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Hi again, yes thanks for the input, you are of course quite correct, the old chap said that as I had had the guts to admit I struggled, he would help, but let the others, go on 'talking a good job'.
I rarely used the clutch on the guys after that except for pulling away and snatch changes from first to second on a climb.
I have had fun over the years when other drivers may have been riding shotgun, some were convinced when I told them that the clutch pedal was disconnected and the gearbox of whatever I was driving was semi automatic, or the switch i pressed on the dashboard was an electric clutch. The fun died out once all the auto and semi auto boxes became commonplace.
Once when driving an outside broadcast truck for the BBC, I was sent off on an urgent detail as part of a rebroadcasting network to do with, if I remember correctly, A major political resignation. I had never driven this old truck before and within 500-800 yds. the clutch pedal fell to the floor, dead, obviously a slave or master cylinder fault or fluid leak. I just carried on to the rendevous point, which was about forty miles and then across a steep field to the top of a hill. Apart from having to switch the engine of every time I stopped and then starting it in gear on full throttle, the journey was totally unremarkable. On arriving at the rendevous, I used one of their technician's phones to advise them that it would need attention when I got back, but their workshop would not believe that it could be driven without using the clutch and sent out the fitters.
Energumen
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