In the gen Zedders' world where driving is often seen as a chore - or even rejected completely - Zach Bates is a throwback to yesteryear.
The Canberra 19-year-old is one of the increasingly rare members of his generation who completely relishes all the skills and nuances of manual car driving like heel-and-toe down-shifting and trail-braking.
He says few of his peers have a clue about such things.
Zach Bates is very good at these sublime skill sets because he has to be: he's one of many trying to climb the greasy pole to Australia's motor racing V8 Supercar elite and is now just one rung below, driving for the Melbourne-based Walkinshaw Andretti United team.
Meanwhile, three-quarters of P-platers his age in the ACT are only licensed to drive automatics - and it's a common trend right across the country.
Last year in Canberra, only 26 per cent of drivers achieving their licences for the first time did so in a manual car.
Seven years ago, it was 51 per cent.
"Most of my mates from school only learned to drive automatic cars," Zach Bates said.
"But to be fair, often that's because their parents only have an automatic car so that's all they access to when they were learning; that didn't happen at our place."
Gen Zedders also live with the reality that in decade or so, the precious few manual cars available on the market will all but disappear.
Not so in the curious world of Korean car maker Hyundai which now offers an electric car so fiendishly clever, it can convince diehard, manual combustion engine car owners a zero-emissions driving future isn't so dull and boring after all.
The devious, software-soaked Hyundai is called the Ioniq 5 N and unlike any other EV on the market, it has a specific mode which allows up-and-down gear changes and simulates the sound of a combustion sports engine so well it's, well, kinda spooky. But in a good way.
"It really is very convincing," the young P-plated Bates said after a turn behind the wheel in "manual" mode which had him, at various times, both intrigued and chortling with amusement at the ingenuity of it all.
"You just press the steering wheel buttons in a certain sequence and it turns on the simulated engine noise.
"You know that it's all fake, but it's also good. It's really good.
"The software is super clever because it simulates so many subtle things that a combustion car does, right down to the tiny 'engine' idle tremble you can feel through the door frames.
"My cousin Jack, who is a complete tech-head, has just bought one of these and he loves it."
The highly authentic engine sounds are broadcast into the car for the driver to enjoy, and outside via acoustic speakers under the front and rear bumpers for others around you in the traffic queue to enjoy. Turn the volume all the way up to 20 and it's almost - but not quite - unsociable.
And for those who know and love the various noises combustion engines produce, there's even a simulated exhaust note "cackle" when the driver suddenly lifts off the "accelerator". Which, incidentally, is not an accelerator at all; it only looks like one.
For a 2.2 tonne medium-sized car with a stonking big battery under the floor, it's also very fast, although that's not greatly unusual in the EV world.
But is this the type of high-revving software that would convince teenage enthusiast drivers like Zach Bates to drive an EV?
"Maybe, but it's really expensive [$111,000]," he said.
"Personally, I think EVs are not the only zero-emissions transport answer because there's still so many other evolving technologies.
"This one [the Hyundai] is great to drive but most EVs are pretty boring. But perhaps if they were all like this ..."
