i'm learning on a 86 chevy nova
the car has no power steering and no tachometer :D
i could drive the car around town, in the freeway and all that
but! every now and again i stall =(
i'm also having trouble with shifting smoothly
going from 1st to 2nd is so jerky!
any advise on making shifts smoother??? you see, the tc will be my first manual car. I don't want to jack up the transmission
any advise will be much appreciated

 

1st going to 2nd, since your a newbie, take it easy. try practicing in a straight away and shift.

 

Im Pretty sure if you can drive a stick car like that you will have no problem with the tC i started on a 93 civic and took me 1 day and took the tC out of the lot the next day the tC was much easier to drive the civic clutch was way softer and easier to use so your good to go!!!

 

i agree with you on that, honda's clutch are softer and easier to learn. i learned off a 98 honda prelude.

 

i learned on a 99 lude with a stage 1 clutch

 

a trick to driving stick is to keep your foot on the clutch partly pressed in it make it less jerky. but ALWAYS keep your foot off it when not making a shift or about to shift. Especially going from Stop-accelerating in 1st and 1st to 2nd gears, its quite jolty if you release the clutch too quickly.

what i do is ride the clutch a little bit. you feel the slipping point where you release the clutch just enough to start the car move foward...keep the clutch at that position for a while till youre moving smoothly then you can let go and shift up while repeating the same process. i know its a little sketchy sounding if i describe it, and it does burn a little bit of clutch, but it saves your transmission in the long run as that is very expensive to fix hope that helps you in some way, and good luck!

 

to be honest with you, the tC has a rather jerky clutch, but compared to a nova, you will be fine, seriously just practice, drive any oprotunity you can get

 

or you could just rev match and not ride the clutch on shifts.

 

well he did say he was a beginner. and as a beginner i rode the clutch longer to prevent jerky shifts, but yeah the tC does have a jerky clutch, but its fine.

rev matching is pretty hard to do when youre just starting out and learning how to drive stick.