What is the Best Manual Transmission Car you have ever driven or owned???

The 3rd Gen manual is absolute butter compared to the 2nd Gen.

 

1999 Miata, now with a roll bar. I've also Honda S2000. And I still think the Miata is more fun.

0504181319-1

First time on the track recently. Had the whole track rented out for a private track day. Got to drive a Ferrari also owned by the guy that rented the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fiZtCBWuqQ

 

This is an oddball, but before I bought my Tacoma in 2013, I had a 2003 Honda Civic SI (EP3). The shifter was in the dash and the car was just fun to drive, not so easy on the eyes, but it was peppy and a lot of fun.

 

Never OWNED a manual…

Driven though? Tossup between numerous Toyota trucks and a 2006 Honda Element; This list does NOT include any of the stick shift vehicles I drove when I worked at the detail shop…

1991 Toyota 2WD pickup (learned in this)
2002 Saturn SL
1971 Volkswagen Bus
2004 Toyota Tacoma
2006 Honda Element

 

My 2016 Hellcat challenger with a Barton short throw. just so awesome.

 

This might make people uncomfortable , but my wife's '08 Honda Fit is probably the slickest shifting car I've driven. I'm a big guy, so it's kind of like driving a Hotwheels. Clutch is super light, steering wheel is tiny, but that shifter is seriously smooth. You can probably use your thumb and forefinger to move between gears, even with 180k on the odometer.

 

So I rode with a "pro" driver in a full blown stripped Honda Fit Track Car at a Grid Life event........ It was something else!! Highly underrated platform! Super slow but slammed and with wide track tires and no interior it was crazy. Every manual Honda I have driven has been some of my favorite gearboxes for sure!

On the hunt for something new now

 

Very cool footage. MIATA might be the answer for my next fun vehicle... renting a 2019 RF on Vacation next week on Turo

 

1989 Thunderbird super coupe

 

I have owned five vehicles with Manual Transmission.

1) 1972 Chevy Vega, 3 speed. 1st car, P.O.S.
2) 1972 Mazda RX3, 4 speed. Fun and quick car, fairly smooth shifter.
3) 1976 BMW 528, 4 speed. Had a good time driving around Europe when stationed in Germany.
4) 1987 GMC Jimmy, 4 speed. Fun to drive but the 2.8L was grossly under powered for the hills in Colorado.
5) 1990 Acura Integra, 5 speed. One of the favorite cars that I have owned.

The 1990 Acura Integra manual transmission was hands down the smoothest manual transmission of any vehicle that I have ever driven.

 

The 2015 Honda Fit I owned was the epitome of slow car fast on some serious mountain roads haha. Even rallied it pretty hard one time (hard enough to blow both front shocks), oops… I gave it to my little brother because I needed to get back into a truck but didn’t want to let it go ha. Still get to drive it once in a while. We even did a little have Rally video with it for one of his videography classes, I’ll see if he still has it and is willing to share.

 

2011 Mustang GT with Barton short throw shifter, that thing was mechanical feeling af

 

My first car was a 1979 Jeep cj 5 304 v8 3sp

 

my 2018 M2 "daily" is one of my favorite for sure

7454555B-2F69-4452-B89C-4240C89D6C98 by tn97d90, on Flickr

 

C5 Corvette with an MGW shifter.

 

'64 GTO with a Muncie M-21 "Stick in the Mud"

 

I’ve had two manual vehicles: a WRX STI like you OP, and a BMW 3 series. The WRX was a bit like a toy car, so light. Clutch was fairly smooth, but what I really liked was the short throw shifter. Very quick between gears.

The BMW was obviously a better manual though, very smooth clutch, felt amazing to accelerate into a turn and shift in the middle of it. Car rode like it was on rails. Miss it every day — would love to have that as my DD and the truck just for truck things.

 

My 2008 RX8 was pretty fun. Thing cornered like it was on rails.

 

Three on the tree '64 Fairlane was awesome. W59 in '96 Taco has been and still is fun, my wife calls it "zippy" '21 Taco, ,meh, yeah whatever..... Some other Ford & Isuzu POS products not listed, '60s Dodge Trucks not listed but great fun - I was 10 and don't recall the details other than the tall zig zag shifter.

 

I'm done with cars...for now. Got what I always wanted, both in stick shift. My first car was a 1998 Nissan Frontier 5-spd manual too. Sold that in 2009, and never driven a stick until May this year when I got the TRD Pro. Forgot how awesome driving stick is.