Changing gears for Dad
It doesn’t matter who is driving. And it doesn’t matter what the car is. What matters is the moment the driver turns to the young, impressionable passenger and asks, ‘Would you like to change gear?’
I used to do it all the time for my father. The car in question had a reputation for having one of the least pleasant gearchanges of its day, but when you’re young and have never driven a car before, it doesn’t matter. That car was a Saab 900 Turbo 16 S. Or rather, it was a succession of 16 S’s; Dad owned four, no less, over the years.
There can be no simpler way to fire the imagination of a young mind. Changing gear for mum, dad, or whoever is driving is a way of appreciating the timing of driving, the coordination of limbs, the fine-tuning of hearing and the satisfaction that can come from shutting out all other thoughts and focussing on operating a machine in the moment.
These days, many modern cars - notably anything with sporting pretentions from a mainstream manufacturer - will take care of the gearchange for the driver. The automatic, or rather, the automated, gearbox has come to rule the roost, as management of power and torque delivery and integration with a myriad of electronic systems means it’s impractical, if not impossible, to offer a good-old-fashioned stick-shift. (Let’s not get started on electric cars.)
And yet the act of driving a car can be immensely rewarding, and on the right road, in the right conditions, as therapeutic as any spa treatment.
So if you have a car with a manual gearbox, and someone in the passenger seat who is yet to drive, why not ask, ‘Would you like to change gear?’