My first car was a stick (and my 2d too--I had the second for about 12 years). At 16, in 1983 a 1974 BMW 2002tii. The only thing I knew about driving stick was what I had read in Car & Driver and Road & Track. I hopped in and drove it home. It had racing pedals. Instead of stepping down on the clutch with the lever on the top of the well, the arm emerged from the bottom and it was a shorter throw and the motion was horizontal and a little up (I hope that description makes sense to you)