'Oldest' manual car driver...?

Ian F wrote:

Raze wrote: See, that's what I'm talking about, someone who's been around 80+ years to begin with makes you wonder in all those years of motoring what they've seen change, hard to imagine the transformation...

Yeah... I can only imagine what it must have been like to see the technology change from 1908 when my grandparents were born, to around 2000 when they died. I somehow think that if I live 90 years, I won't see quite the same level of change.

Perhaps not in infrastructure and industry, most improvements I would guess will be medical/communications(internet) and automation related, but who knows, there could be a major nanotechnology breakthrough and in 30 or 40 years every problem we have today could seem irrelevant. Before my grandmother who hit 100 passed away, she said the biggest change she had seen, or that concerned her the most was that the pace of life had quickened so much that people don't really seem to 'enjoy' the simple parts of life. Hard to fathom, but I suppose it's true. Fascinating how different generations grow up in different worlds than those before them...

My father grew up on a farm, he started by driving horse drawn milk wagons. Later in life, whenever he got enough money set aside, he would trade his car (when my mother had one of her own) for a truck. This year he traded his well worn Taurus for a V8 powered Dakota 4x4 extended cab. He didn't like the fuel mileage he was getting so he sold the Dakota and got a Ranger regular cab 4X4. The Dakota was an auto and the Ranger is a manual. BTW, my father turns 88 this month and drives his truck daily, and not just short distances.

Neighbour growing up drove a 5 speed Sidekick (actually, a number of them, as he traded them every five years) until he was put into elder care (advanced dementia) at the age of 75.

My wife's aunt stopped by today to drop off some sewing she had done for us. She was on her way to the NAPA store to get some starter fluid because her lawn mower didn't want to start.

She drives a 1961 Buick with a manual 3-speed transmission. Long ago she told me they had to special order the car to get a manual.

She is 94 and does just fine except she is now very, very hard of heariing.

My mother-in-law drove a manual Subaru until she died a couple years ago. she was 93 when she died.

My grandpa drove an 87 Ford F250 Diesel 5-spd for about ten years before he died at 79.

That thing had an insanely stiff clutch too. I remember it being tough on my left leg when I was a teenager.

And to think.. one of the guys I work with, at age 24, traded in his manual civic for an automatic accord because he was "done with" manuals

My mom told me today on the way back up from Atlanta that if she was to old to drive a manual she was to old to drive.

I'm going to go just slightly off topic, but its not way off so bear with me.

In the early ninties I went to bike week in Daytona Beach, I spent most of my time at the speed-way, in the infield watching practice sessions for the 200. I also was privileged to see a lot of vintage racing. In one of the vintage races for truely vintage bikes (1920s & 30s) there was a rider of a similar vintage racing on an Indian with a jocky shifter and springer front end (& hard tail rear of course). Most of the other racers were much younger, but this old-timer, who had to be helped on to his bike, not only rode in good form, but finished in the top ten in a field of twenty or so racers. I hope that I can just figure out which side of the road to drive on when I'm that old

Hal wrote: My wife's aunt stopped by today to drop off some sewing she had done for us. She was on her way to the NAPA store to get some starter fluid because her lawn mower didn't want to start. She drives a 1961 Buick with a manual 3-speed transmission. Long ago she told me they had to special order the car to get a manual. She is 94 and does just fine except she is now very, very hard of heariing. My mother-in-law drove a manual Subaru until she died a couple years ago. she was 93 when she died.

93-94! That's what I'm talking about, this thread has shown me hope that maybe, just maybe some Centurian is driving around a manual, if that's the case, none of us slackers can complain about driving until we're 100 years old

we have an 81 yr old that still auto-x's with us.... drives his brothers Miata most of the time.... sometimes his son's Evo

for his fathers 80th birthday the son gave him a two day track day at VIR this man rocks......

I'm 60 now , hope I'm still doing as well as he is when I'm that age...