First time I learned stick was on my friend's Mazda ooooold 323 when I was 15 - in the dead of night, scared that cops would get me.

I then got my motorcycle license @ 17, so that's how I learned the concept of feathering the clutch.

When I bought a Golf, I decided I wanted stick, so @ lunch one day, I asked a buddy who drove stick to come w/ me to test drive a Golf - the exact same one I bought which I picked up that night.

So essentially, I learned stick shift during lunch, a 5 minute test drive up and down the road, and that's all it took

I drove in rush hour traffic for 2 hours, stalling maybe 3 times, with my then GF and her Dad in the car. I'd say it took me 6 months to be smooth, confident, and not scared of steep hills.

After 10 years of stick shift, I still find I'm learning something new now and again. Nothing earth shattering, but tips here and there to make my drive smoother, less damaging on the clutch, yada yada.

I guess I"m a slow learner in the end

 

I just got into a manual transmission car and practiced. When I had to teach my wife, I took her out in my truck and it had a 'granny' 1st. She struggled with it. We then went and got into her car (a new manual she just bought) and she said it was SOOO much easier.

Just a thought.

 

Also, you pick up stick a LOT quicker alone by yourself - you can make mistakes w/o people criticizing you - and it forces you to learn without someone else bailing you out.

The single most bestest trick (IMHO) is learn the sequence of how to start up car after a stall:

- hazard lights RIGHT away (to let others know something's wrong, so you don't have to worry about getting rear-ended)
- Clutch in
- Find neutral - jiggle stick left to right to ensure there's lateral travel to ensure neutral has been set
- Clutch in, start engine
- turn off hazards
- Engage First gear... now try again

By drilling this down pact, you take away most people's biggest fear - stalling and being "stuck" in the middle of the intersection.

I've taught maybe 5-6 people how to drive stick shift in my car, and everyone I teach I make them learn how to recover from a stall as the first thing. I make them sit on my driveway and practice the sequence above until it becomes second nature, then I teach them about clutch work, etc.

Once you don't worry about stalling, you relax and learn how to drive. Near everyone stalls the car at first.... Heck, when I'm hecka tired, I still stall the engine once in a while

 

Depends how the terrain is in your part of the woods. If you live in an area of hills and dense traffic, like parts of San Francisco, I'd highly recommend a beater car to learn on. If you live in flatter areas, then you can get away with more while learning manual.

Personally, I learned on my Dad's pick up truck. Drove it all over the place and practiced holding the car in position and parallel parking on steep hills a lot. I would not want to do what I did, to that truck, to the S2000. But then again, when we switched out the clutch (slave cylinder died, so we just replaced the clutch while under it), there wasn't a large amount of wear, so eh. haha.

 

well i didnt know anyone with a MT all my friends have auto soo the frist weekend i got the s2000 i drove it well tried stalled like 100 times and with in that 3 day weekend driving day and night i could drive it ok. i would only stall at some lights or hills after a mouth i didnt stall anymore. but my clutch is all f'ed up atfer 30000 miles. i still have if you want to see pics lol.


If I was to learn again i wouldnt try driving in the street again i got sooo many middle finger it not even funny. i would go to a mall parking lot and play there. So no bugs you.

Oh one thing i learn ALLWAYS CHECK IF THE CAR IS IN GEAR. I learned that the hard way i got lucky i didnt hit anything.

 

Don't make too much out of it. Remember, there was a time when every grandmother with a driver's license drove a car with a manual transmission.

 

I don't agree with the video on starting the vehicle from a stop. I usually engage the clutch to it's engagement point than give the car some gas, than release the clutch until it's fully engage while progressive applying more trottle. I think this cause less wear on the clutch.

 

I don't agree w/ the video at all. Buddy is "riding the clutch" (in the sense that his foot is covering the clutch - even if he's not actually pushing on the peddle, it's a bad practice) in the 2 minutes that I was watching.

I also don't necessarily agree w/ gassing first and then slowly rolling off the clutch to engage engine. I do it too sometimes, but I find that releasing the clutch to engagement point where the car feels like it wants to creep and then applying a bit of gas as you slowly feather out the clutch works better for me (depending on the car maybe?)

I also prefer to blip the throttle on downshifts. I know it's not 100% necessary, depending on how you're driving - but again, it's a habit I keep - probably because that's what they taught in my motorcycle safety course - and I learned how to ride a bike before driving a car.

Shrug - like I said, I'm still learning how to drive

 

learned in my friends old 92 honda accord. It took me about 20 minutes to know how to drive it completely. after that, everything seem to come naturally.

Heel and Toe took me some time, but biggest thing that helped me was just sitting in a parked car and making my body remember the motions, so I don't have to think about it when I'm doing it.

That's the biggest key to it for me.

easy