Okay so the tC is basically my first manual car and to be honest, its really hard.

its only my second day, but so far i can drive it pretty well without stalling, however there are times when i just dont know what to do.

i have some questions, if you all dont mind me asking:

-when do you downshift, i usually downshift when RPM's go below 1.5 that way i dont have to revmatch, because i dont know how yet.

-how the hell do you start to move forward on a hill.. like i need to go up the hill.

-i cant park in my garage, because the car stalls.. the driveway is a bit steep, and i dont want the car to hit anything by me givin too much gas..

-where did you all learn to drive, and how long did it take?

i put all of yesterday into practicing, about 8 hours.. and today for about 2.. and i still am a little flaky on hills.

any advice would be great, and i am already reading up on the standardshift forums

 

-downshifting with match revving.... I usually wait till around 1K
-For hills, I pull the e-brake, clutch in, 1st gear, get to the clutch point, add gas, and slowly release the ebrake. After a while this method may not be necessary when you become very familiar with the clutch point.
-For your garage, try the ebrake method for now.... same as hills
-I started learning in a 89 Corolla (brothers) and a 87 Nissan Van (fathers). Took about 2 months to get it smooth on start and shifting between the gears with practice 1-2 time a week. Both were easy vehicles. I was also born into manual cars, dad has been driving manual for 30+ years.

 

I usually downshift when the rpm's drop below 1500. revmatching the downshift is easy enough. Put the clutch in, move the shifter to the lower gear, hit the gas a little bit (aka blip the throttle) and let hte clutch out smoothly.

add more gas than you would on a hill.

for the garage, it all has to do with clutch + gas pedal play.

i learned on the road leading to my house. it's 2 miles of nothing because we live really far back in an orange grove.


one thing i would recommend, learn how to get the car moving without using hte gas at all. Slow clutch release in other words.

 

- downshifting, just as neothin said
- hills, I use the ebrake
- my driveway is steep, and I probably eat up the clutch more on that than i do anywhere else. I've been driving manual for 20 years
- i learned in a parking lot, and it did take a while to drive in a straight line, let alone master the clutch

getting smooth on the clutch is difficult, but one thing you DONT want to do is 'ride' the clutch, aka, keep your foot on it while driving or having it partially engaged for any length of time.

 

btw, glad to hear you got a new tC!

 

- For hills I use the e-brake
- I learned how to drive stick at 14. First I started in a parking lot, then on empty side roads, then I moved on to the freeway. At 15, my grandfather taught me how to drive his tow truck... while we were towing 3 semis thru the middle of Kansas.

 

ya.. that is how i usually start to roll the car, without the gas at all, i just use hte clutch.

thanks for the advice tho, keep it coming.

and thanks cherry, im happy too

 

I've never once touched my handbrake for any reason other than parking in about 5 years of driving a stick. A lot of people will use it however on hills (I find it annoying and time consuming) and others will try to balance the clutch (not good for the clutch). What I did, is when I was learning to drive, I would just get the basics down, but when I got comfortable, I went out to the steepest hill in town and stopped in the middle (with nobody behind me). I practiced - you need a lot more gas than normal to get started on a steep hill vs flat pavement. Now when i'm stopped on a hill, I don't think nor worry about it. I just catch the clutch nice and quickly, but it takes practice.

About downshifting, I only downshift in two scenarios, 1, if traffic is slowing down but still moving, so i'll need more power from a lower gear, or 2, if i'm driving aggressively and need to stop faster than normal. Otherwise, when stopping i'll really only go down to 3rd gear, and when I get low in the gear, I just pop into neutral. The point is, you just always want to have power available when you're driving for safety purposes. So, stay in gear as long as you can, and don't be driving in 5th gear at 25mph - you wont have any power if you call on the car to give it.

I hope that helps, like I said a lot of people use the e-brake - I think thats the easy way out and i'm a perfectionist (maybe too much so) Hell, I type too much too!!!

 

I got my driver licnse through a correspondence course,learn at your own pace. I was the validictorian in my class.

 

I learned to drive stick on the TC also. Driving at night when there aren't a lot of cars on the road helped me a lot.

 

Learnin' 2 drive a stick w/ a new car? ur probably gonna burn threw a cluch or two, good luck. i'd agree, u should practice in empty parkin lots or back roads. stallin in traffic ____es peope off.

 

how easy is it to burn threw a clutch?

i dont grind any gears or anything

 

if i tried, i could kill a clutch in 10 minutes


the OEM clutch is an organic made to handle bad stick drivers. Don't worry about it

 

agreed.

 

no one wud prolly blieve this but i learned wen i was in 6th grade wen i first started drivin.. i was in the philippines wen i learned to drive.. it was an old skool corolla wid a carb! lol!

nehoo.. u just gotta feel for thu catch point.. like errbody said.. lol! but wen i was first learnin.. wat i did was add gas then slowly release clutch.. bad idea.. learned it the hard way.. lol! it was a good way to say bye bye to a clutch.. yea.. then i started doin the catch point thing..i thnk thats the best way

 

o yea.. on hills i never used an ebrake just coz thu ebrake on my old car never had a workin one in thu first place! lol! nehoo my dad just told me to keep on tryin.. nd i did!

plus the best way to learn is on a hill! u catch on it quick esp.. wen u stall nd theres an expensive a** vehicle behind ya! lol!

 

This might sound crazy but you should try launching the car in reverse. This is the way I taught my girlfriend and she picked it up really fast. It was easier because she had to look behind her and not down at her feet, so she had to feel out the car and clutch without looking at the tach . Also reverse has gearing similar to first .Anyway she did it uphill and she picked it up. Hope this could help.

 

Well im gonna have to agree with most on here and repeat it. Go to an empty parking lot and stop the car completely. Get the car moving using only the clutch, put your right leg somewhere out of the way, it helped me toconcentrate on the catch point until i got so used to it that it was natural.

And with the hills thing, that is just experience. You need to practice and practice some more. And for those that say you need more gas on a steep hill, they are mostly correct, but just until you get used to your car, might take 2 weeks, might take 4 months, everyone is different, it took me about 5 months to be very sufficient at manual drive. There is a hill by my house that is approx. 55 degrees.(steep as hell, barely walkable). And the first time i took my car up the hill, there is a red light in the middle, i couldn't get going after the light without slipping the clutch at 2K or so. No way no how could i make this this move without 2K. However after driving that way so many times and hitting that light everyday, it gave me practice, so now when i go that way, i can start up that same hill at less than 1K, roughly 900 rpm. (Oh and hat E-brake trick can be more confusing and difficult than it seems, i would say to just practice it the right way)

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!! Don't worry you'll get it, it just takes time

 

With a really steep hill, you're *going* to slip the clutch some. No way around it, really. If you think about it, even on perfectly flat ground you're slipping the clutch. In my mind, it's all a matter of duration. If you keep the duration short, then you keep the heat from building, and the heat is the problem.

You know, using an ebrake to start on a hill is interesting. Never tried it. This method either requires the ability to heel-toe, or just wide feet, but here's how I do it: Keep my right foot on the RIGHT half of the brake pedal so that part of your foot is more or less touching the gas. Left on the clutch (like normal). Let out the clutch until you *just* feel the beginning of engagement. With the right half of your right foot, roll on the gas and let out the brake as you let out the clutch. Easy, no?

Yeah, you're right. It isn't. Nevermind my way.

I learned on a '92 Geo Metro.

And dont' worry about when you do what as far as downshifting. If you sense the revs getting low, pick another gear. Once you get some miles on that new manual of yours, you'll begin to REALLY know your car and it'll come naturally to you. Just don't bother trying to rev-match into first. It's nigh-impossible to do smoothly. :D

 

I learned on the drive home from picking up my car driving from downtown Chicago (right by Lake Michigan downtown) about 40 minutes to my south suburban home. Then I got to learn that night driving for 2 hours to college. Thats one way to learn quick.

I have no tips since I am still learning yet. This is a good resource for new drivers though.

Someone should start a driving style sticky, have a section for street and race styles and then run through many peoples own style and maybe some pro styles if people know it.