have a vehicle to drive when we weren’t out at sea. My brother drove it home later the next Spring.

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  4. I’m laughing at a mental image of a wannabe car thief trying to take an old VW beetle parked where he has to get it in reverse.

    (If you don’t already know how, you’re NEVER gonna back up!)

    (Of course, four or five beefy guys could just pick it up and walk away.)

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  5. @¡BENITO — That’s my favorite movie car chase! McQueen did about 10% of the stunt driving (Loren James did the 90%). But it was Bill Hickman himself behind the wheel of the Dodge. Did you know that the biker who dumped his ride was just some guy who accidentally got into the thick of things by accident?

    Close second: French Connection. The chase in that movie was also Bill Hickman’s wizard work.

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  6. I was going to write, Uncle Al, that the mechanic who does my inspections can’t get my 73 Beetle into reverse. And I took out the stock shifter and put in the EMPI with the reverse lockout that you pull up. The EMPI is easier than the stock shift, and it always goes in the first time and never grinds.

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  7. UNCLE AL, LOTS OF GOOD STUFF

    THE DODGE CHARGER WAS THE FASTER CAR

    DODGE DRIVER WAS THE BEST, THINK HE MAY HAVE ALSO BEEN ON SCENE @ JAMES DEAN WRECK, NOT SURE HOW BUT PRETTY POSITIVE ABOUT IT

    THOUGHT THE MOTORCYCLE DUDE WAS SAME AS THE STUNT GUY FOR GREAT ESCAPE???

    STILL LOVE THE CHASE….FUNNY THAT THEY USED THE SAME BACKGROUND CARS THROUGHOUT IE THE WHITE FIREBIRD ETC..LOLOL

    THX

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  8. The thing about getting a beetle in reverse is that it is just about impossible to do it slowly and gradually. You have to slap it straight down for an inch or so and then jink your hand left and back. Gotta be all one motion, no stopping or even hesitating. It all happens in maybe a quarter of a second. It isn’t at all hard with just a small amount of practice, but if you’re new to that shift you’re screwed.

    I learned to drive in a ’59 (I think) VW. That was in 1965.

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