Review: 2020 Toyota 86 Hakone Edition… and my left foot

I\’d give my left foot (and my right) to shift my own gears

Forty-two years ago, I came into this world with a birth defect.

What you see is a pair of feet that should not be, especially my left foot. Seven total toes (two of them webbed together), missing bones, and a leg-length discrepancy of around 1 cm between my left and right legs (the left leg is shorter).

I\’m lucky to walk, as some of my relatives with this defect can\’t at all.

I don\’t know what it\’s like to stand for 90 minutes at a soccer match (or spend hours standing at work) without pain. I can\’t ever know what any of you reading this go through with your feet on the daily.

I can, however, guess that those of you who do shift your own gears have an easier time than I.

I\’ve only shifted my own twice in my life.

The first time was late at night in my roommate\’s Mustang in 2004 or so, a few miles from the apartment we shared.

Not the brightest idea.

The second time was five years ago, on my 37th birthday weekend. I took a bus from Seattle to Portland, then an Uber to the Portland Meadows parking lot to cover a youth program by Hagerty for The Truth About Cars.

The program, called the Hagerty Driving Experience, allowed a handful of 15- to 25-year-old drivers to practice the manual in a selection of classic cars. I got a chance to work on developing those skills during the afternoon session, which, with a couple of exceptions, went okay.

And that was that. Nothing for five more years.

I figured I could change that and more with the 86 Hakone Edition. After all, if I could master this skill, I would increase my value as an automotive writer and reviewer, especially on the freelance market, where I make all of my money.

That, and I didn\’t want to miss out on any of the remaining high-performance manuals on the market in the U.S., like the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 or the Honda Civic Type R.

Thus, after watching enough YouTube videos on the subject, I went out and attempted to shift my own towards a new future, my left foot be damned.

It didn\’t go well.