How to drive stick shift? Options

[mrgrape]

k so im getting a new car soon
and no matter what its gonna be a stick bc i dont like automatic

anyone know where i can learn? so i know how to drive before the test ride?
my friends both have stick but they dont wanna teach me in their cars =[
camaro Z28 and golf gti

but yeah somewhere where i can get started
or if theirs a practice sesh

[Stambo]

learn in the golf. I dont know why people are so afraid of learning. I'm not saying you are but i know people who are. I really think the only hard part is getting used to the clutch.

[imper]

Yes teh clutch is the hard part. Every clutch in every car is different here are a few pointers that i've learned.

Learn at night. You will have to drive around town without looking down to see what gear your in. So best to learn at night when you cant see it anyway.

Listen to your engine. That will tell you when to shift. Yes you can go off of the rpms, but just listening is better.

First gear is a beyatch. way i got down at first was on a hill i held the ebrake while letting off the brake. so i wouldnt roll back. then slowing released it as i got some gas. then i figured out how to release the clutch a little bit till i can feel the engine trying to move the car. then you can let off the brake and give it some gas.

[Tigawoods]

i had it down mentally in my head before i even sat in a manual car. got it and it came naturally. your best bet is to take it to a large empty lot and practice with a person who is knows how to drive stick.

after you have that all down, drive on the streets (lightly populated area's)....and then step up your game and try hill starts

[stetsonaw]

i learned on a 78 chevy c/k, 4 on the floor (which included granny low). i can drive anything after that beast. Get your hands on an old pickup if you can.

[97celiman]

lol i learned in a 78 ford flatbed with a 289 mustang engine in it...just a crappy old farm truck...then i got in my dads 86 300zx...you wanna talk about a finicky clutch holy crap that thing is annoying and the shifter is like 2 ft high...then i got in the celica and everything clicks into place...its beautiful

[1bwilson]

Its easy, remember first is just to get you rolling and then you put it into second. You never downshift into first and rarly even drop down to second unless your coming to a complete stop. If yoru foot is big enough and the clutch is set low enough you can use your heel as a pivot point to shift. Its much easier to move your toes with your ancle then your foot with your knee.

Shifting is easy, your shifter will naturaly want to move into 2-3-4. 1'st 5'th and reverse are on a stronger spring so you will have to try and put them into that gear instead of a much more smooth motion with 2-4.

[Akira_g4]

If you were up here in norcal i'd teach you. but its really not that hard. just getting out of 1st is the toughest. im currently teaching my gf and she's almost a pro already!

[stetsonaw]

1'st 5'th and reverse are on a stronger spring

you wouldn't believe how many time's i've accidentally gone to 3rd when going for 5th.... going 120km/h into 3rd about puts my knees into the dashboard, ouch.

[1bwilson]

1'st 5'th and reverse are on a stronger spring

you wouldn't believe how many time's i've accidentally gone to 3rd when going for 5th.... going 120km/h into 3rd about puts my knees into the dashboard, ouch.

hehe ouch, Ive hit 5'th a few times going for 3rd but never the other way. I have had a trd shifter since day one too so maybe the springs are tighter.

[stetsonaw]

ebrake handle gets in the way of 5th over here on the right side of the car. i have to pull it into 5th while you guys get to push it, but lets not threadjack this guy. oh, when i did my tranny swap is when my short shifter got put in.

[goferris]

You should learn on a celica. I just pretty much taught my lil bro how to do it. I took him out twice and now he knows the basics. It's really not that hard.

[Rider]

You got plenty of advice, but the main thing you will need to learn is getting the car to move smoothly in 1st gear. First, I think you should start out WITHOUT using your gas pedal at all, on a flat surface. That way you'll feel where the clutch engages and how it works in that particular car. That's really the hardest thing about driving manual, 1st gear. After you mastered that, everything should be a lot easier to learn.

Other than that, make sure you're in an empty parking lot on your first few drives, haha.

[mrgrape]

thanks akira and fellow 6gcers....
the problem is i dont have a car to practice in unless i beg my friend who just installed a new clutch.....which i doubt it to let me learn on his car...
o well gotta start asking...
but yeah if there was a school on driving stick id totally take it
bc the problem is i need to learn before i TEST DRIVE my soon to be car that is tick

This post has been edited by mrgrape: Aug 30, 2008 - 6:06 PM

[RickJamesBish]

I'd say it depends mostly on the car you learn in, but like Tiga said, take it to an empty parking lot. Unless you really fubar it, you can't hurt anything.

Hell, I learned in a GLI, so the clutch pickup was pretty sensitive. Fun car to drive though.

[JonMarkos]

Just test drive standard transmission cars at car dealerships. Learning to drive stick is really tough on a clutch so take it out on random cars. Go back day after day to different salesmen at different dealerships until you have a good idea of what you are doing. And remember that too much gas is better than not enough gas

[forkee]

where do you live?

[mrgrape]

where do you live?

southern cali
sunny san diego
i dont mind paying to learn =p

[forkee]

oh ok. shoot id teach you but you'll have to come to cerritos.

[mrgrape]

oh ok. shoot id teach you but you'll have to come to cerritos.

thanks man ill pm u if i choose to head up there
right now my celicas rear end is squeeking everytime i slow down so i dunno whats up
but yeah thanks i might hit u up when i go up for nocturnal

[xs94st]

old pickup ftw!

[RickJamesBish]

Just test drive standard transmission cars at car dealerships. Learning to drive stick is really tough on a clutch so take it out on random cars. Go back day after day to different salesmen at different dealerships until you have a good idea of what you are doing. And remember that too much gas is better than not enough gas

Right, and then the salesman isn't gonna get pissed when it turns out you can't move the thing two feet...nice try.

[Taskbot]

Okay I did this recently too (like 4 months ago) and I ended up learning it pretty quickly.

The best thing you can do is make a night of it once you learn how to launch it of course. Just fill up the tank and take it to the streets. Nobody will be around so nobody will care if you mess up. Country roads are the best, and make sure you do some hill stops. Just spend like an hours at it, take a break, and than another hour. After that, sleep. Then wake up and think about what you did wrong and how you can improve your driving. After you've done this you'll probably be itching to go out and do it again.

I did something like that for a while, however I owned the car before I could actually drive it. Since you'll probably be taking a friend's car you might not be able to get a routine like that going so you might want to work on the basics and save the routine for when you get the car you're going to buy.

[RickJamesBish]

I wouldn't advise taking it on public roads if you don't know how to drive it yet, there's still people out...like people have said, empty parking lot is best.

[mrgrape]

Okay I did this recently too (like 4 months ago) and I ended up learning it pretty quickly.

The best thing you can do is make a night of it once you learn how to launch it of course. Just fill up the tank and take it to the streets. Nobody will be around so nobody will care if you mess up. Country roads are the best, and make sure you do some hill stops. Just spend like an hours at it, take a break, and than another hour. After that, sleep. Then wake up and think about what you did wrong and how you can improve your driving. After you've done this you'll probably be itching to go out and do it again.

I did something like that for a while, however I owned the car before I could actually drive it. Since you'll probably be taking a friend's car you might not be able to get a routine like that going so you might want to work on the basics and save the routine for when you get the car you're going to buy.

sick man
i think i might have my friend test drive it
and have him drive it back and teach me with the new car...
is that legit???
what does everyone else think of that

[RickJamesBish]

Once again, that sounds terrible...have fun wrecking a new car.

[CelicaST_CALI]

all i can say is dont be a robot...every time u shift gears is different...

[Taskbot]

Once again, that sounds terrible...have fun wrecking a new car.

Hahaha you're acting like this is something completely different. A car is a car. Standard or Automatic, it makes little difference when it comes to actually being on a road because the only thing that is really changed is getting it to move and shifting. He can still swerve and stuff, plus he'll probably have someone in the passenger seat.

When I learned to drive standard I was thrown into the mix. Me and my dad were test driving a 96 Accord Coupe and he stopped at the side of the road and was like "okay now you drive."Although it took FOREVER to launch that thing, The clutch was definitely not stock, it was like a light switch. I managed to get it back to the used car place. The scary part though was pulling the thing onto a 4 lane 80km/h highway. I thought I was going to stall it for sure.

Still, you should do a little parking lot stuff before you actually take it to the road but when you take it to the road, take it away from the city to the countryside. If you ever get in anyone's way just put on the blinkers. There's really nothing that bad about it.
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It should be alright to let your friend test drive the car, I mean for all the owners know he could be buying it and he should still be okay to drive it back to your place, transfer of ownership usually happens after you have the car in your possession but so long as you have the signed ownership you should be okay.

[mrgrape]

wow i was in my friends z28 today and OMFGGGGGGGGGGGGGG WHAT A FREAKIN BEAST COMPARED TO THE CELI....
it was frickin insane..... i really am amped on driving stick.
ill prob buy it and practice on my own...
i heard its another new world of driving cars!!!!
i missed out on this 300zx twin turbo CLEAN title 70,000 5speed for 10grand
I SHOULD OF JUMPED ON IT!!!!!
o well if any other ideas come up let me know.
I NEED STICK!

This post has been edited by mrgrape: Sep 2, 2008 - 12:19 AM

[JonMarkos]

So a salesman gets pissed and...does what?

[RickJamesBish]

I'm not talking about driving in general, of course that's not gonna be a problem, but getting the car to move at all...why would you let somebody continue to test drive a car when they can't even get it to move? So then you try to pull into a busy road like you described, and you get your nose into traffic and then BAM you stall. What happens then?

[Taskbot]

I'm not talking about driving in general, of course that's not gonna be a problem, but getting the car to move at all...why would you let somebody continue to test drive a car when they can't even get it to move? So then you try to pull into a busy road like you described, and you get your nose into traffic and then BAM you stall. What happens then?

Hahaha I was talking about like country roads at 2am. its 9:40 and nobody has passed my farm in 20 minutes. Its pretty deserted and I think all traffic stops dead around here at about 2 until about 5 and I'm only about 20 minutes from a large city. Besides, if you have a car with a reasonable clutch you should be okay. Ideally though he'll probably have some seat time in a parking lot learning to make it move. But that would only take about 10-15 minutes. There's only so much you can do in a parking lot until the learning curve is negligible and you need to move to a more open space.

I dunno though, I'm a different learner and I learn okay under pressure.

[richee3]

I NEED STICK!