Back in university days, went on a road trip from Eugene with Melody, George, Greg, and Jack to spend New Years Eve in SF and visit with friends.
We drove down in Jack's 1964 Dodge Dart, with three on the tree (for those unaware, this means the shifter is on the steering column, depress clutch pedal then choose from one of three forward gears),...almost as much fun as Karma's (yes, her parents were hippies) push button Valiant. Beside the classic bench seats that had been liberally duct-taped, it had no functioning fan to blow in heat (or outside air), so no defrost function.
It was plenty cold when we left and the only way to keep things fogging up was to keep two windows cracked open. Once over the Siskiyou pass, the cold got so bad that our breath was freezing on the inside of the windscreen. We had to use the ice scraper to scrape off the frost and then quickly wipe it down with a rag. And we had earlier, we had all maneuvered into our sleeping bags....the driver had to "wear" theirs upside down (thank god for double zippers).
So anyway, per plan, we get to SF at the ass crack of dawn (avoiding rush hour traffic), and Jack wants to take the car on an early morning tour.
We start going up to Nob Hill, and have to stop. When it was time to go, engine revs, clutch pedal is all the way out...and then there is billowing smoke of a dying clutch and we go no where. Car behind us beeps and beeps. Air is full of burning clutch smell....as distinctive a scent as finding out the hard way if the soldering iron is hot.
I shout that we all need to get out, Jack is going, 'No, I can reverse down the hill." But I shout louder, and with less mass in the car, the clutch holds, and he gets up the hill. Car behind us is non-stop beeping as it follows the Dart up.
We park the car near our friends, get out the tools and the quick fix was just tightening up the clutch cable. Got home without trouble either. I think he eventually found a junkyard clutch from a similar car but ended up selling the car to a person that was pretty much a twin of Jack from another mother, from build right down to personal affectationsx and clothing. This guy looked more like Jack than Jack's actual brother. It was a little unsettling
Anyway, the Golf has a hill hold function on the clutch, so being stopped on a hill isn't too bad. I don't like it when I have to parallel park on steep hills though, makes the delicate small motions more jerky than it should be.
