my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Manual Gears Stop Bandits (Page 1)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: Manual Gears Stop Bandits Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 08-17-2011 03:19 PM                     Here's why you should know how to drive a manual shift vehicle. In Mondays' morning paper there was a short article describing a convenience store hold up where the two robbers ran out of the store with the cash, pulled the driver out of a car and got in only to find that the car had a manual gear shift which neither of them knew how to operate. After several attempts at trying to make the car go they got out and found the police entering the parking lot and surrendered. Morons!  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-17-2011 05:09 PM                     Everyone should be made to learn to drive on a manual car. Automatic lessons are just stupid.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-17-2011 05:11 PM                        quote: Bill Enos Here's why you should know how to drive a manual shift vehicle. To better facilitate our lives of crime after we lose our jobs to digital?  |  IP: Logged Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 08-17-2011 05:22 PM                        A similar (but more violent) incident in Utah this past weekend. Deseret News Article Aug 14, 2011 Wyoming shooting suspects caught after dramatic chase on I-80 ECHO, SUMMIT COUNTY  — A dangerous fugitive once imprisoned for shooting at an Oregon county sheriff was caught Sunday after a high speed chase into Utah along Interstate 80, where he and his wife were cornered by deputies in a tense standoff. The pair — on the run since mid-July — had an encounter with Nebraska police on Tuesday and were able to escape after a high speed vehicle chase and three hour ground search of a field where they had escaped. Then, this weekend, police say Roy Scott Fritts Jr., 33, and Jessica Fritts, 35, were camping with their traveling partner in Sweetwater County, Wyo., when some sort of dispute arose. Sweetwater County's Sheriff's detective Dick Blust Jr., said Edmund Thornell, 54, of Costa Mesa, Calif., was shot multiple times. He flagged down a passerby on a county road south of Rock Springs, where police were told the pair had taken off in his 1994 Chevrolet van. The van was spotted near Evanston on I-80 where the pursuit started along the interstate 30 miles into Utah. At Echo Junction, Utah officers laid down spikes, disabling the van, said Summit County Sheriff's detective Sgt. Ron Bridge. The two then fled on foot and carjacked another vehicle at gunpoint, but they were unable to flee because they did not know how to operate a manual transmission, Bridge said. The sergeant said the pair then tried to break into a house and ended up running into a nearby field. While the woman surrendered after being cornered by deputies, her male partner — sporting a gun in his waistband — refused to comply with officers' orders for several tense minutes. He eventually surrendered. The sheriff's office said Fritts is a wanted fugitive who absconded from supervised prison release on two counts of attempted aggravated murder and two counts of possessing a handgun while committing a felony. Jessica Fritz has a felony conviction for robbery but is not under any supervision. Media reports say Fritts went to prison in 2001 for shooting at the Union County Sheriff in Oregon and pointing a gun at another man. In Nebraska this week, state troopers said they believe the pair stole a car and were spotted in the vehicle on a highway west of Lexington. There was a 10-minute chase  that ended when the pair abandoned the vehicle and ran into a field. Thornell was treated at a Wyoming hospital and then flown to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. The Frittses are in custody at the Summit County Jail in Park  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 08-17-2011 05:31 PM                        I'm all for people not knowing how to drive a manual transmission. That means my car is less likely to get stolen. But I can steal anybody's car with ease. Driving a manual takes more skill (though less knowledge) than running a changeover booth.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-17-2011 05:34 PM                     ya, cuz you're doing work both both hands and feet (unless you're doing a changeover with floor mounted, foot douser pedals..)  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 08-17-2011 06:18 PM                     This is why I'm not too afraid to leave my car running unattended in the winter or even this summer. Heck, when I took my car to the body shop back in May I had to pull it around to the overnight storage lot since they had no one available at the time that knew how to drive a manual 5-Speed. I taught my sister how to drive one as a teenager and it helped her when she joined the Marine Corp a couple of years later.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-17-2011 08:30 PM                     I think all new drivers should be required to take their driving test in a car with a manual transmission. Even if they never drive a stick shift again in their entire lives, they should, at minimum, know how to operate a manual transmission. Not only do I think it is the right thing to do, I believe it teaches people to drive more safely because they have to plan ahead. They can't just stomp on the gas at the green light and stomp on the brake at the red light. They have to watch traffic in front of them and keep an eye on conditions. Besides, there's that old question, "What would happen if you were out in the middle of nowhere and you had to drive your mother to the hospital but the only car in sight had a manual transmission and you didn't know how to drive it?" Would your mother have to die because you are to stupid to drive a stick?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-17-2011 08:34 PM                     If one wants to learn stick real quick, get on a big John Deere tractor and learn how to shift that monster .. and without killing the motor..  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-17-2011 09:26 PM                     I got my stick shift driving lesson in Harvard Square, right in the middle of rush hour with Richard Stallman in the passenger seat. I basically knew how to drive a standard but had no experience driving on in traffic. My roommate asked me to drive his friend on some errands and tossed me the keys to his Toyota Carolla five-speed. So, I lurched my way over to Stallman's office and picked him up and off we went. If you know the stereotypical computer geek, Richard fits it perfectly. He didn't have a driver's license. I suppose that somebody who lives downtown doesn't really need one. Does he? Imagine me and an Ubergeek in a beat up, old Toyota, lurching our way through Harvard Square with him freaking out and shouting, "Step on the clutch! No, the gas!" It could have been a scene out of a movie. I never had a problem driving in traffic again and, as a matter of fact, I have rarely driven an automatic ever since. I have owned two cars and both are/were standards. One benefit to driving a stick is that nobody ever asks to borrow my car.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 08-17-2011 09:55 PM                        My dad taught me how to drive on a stick, but my first car was an automatic which I owned for a year or two. It was a Ford in a time when Fords weren't made very well, so it died constantly. I was able to buy my uncle's old car which was a 5-speed Honda Prelude. I hadn't driven a stick since I was learning how to drive, but I got in and went on my merry way. The awkwardness only lasted a few minutes until I re-accumulated myself. Haven't owned an automatic car since and I don't have any desire to. I'm not THAT god damned lazy. It is weird when I drive an auto, though, because they go forward even though no gas is being pressed. Screw that!  |  IP: Logged Robert E. Allen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1078 From: Checotah, Oklahoma Registered: Jul 2002 posted 08-17-2011 10:38 PM                     Well guys, I learned to drive stick long before most of you were born (both 4 on the floor and column mount 3 speed). In 1954 I bought my first automatic (a Chevy "Powerglide") and have never owned a stick since. Driving is supposed to be comfortable not work. Many who drive stick today (which I consider a step backwards in automotive engineering) will say it's because it gets better gas mileage. But most I've seen driving sticks blow any gas savings by apparently fancying themselves as Indy 500 drivers as the rip away from stoplights.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-17-2011 10:58 PM                     Yes, better mileage is one thing but control is more important to me. You can downshift on curves. You drop one gear or two when you want to pass a truck or something. When you are on icy roads, you can shift a little early to take some power off so you don't spin your wheels. When you are driving in a slow area like a school zone you can put the car in second gear and practically idle along. I don't see driving a stick shift as work, at all but, if it is extra work, the mileage increase is the payoff. I don't use a lot of anything that's automatic. I don't like autofocus or auto exposure on cameras. In fact, several of my cameras don't even have built in meters. You have to use a handheld meter and set the camera accordingly. On the cameras I use that have automatic metering, I like to be able to turn it off when I want to. Even on computers, which are just about the most automatic things in daily life, I turn off many of the features that do things automatically or else I set them to "Ask First" mode. The way I see things, machines obey human commands. The do my bidding when I want, the way I want it and not until I say so. Too many automatic devices make it seem the other way around. P.S. My 2001 Mazda 626 with a 5-speed manual regularly gets 30+ miles to the gallon and, on my last tank, I calculated 33 MPG.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 08-17-2011 11:35 PM                        quote: Randy Stankey You can downshift on curves. You drop one gear or two when you want to pass a truck or something. When you are on icy roads, you can shift a little early to take some power off so you don't spin your wheels. You can also put it into neutral on a downward slope to get the most free yards out of your momentum; though admittedly you can do that on an automatic, too. Driving instructors advise against it, though I work on the basis that brake pads are cheaper to replace when they wear out than gearboxes. For another variant of the the hapless car thieves in the parking lot, a story does the rounds here (probably an urban legend, but what the hell) about some American tourists who arrived at Heathrow, picked up a rental car and headed on their way up the M1. A few miles down the road, the car broke down with smoke pouring from the bonnet. When the breakdown truck arrived to assist, the driver remarked that it was too bad the car didn't last, as it had the best acceleration of any vehicle he'd ever driven, bar none. Turns out that, not being familiar with manual gearboxes, he'd been doing 80mph in first gear. I find it interesting that in Europe, automatic gearboxes are very unusual except in high-end luxury cars (BMWs, Mercs etc.), and almost unheard of in bogstandard hatchbacks and saloons (oops, sorry, compacts and sedans). If you want an automatic gearbox in an average sort of car, it's a very expensive optional extra; therefore, hardly anyone buys them new and so there are hardly any automatics on the used car market, either. In the US, however, it's the complete opposite (the default is automatic, with a manual gearbox being an extra cost item), so much so that the last time I bothered asking if it would be possible to rent a manual car in the US, Hertz quite simply said no and told me to sod off (at the location I wanted to collect from), and Avis quoted almost double the price for an automatic. My only guess for the reason why is that European roads tend to have more variable bends and gradients (hence the need for more frequent and unpredictable gear changes), whereas US grid pattern city streets tend to be long and straight, punctuated with frequent stops at intersections and gradual acceleration away from them, and thus more suited to automated gear changes. quote: Joe Redifer It is weird when I drive an auto, though, because they go forward even though no gas is being pressed. Screw that! That makes me feel uneasy, too. I always put the gearbox into neutral and apply the handbrake when stopped at lights in an automatic - without wanting to sound overly morbid about it, if I suddenly have a heart attack and keel over at the wheel, I don't want the car to start to move and possibly cause an accident.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 08-17-2011 11:50 PM                        I don't think of driving a stick as work. I think it is fun and it makes me feel part of the car. It really helps in snowy and icy conditions. I don't even have snow tires and I slide around less than others who do (though sometimes I engage the emergency brake on an icy patch so I can do a 360 just to freak people out and cause a few reactionary deaths). When driving an automatic, I'm always worried that I am forgetting something (yeah, weird, I know). Though the consistently variable transmission in my woman's car is pretty good. It doesn't shift, ever.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.