Shifting With The Future At The Hagerty Driving Experience

Last Wednesday morning, I received an email about an upcoming event in Portland, Ore. held by classic car insurer Hagerty. Fifty teens and young adults between the ages of 15 and 25 would get to drive a handful of classic and vintage cars and trucks around a marked course. All of the vehicles available would have one thing in common: a manual transmission.

Furthermore, I, too, could participate in learning the art of the manual transmission, having acquired my permit the day before the press release entered my inbox.

All I had to do was head down to Portland Meadows — where thoroughbreds are the dominant form of horsepower between October and February — on Saturday.

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  • Master Baiter I actually received an engineering job offer from Fisker in early 2021. Glad I declined it...
  • Bryan The simple fact that the Honda has a CVT & the Toyota doesn't was more than enough for me to pick the Toyota for both of my daughters.
  • Theflyersfan This wagon was a survivor! These and the Benzes of that era were the take it out back and shoot it (or until you needed a part that was worth more than the car) to get rid of it. But I don't think there will be Junkyard Finds with Volvos or Benzes from this era with 900,000 miles on them. Not with everything tied to touchscreens and components tied to one system. When these screens and the computers that run them flake out, that might be the end of the car. And is any automaker going to provide system boards, memory modules, graphics cards, etc., for the central touchscreens that controls the entire car? Don't know. The aftermarket might, but it won't be cheap.
  • Jbltg First and only Volvo I have ever seen with a red interior!
  • Zerofoo Henrik Fisker is a very talented designer - the Fisker Karma is still one of the best looking cars ever made (in my opinion).Maybe car designers should stick to designing cars and not running car companies.