Sorry, the type-r only comes in manual - and it's not even available in the US (although, for all I know you may be elsewhere!). Your dad should be able to teach you a manual easy enough if he's a mechanic. It's really not that hard and Hondas are easy to learn on - high gear ratios, although the type-r might be different since it's a 6 speed. You'll stall and everything, pretty badly at first, but you stall, you laugh, you turn it back on and try again. I think the part that scares people the most is the fact that in a stick you roll backward and not forward like in an automatic. I couldn't tell you when you need to switch gears - my honda didn't have a tachometer so I just had to do it the old fashioned way and listen to the engine. The hardest part is getting into first gear - once you get that, you're golden and everything else is easy enough. The scariest part will be the first time you roll backward down a hill. You can do what my mom and I did on my car - put a sign on the back windshield that said "Learning to drive a manual: tailgate at your own risk". And I know what you mean about guys talking down because you're a girl - none of the guys in my family will take my advice when I tell them something is going wrong with the car. $800 and a new transmission for an automatic Jeep Cherokee later, my dad is still a bit upset for not listening to me when I said he needed some new liquid down there.