everyone here is giving you such great advice, the only thing i could recommend is paying a driving school to learn how to drive stick, 8 hours of real time driving would probably run you around $300.00.

 

I think many of you guys are too pessimistic. A large empty parking lot and a couple of hours of instruction to get the basics down. Then a week to get pretty good at it and another week to get very good at it. It's not that hard to learn and the same theory thats it's like learning to ride a bycycle applys. Once you learn, it's a lifetime skill that will never be forgetten regardless of how long you may abondon shifting to drive another car.
My only warning is that you avoid using your left foot to break if you are now driving an automatic. If you have this habit , change to right foot breaking. This tip has nothing to do with driving a stick shift but should you get back into an auto someday, you may catch yourself applying the clutch instead of the brakes. Don't ask me how I know this, it really is kind of embarrasing.

 

i drive a auto prelude for 3 yrs, and switched to MT. and i had no one to teach me. asked a friend for the process. i learned it myself within 10 minutes. i guess i am not bad on it. burned the clutch once during 3rd gear, but didn't make engine stall. i agreed that stopping and going on a hill is the hardest thing to learn.

some people are good, but some are ...... i know a retard who tried to learn how to drive MT in 2 months, and he can still make engine stall 3 times in every practice. my friend got totally frustrated on him.

 

everyone needs to know how drive a manual trans

 

just clutch kick it oh and dont foget todump the clutch!!!!!!

haaha jk
the s is pretty easy car to drive
u should get it in no time

 

I learned how to drive a manual tranny in about a week myself, with my mom just showing me the basics. She had to work, but she just gave me a few pointers and then left me to figure the rest out. I was actually in my junior year in high school and the truck was a Christmas present.

It was either:
A) learn how to drive a stick

or

B) not be able to drive my truck to school and have to wait for the school bus when I returned to school in January

Nothing will motivate you to get the basics down like actually wanting/needing to know how to drive.

I also agree with Matt15- the guy just needs to know how to get by and learn the basics. I have been driving my MT for more than 9 years now, and I don't know how to do half of the things you advanced drivers are mentioning. Sure, it is nice to know how to do some of that stuff- but it is by no means a requirement.

You have to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run. Furthermore, not everyone needs/wants to be a sprinter.

 

As others have said, how quickly you pick it up depends on you. Some people learn quickly. Others take a while. The semi-auto mode in the Legacy will be nothing like shifting a real manual. You'll probably have a bit of a learning curve with your left foot. Spend a lot of time in a parking lot. Any time you switch to a manual car that's new to you spend some time with it to learn where exactly on the pedal you can find the friction point (where the clutch grabs). You can practice this without even touching the throttle pedal.

A manual can be more fun if you enjoy the added control. Again, there are plenty of people who look at a car as just a means to get from point A to point B who would disagree. But it does sound like a manual may be suited to you.

I'd leave the heel-toe and rev matching for now. Once you get the basics down and can drive without really thinking much about it try adding rev matching into the mix and then work your way into heel-toe. I know people have said that there's no use for it on the street but you can definitely practice heel-toe on turns.

 

Thanks for the advices...you guys are great.

What is rev matching ?

 

Its when you (all this while braking) depress the clutch and use part of your right foot to blip the throttle while still braking to get the RPMs to the right level for the next lower gear

 

You're not going to do any more damage to the drivetrain of the S2000 than you would to any other car learning stick on it. People just like to baby them because we feel they're "special." And I'd say the S2000 is one of the easiest drivetrains to get the hang of I've driven, with the exception of learning to pace yourself when the transmission is cold. The clutch is very linear and communicative and the engine won't bite your head off at low revs. The S2000 is far easier to drive smoothly than the 350Z, for instance, which has a very non-linear clutch and woolly controls.

That said, there's a good chance this car will goad you into driving it hard, and if you're not good at stick, there's also a good chance you'll mis-shift it at the redline and probably blow the engine. So with that in mind, it's probably still a good idea to learn on a beater first.