HomeMediaHagerty combines young drivers, manual shifting and classic cars

Hagerty combines young drivers, manual shifting and classic cars

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From classics to exotics, a variety of cars are used to teach manual shifting at Hagerty Driving Experience | Hagerty photos
From classics to exotics, a variety of cars are used to teach manual shifting at Hagerty Driving Experience | Hagerty photos

Hagerty has opened registration and announced the remaining schedule for 2016 for the Hagerty Driving Experience, a five-year-old program designed to introduce new drivers to manual transmissions and classic vehicles.

“The Hagerty Driving Experience introduces the next generation of enthusiasts and helps keep the collector community strong and vibrant,” McKeel Hagerty, chief executive of the insurance and vehicle valuation company, said in a news release.“This program is an excellent way for today’s youth to experience classic cars and embrace the opportunity to learn how to operate them.”

In the program, classic car owners (including the insurance company and its staffers) offer their own collector vehicles and serve as instructors to teach new drivers how to properly manipulate a manual transmission and clutch.

Imagine your first drive in a century-old vehicle
Imagine your first drive in a century-old vehicle

Drivers aged 15-25 can learn starting and operating techniques on a variety of cars in either a morning or afternoon session. They also receive instruction on car care essentials. After classroom instruction, hands-on (or maybe it’s feet-on) instruction takes place on a closed-circuit driving loop.

Each session runs for about three hours and has space for around 20 students.

In five years, more than 600 new drivers have participated in the program.

The first Hagerty Driving Experience of the year took place in January in conjunction with the Arizona Concours d’Elegance.

Upcoming events are:

  • Golden, Colorado, May 14 (Colorado State Patrol driving track)
  • Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada, July 16 (Reynolds-Alberta museum)
  • Caledonia, Ontario, Canada, August 26 (Caledonia fairgrounds)
  • Chicago, August 27 (location to be announced)
  • Tacoma, Washington (September 17), Le May museum

 

Registration is free and information is available at the driving experience website.

Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
  1. Many young people are amazed at the looks, the engineering and the simplicity of the old cars. The girls say they are beautiful which in my mind is true but then I am hooked on old cars. I think that the antiques will live on to tell the story about the design and manufacture and the love of man and his car.

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