NECRO started to learn to drive stick today NECRO

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,567
837
126
I knew going into it that it was going to be rough. But shit I stalled like 10 times out of the first 12 times trying to take off. After 15-20 minutes I was considerly better stall wise, but I was sort of lurching and still stalling a decent amount. I believe when I learned to drive originally in my Taurus after 20 minutes all I was fucking up on was over breaking and coming to a sudden rough stop. Probably 30 minutes driving felt like second nature. I found it odd how that initial take off's are giving me so much shit, but shifting after that is almost too easy. I think out of the whole 20 minutes I tried, I got off once where it felt smooth and natural.

I'm planning on buying a stick in a week or so, apparently I need a good deal more practice, at least I didn't grind the gears. Reverse seems surprisingly easy, either that or the 1 time I attempted it I just got stupidly lucky.
 
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Meghan54

Lifer
Oct 18, 2009
11,684
5,222
136
It's just practice.

I learned a stick by being left 40 miles from home with an old Chevy pickup with a three-on-the-tree standard. My father had been trying to teach me a stick by "helping", i.e. riding along and giving "advice". So he then changed gears (pardon the pun) and left me with the pickup and a "You want to get home, drive."

By the time I got home, I was not having much problems at all taking off or cruising.
 

xSkyDrAx

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
7,706
1
0
Had about 3 hours practice (total) before I got mine and had to drive it 30 - 40 miles home. Nothing like purchasing a car and knowing you will have to nerve wrackingly drive it home and home your inexperience with stick doesnt cause something bad. :D
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,567
837
126
Had about 3 hours practice (total) before I got mine and had to drive it 30 - 40 miles home. Nothing like purchasing a car and knowing you will have to nerve wrackingly drive it home and home your inexperience with stick doesnt cause something bad. :D

This post is reassuring, might I ask how would you say how good you were after the 3 hours? The dealer I'm getting mine from it'll either be 20'ish miles of heavy freeway traffic, doesn't matter when really because of major construction. Or all surface streets, so I don't suspect I'll have a lot of leeway for a smooth drive.
 

michal1980

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2003
8,019
43
91
the first 1000 miles or so of driving stick for a first time, I seriously questioned my choice. It required a ton of focus.
 

thedarkwolf

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 1999
9,005
111
106
If you can get somebody to drive it home so you can practice on less busy streets that would be better. That is how I did mine. I just drove around residential streets for awhile till I felt good enough to hit the main streets.
 

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
1st gear is the toughest part to get down, so don't worry. It just takes practice and a feel for when the clutch engages. Trust me, you'll get it. It just takes time. And you normally aren't a pro the first day, so don't sweat it.
 

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
5,714
316
126
I was the same when I started, although I never stalled it on the streets.

My dad got me a '93 Fiesta to practice around the yard in. Then I got my Firebird, and being a lot heavier I needed to change things a bit.

The one thing I tell people who are having trouble from a standstill is to hold the clutch pedal still when you feel it start to engage. Newbies tend to let it off too quickly and this causes lurching/stalling. Don't make a habit of doing this though, this is just to get used to the feeling of the car. After a while you will get used to where the engagement point is, and you can time everything perfectly.
 

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
0
A future MT driver for life... Once you switch, you typically won't drive anything else.
As the others have all said, you'll get it.

I have been driving MT for so long I don't ever even think about it. It just sorta works.
 

Murloc

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2008
5,382
65
91
you need to feel the clutch and it does take some time until you feel the engagement point, just don't get frustrated.
If you're stalling every time you try to start you're doing something systematically wrong, like being too fast because you're used to autos or something (I don't really know as I started with the stick).
If you know how the mechanics work in an intuitive way it will be easier to get it.

After a while you won't even think about it anymore.
 
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May 13, 2009
12,333
612
126
A future MT driver for life... Once you switch, you typically won't drive anything else.

Is that why they barely have them on the dealer lots anymore? I learned how to drive stick on my first car. Haven't owned one since. I also don't like scrubbing my clothes on rocks in the river. We have machines for that.
 

PhoKingGuy

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2007
4,685
0
76
Is that why they barely have them on the dealer lots anymore? I learned how to drive stick on my first car. Haven't owned one since. I also don't like scrubbing my clothes on rocks in the river. We have machines for that.

When I bought my 335i I asked how many 6 speeds they had in stock. He said the only manual 3's they stock on a regular basis are M3's but he would check.

There were 4 manual 335i's in ALL of southern california. 3 of them were special orders.
 

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
0
Is that why they barely have them on the dealer lots anymore? I learned how to drive stick on my first car. Haven't owned one since. I also don't like scrubbing my clothes on rocks in the river. We have machines for that.

No, its not. It's because people never learn anymore, and are not interested in it.
If you learn it, you usually like it. MOST people my age that I am friends with drive manual, women included. It's what we learned and liked when we were first driving, and it's what we still like. This is Canada though, I think there are more MT's here than in the US.

Also, I like your washing machine example. While I do use one, there are a lot of things I could not care less about "having something for that" I am a bit of a purist that way, old methods that work, I tend to stick with.
 

JCH13

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2010
4,981
66
91
I think out of the whole 20 minutes I tried, I got off once where it felt smooth and natural.

If_you_know_what_I_mean.png


I know it's confusing to have so many things changing, but you'll figure it out in time.
 
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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,732
5,470
136
I knew going into it that it was going to be rough. But shit I stalled like 10 times out of the first 12 times trying to take off. After 15-20 minutes I was considerly better stall wise, but I was sort of lurching and still stalling a decent amount. I believe when I learned to drive originally in my Taurus after 20 minutes all I was fucking up on was over breaking and coming to a sudden rough stop. Probably 30 minutes driving felt like second nature. I found it odd how that initial take off's are giving me so much shit, but shifting after that is almost too easy. I think out of the whole 20 minutes I tried, I got off once where it felt smooth and natural.

I'm planning on buying a stick in a week or so, apparently I need a good deal more practice, at least I didn't grind the gears. Reverse seems surprisingly easy, either that or the 1 time I attempted it I just got stupidly lucky.

Congrats! I hated stick for a long time & avoided it like the plague, until my early 20's when all I had access to was a standard. It takes awhile to get the hang of it, but it's really fun once you get used to it...it gives you much more control over the car and you become more involved in the driving experience. 5 tips:

1. Master 1st gear, the rest are easy
2. Practice restarting the engine quickly
3. Practice uphill
4. Practice the shift point hold technique
5. Practice engine braking

1st gear is the hardest, if you can master that, then you're all set. Just go to an empty parking lot and tool around for awhile. Takes time - practice as often as you can, took me a week or two before I really got the hang of it. You'll get a feel for the engine in the other gears as well and you won't even have to watch the tach after awhile because you'll just know when to shift.

A good thing to do is to practice restarting the engine quickly. Mistakes happen and it's easy to stall your engine; it helps to have a procedure down pat for getting back in the game quickly, especially when you're sitting in traffic and the engine dies haha. As soon as the engine dies, I press the clutch down and put on the e-brake (especially useful on a hill, so I just made it habit to do that when I was learning). Then hit the ignition & gas pedal and start her up. Practice this a bunch of times until it's second-nature and then if you mess up and the car dies, it's a simple habit to get going again in seconds.

Practicing uphill is another excellent thing to do - learning how to control the roll backwards and not killing the engine. It's a little finesse trick. Just practice bobbing back & forth on the hill to see where your engine dies at, it takes the fear out of not knowing what your car's limits are. Sometimes you're stuck on a grade between two cars and you don't want to roll into the one behind you, so it's good to have this trick down. And there's always the e-brake if you get really nervous about rolling into someone...you can pull it up on the hill, then as you drive up from a stop in traffic or at a light or whatever, slide it down as you give it gas. I had to do that for awhile when I was learning because I'd get so nervous I'd stall the engine trying not to roll backwards lol.

One of the biggest secrets to driving stick smoothly is simply holding the shift point for just under a second - don't just smoothly shift into the next gear, instead hold the crossover point mid-way on the clutch when it's coming up. So as you go to shift into a higher gear, let the clutch come up halfway and hold it for a split-second while you the gas pedal keeps going down. This smooths out the transition and eliminates the "jerk" you get from shifting and sort of gives the gears a chance to catch up between shifts. So many drivers haven't mastered this little trick and are not fun to ride with in their stick-shift cars because every shift makes you fall forward in your seat.

Engine braking is another good trick to learn - it's where you down-shift and then let the clutch come up slowly to help your car slow down, instead of just using the brake. It's useful because it gives you more control over slowing down, which is great in traffic, and also if you need to make an emergency stop, you can use your regular foot brake as well as engine braking and stop a lot sooner. So practice doing both engine braking, and engine braking with the foot pedal brake for emergency stopping. It's saved me more than once! You don't want to use it to replace normal braking, but it's a handy trick to have up your sleeve.
 
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SecurityTheatre

Senior member
Aug 14, 2011
672
0
0
I learned in a very effective way of learning to use the pedals skillfully and gently. This may be helpful for you to practice.


1) Go into a very quiet street and go from a dead stop to an idle roll WITHOUT touching the gas. Use the clutch only. This practice in "feathering" the clutch. Just letting it out enough to avoid stalling, will make you way better with it and will make your clutch plates last twice as long as the person who just hammers on the gas pedal to get it into 1st gear.

2) Once you have this down, go to a place with a slight uphill incline (also a quiet street) and go from a dead stop in 1st gear. You may require a SMALL amount of throttle to keep it from stalling. Practice this SMALL amount of throttle, so your foot doesn't do the lead-hammer thing on the gas. That's bad for your car, and will give you bad habits.

3) You mentioned you had the lead-foot on the brake. These exercises will help you gain better feel with your right foot and they should also translate to the brake pedal as well.

I really suggest practicing these on quiet streets, where you can pick up good habits away from the stress of traffic, where you will get jerky and get terrible habits of using your lead-foot hammer on the pedals.

:)
 

MajorMullet

Senior member
Jul 29, 2004
816
4
81
I just started learning to drive one also. Bought my first manual car last week. I'm loving it so far but I haven't been stuck in traffic yet either. We'll see how it goes over the long haul.

Some good tips in this thread. I definitely feel like I need to be softer on the gas pedal. I do great around the neighborhood but as others have mentioned when there are other cars on the road I tend to give it much more gas because I'm so afraid I'm going to stall it.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,567
837
126
you need to feel the clutch and it does take some time until you feel the engagement point, just don't get frustrated.
If you're stalling every time you try to start you're doing something systematically wrong, like being too fast because you're used to autos or something (I don't really know as I started with the stick).
If you know how the mechanics work in an intuitive way it will be easier to get it.

After a while you won't even think about it anymore.

Dude teaching me kept talking about that engagement point shit but I never felt it. Only spent about 20 minutes so I didn't get frustrated really. Well to be honest I did spend a minute pondering if I should just say ff it and go with the automatic. So maybe I did get a bit frustrated:D

With auto I had to get comfortable driving it but there wasn't really a learning process. Stick is a sunnova bitch so far.
 
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Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
3
0
When I learned I couldn't start properly because my dad was making me nervous. I didn't figure it out until I went out on my own the next day.

And some clutches are harder to engage smoothly than others and it takes time to get used to a new car even when you already know how to drive a manual. My 1996 BMW E36 was second nature pretty quickly. I still don't start smoothly every time with my Mustang. When I got my oil change the mechanic stalled it driving onto the ramp. Because it's so stiff and the engagement point isn't gradual, what usually happens is I let off the clutch and then the engine starts to lug and I let off a bit again. I've probably put a LOT of wear on the poor clutch.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,732
5,470
136
Dude teaching me kept talking about that engagement point shit but I never felt it. Only spent about 20 minutes so I didn't get frustrated really. Well to be honest I did spend a minute pondering if I should just say ff it and go with the automatic. So maybe I did get a bit frustrated:D

With auto I had to get comfortable driving it but there wasn't really a learning process. Stick is a sunnova bitch so far.

Some cars don't have it. When I was test driving a stick-shift Kia Soul, the clutch system was entirely hydraulic and there was zero feedback in the clutch pedal, so I had no idea where any shift points were. It was really weird. My old '94 Saturn sedan was extremely mechanical and you could feel both when the clutch "caught" as you released it up and where the sweet spot was for holding it for a split-second during shifting.

So it depends on the car, and also as you get more experience. On the older cars, it was much easier to listen to the engine and the feel of the car as it vibrated and hummed; new cars are so much smoother & quieter than it can be hard to tell, so you have to base it more on the speed you're going or watch the tach if you're new at it.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,732
5,470
136
Also, start watching Initial D. Heel-toe shifting, baby! :awe:
 

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
I learned stick by giving someone $200 for their dodge shadow and drove it home ... with 5 minutes of training from the guy I bought it from, I was off down the highway, LOL. I did only stale once 8)
 

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
Some cars don't have it. When I was test driving a stick-shift Kia Soul, the clutch system was entirely hydraulic and there was zero feedback in the clutch pedal, so I had no idea where any shift points were. It was really weird. My old '94 Saturn sedan was extremely mechanical and you could feel both when the clutch "caught" as you released it up and where the sweet spot was for holding it for a split-second during shifting.

So it depends on the car, and also as you get more experience. On the older cars, it was much easier to listen to the engine and the feel of the car as it vibrated and hummed; new cars are so much smoother & quieter than it can be hard to tell, so you have to base it more on the speed you're going or watch the tach if you're new at it.

Yeah, I need feedback, I can't handle a wet noodle under my foot!