I only successfully taught one girl, my ex, how to drive standard. However, it was either in my 03 Toyota Celica or my 99 Jeep wrangler. I don't remember the car I was driving at the time. The other time I tried teaching someone was in my Subaru, which went horrible. I got frustrated and kicked her off the drivers seat and she never attempted to drive again lol. Anyone successful with the S and how did you manage to teach the noob to be careful?

 

Funny timing on the post. I have been teaching my daughter (22) how to drive a manual and its the S. She actually was doing okay and then I threw a 2002 Tacoma at her, today for the first time. Had more problems with that than the S!

However, she won't be taking the S out solo as yet.

 

I let my wife (girlfriend at the time) practice with a stick on my 2000 Celica GTS. That car had a touchy clutch and sensitive gas pedal, so it wasn't the easiest to learn on. Now that I've moved on, I'm just not sure I want to let her try on the S2000. It's probably no more difficult (maybe easier) than the Celica, I'd just rather she not burn up the clutch in this car. heh.

I usually find that vehicles with very slow, progressive throttles and clutches are easier to learn on than vehicles with very sensitive pedals. YMMV

 

I taught my ex to drive manual on my AP1. My fiance also learned to drive the S.


The clutch still lasted to 165k miles and could potentially last to 200k with easy driving (for the new owner)

 

I taught my wife to drive a manual on the S2000 initially:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA0aVN6oY-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F5Mrd_kqaY

So that was about a year and a half ago. I really hated her stalling the S, so we bought a 6 speed TSX and she now has a lot more opportunity to learn and get out there on her own a bit. She is doing extremely well now and I have no problem just tossing her the keys and taking it out on her own. She does still struggle on hills though, but again that's just time and experience. I say if you want them to learn, have a daily that is a manual and take them to a parking lot, yank up the e-brake, engage 1st, and have them start doing some clutch engagements to build muscle memory. This was the best way I found teach starting off. Kate seemed to get it better if I told her "Let off the clutch just until it engages and dont move your foot from that position until we are going 4-5 mph." In the end though, it just takes a lot of time and trial and error.

 

Oh boy, here we go.

I had wanted to teach my girlfriend to drive standard for quite some time, just because it would make things easier if we were ever in the middle of town with one car and needed to switch drivers or split up for any reason.

After I bought my S2000, I finally decided to have her try driving my Civic (Stage 2 clutch, GSR Trans/Engine). I knew the clutch was capable of taking some abuse, so I wasn't all that worried about her burning it. If she started grinding gears, I'd be right next to her to make sure she didn't do it consistently.

My worries were misplaced however; the clutch was fine, and the transmission was fine... What BLEW UP though was my driver's side motor mount when she lurched the car in 1st gear prior to stalling it. The engine dropped about 6 inches and smashed my motor mount into my cam gears, and ripped a couple mounting bolts out of the block that had to be helicoiled out. The CV axel boot was completely broke, and the axel itself popped out.

I later found out that one of the many things the mechanic that installed that engine shorted me out on was that the half shaft was only mounted in with 1 out of 3 bolts.

 

Even better when her own car is standard.

Less driving for me, LOL.

 

Yes, I taught my wife to drive stick in our S. She's driven it near daily for the last year. I still won't say she's 100% mastered it like someone who's been driving stick all their life, but she's more than capable. She just rushes her gear changes a little, and isn't super smooth at matching rpms on her shifts.

Car is closing in on 70k miles, still has the original clutch. No slipping, no issues. (knock on wood).

 

I learned to drive manual transmission when I was 17 in an ancient Volkswagen bug that stalled if you let it drop too idle to suddenly. I learned how to brake to a stop while simultaneously rolling my foot over to the gas to keep the RPMs up so it wouldn't stall. I didn't know it at the time, but this would come in handy when learning how to heel-toe downshift. My brothers taught me to drive manual transmission. Other than my first few cars (which were cheap POS cars and all I could afford at the time during the college years), I have only driven a standard transmission ever since. Since the age of 21, every car I have owned for my own personal use has had a manual transmission.

Many years later, I taught my nephew how to drive a manual in my Yaris. What someone else said about teaching that you can get the car rolling without even giving it any gas was the first thing I showed him, since I remembered that as being the most valuable part of learning how to drive stick as well. My nephew then bought a Miata as a second car to play with. We went to a couple of autocross practice days and we swapped cars for several laps during one of the events after he was getting the hang of the course.

The trick to learning/teaching how to drive stick is patience. Patience on the part of the teacher and the student, both. And then just lots of practice. There is no substitute for seat time. And it helps if the student actually wants to learn it. If the teacher is the only one who wants the student to learn it, chances are it won't be a particularly pleasant experience.

Gender doesn't matter.

 

A stock s2000 is extremely easy to drive IMO. The clutch engages kind of high and the gas is responsive making it an easy candidate to learn. It would be even easier with AP2s that have a heavier flywheel makiing starts very easy. I wouldn't hesitate to teach someone on an S2000