I think that’s opposite for Japanese and European cars.
the same mountainbike: At first I thought of the T-handle release for the pedals then I remembered my 1950s vintage vehicles with the parking brake you describe. I think chunkyazian is correct regarding most Japanese and European cars which tended to have separate front seats.
I think so too. Bucket seats were the norm in European and Japanese cars long before they were in American cars.
Those bucket seats… that lever-operated parking brake in between… that 4! (not 3) speed stick shift… that low-mounted center dash fresh air outlet with 4-speed fan…!!!
Japan put it all together at a hard-to-beat bargain price in the 1970s and the auto world changed forever.
The irony is that I don’t think it was intentional. The early Japanese cars were tiny (I speak from experience) and the only way to make them usable (access the rear seat) was with bucket seats. European cars were the same. Go back to the original Mini and its brethren, just big enough to get you from point A to point B, and buckets were really the only way to go. They were so tiny I think the only place to put a parking brake lever was between the seats.
OP states he does this incredibly stupid thing, then lets us know his car has 200 miles on it an he smells something burning.
I think what I smell is a troll.
I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It sounds legit to me.
Back when I was teaching my son to drive a manual on my '89 Toyota pickup he gifted me with that burned-clutch odor a couple of times. I can’t really blame him, his teacher wasn’t all that good. But we got through it. It actually taught me to prepare better by paying close attention to what I myself actually do when driving a clutch.