MANUAL FARKIN' TRANNY
05-03-2006, 08:12 AM
#11
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Dude, you're seriously scaring me...
First, are you practicing in a parking lot? I hope you're not on San Francisco hills! Seriously though, here's how you won't ever stall again: put your foot on the gas pedal FIRST. You may launch, you may fry your clutch, but you won't stall. Then you can slowly but surely get used to giving less gas as you're letting out the clutch without stalling. If this doesn't work, email me. You can come by and I'll show you how to drive your car.
05-03-2006, 08:18 AM
#13
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Don't worry, he'll be at work in a few, and I'll show him how at lunch.
Personally, I give this advice to newbs at the stick...
Get on a flat road, put the car in 1st while the clutch is disengaged, get off of the brake.
If your car is rolling, don't try this. Go somewhere flat.
Proceed to let out the clutch VERY slowly, while you're in first and off the gas. It will take 10-15 seconds before engagement. By doing this, you will learn how sensitive you need to be to control your clutch and engage it without stalling.
You can engage the clutch while in first with no throttle. Just has to be done very slowly and on a flat road.
Once this is learned, you will be able to figure out how to apply throttle and get going fast.
Get on a flat road, put the car in 1st while the clutch is disengaged, get off of the brake.
If your car is rolling, don't try this. Go somewhere flat.
Proceed to let out the clutch VERY slowly, while you're in first and off the gas. It will take 10-15 seconds before engagement. By doing this, you will learn how sensitive you need to be to control your clutch and engage it without stalling.
You can engage the clutch while in first with no throttle. Just has to be done very slowly and on a flat road.
Once this is learned, you will be able to figure out how to apply throttle and get going fast.
05-03-2006, 08:30 AM
#15
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Here are some tips
I learned how to drive stick fairly recently (5 years ago) when I bought my S4 so I have a pretty good memory of the procedure I used. While I wasn't doing my S4 any favors, I also managed to teach my girlfriends and my mom.
While some of you oldtimers may disagree with my method, it seems to work quite well and my S4 appears to be no worse for wear.
<B>Find an empty parking lot</B>
1) Find the clutch point. Put the car in gear, depress the clutch, and slowly let it out until you feel the car starting to stall. It doesn't matter how fast you let out the clutch BEFORE you get to the clutch point; what counts is a a smooth application of just enough gas to keep the engine from stalling as you let out the clutch beyond this clutch point. Practice going from neutral to first until you can get the car completely in first without spinning the tires and stalling out. Too much gas and you launch forward, too little as you are letting the clutch out and you stall.
2) Put the car in reverse and try the same thing. You'll notice that with the shorter gear, you really don't need to pull the clutch out all the way or use much gas in order to get the car going smoothly in reverse.
3) Practice 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 around the lot as well as 4-3, 3-2, and 2-1. You'll notice that a) with the car moving it's easier to shift gears and b) downshifting requires you to blip the throttle a little to prevent jerkiness as the car slows down.
4) Practice pulling into and pulling out of a parking space (not parallel).
5) Practice reversing into a parking space.
<B>Find a unpopulated hill street or loading dock ramp (my favorite)</B>
1) With the car pointed uphill, practice getting the car moving forward WITHOUT a) launching or b) rolling back. This requires you to let go of the brake and get to the shift point quickly before the car starts rolling back. While it caused my ex-GFs more anxiety, I would stand behind my car approx 3 feet (off to the side incase I needed to dodge left). As a substitute, use "borrowed" traffic cones. Since my GFs weren't too keen to roll over me (well, at the time), standing behind the car or putting the cone down gave them an incentive to not roll back too much. The feeling of rolling back is a bit unsettling at first though but your ability to launch smoothly uphill is ESSENTIAL should you need to drive in SF.
1B) Here's one trick that I found helps: Try to find the magical equilibrium point where your clutch is halfway out and the small amount of throttle you are giving the car keeps the car in position without your foot on the brake. Slipping the clutch like this isn't really good for the clutch so you don't want to do this everytime you are waiting on a hill at a red light. This technique is useful though for finding the exact point you need to get to ASAP when you are launching a car uphill.
1C) Some people like to use the handbrake to give them more time and to prevent them from rolling backwards. Procedure: pull up the handbrake, let go of the footbrake, and slip out the handbrake as the clutch catches. Personally, I found this particular technique more trouble than it's worth although I have used this technique on really, really steep hills.
2) I would say you have this nailed down when you are able to smoothly launch a car uphill without any burnouts and without the car slipping back more than a foot.
3) Tip: When driving in SF, if it looks like some clown is going to get RIGHT on my bumper before a light bumper on a steep hill, I'll let go of my brakes and let the far roll back a foot as they are approaching. This usually scares the **** out of them and makes them realize that I'm driving a stick car. They will then give you at least half a car length of room.
<B>On the same hill/ramp, point the car downhill</B>
1) Try reversing uphill. It's actually kind of easier. Much like the uphill launch, I found that standing in front of the car at this point gave them extra incentive to not roll forward. Traffic cones also work. Note: The only time I almost had to dodge out of the way was when my GF put the car into first vs. reverse. She quickly realized her mistake and slammed on her brakes before she got anywhere near me; I guarantee she'll never make it again.
1b) Practicing the hold point where the amount of gas you are giving the car offsets the amount of clutch you are leaving out will help you as well.
2) Setup two traffic cones and try to turn into a "nose-in" parking spot on a hill.
3) Reverse into the same spot. You never know when this will come in handy.
4) Setup two traffic cones as if it was a parallel parking slot. Try parallel parking on the hill both uphill and downhill.
------
You can usually cover all of this in an afternoon. After teaching one of my girlfriends this technique, she flew back home and had to drive a friends manual Civic back from the airport (he left it there for a few weeks). Since Hondas and Toyotas generally have much more forgiving clutches than the S4, she called me up to tell me how easy it was compared to the S4.
In my experience, the distance on the pedal from
where it starts to catch and where its fully engaged is much shorter on the S4 compared to a Civic or an Accord. You can be alot sloppier with these cars.
I hope this helps. If someone would have explained this to me, it would have made my learning experience ALOT quicker. The final suggestion i have is once you are comfortable driving your car, try driving other cars/trucks.
Some of my friends can drive stick smoothly on their own cars but get really jerky (and stall out) driving unfamiliar cars. With experience, you should be able to hop into a vehicle, any vehicle, and pick up on the clutch point and length quick enough to not peel out/stall out at every light.
-g
PS. When I first bought my car, I had to drive it from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins (130 miles). The sales guy watched me pull it out of the showroom and then wiped his brow. "Well, since you could drive it off the lot, I'm not THAT worried that you won't get home. Enjoy."
Thank god it was in the evening and traffic was light.
While some of you oldtimers may disagree with my method, it seems to work quite well and my S4 appears to be no worse for wear.
<B>Find an empty parking lot</B>
1) Find the clutch point. Put the car in gear, depress the clutch, and slowly let it out until you feel the car starting to stall. It doesn't matter how fast you let out the clutch BEFORE you get to the clutch point; what counts is a a smooth application of just enough gas to keep the engine from stalling as you let out the clutch beyond this clutch point. Practice going from neutral to first until you can get the car completely in first without spinning the tires and stalling out. Too much gas and you launch forward, too little as you are letting the clutch out and you stall.
2) Put the car in reverse and try the same thing. You'll notice that with the shorter gear, you really don't need to pull the clutch out all the way or use much gas in order to get the car going smoothly in reverse.
3) Practice 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 around the lot as well as 4-3, 3-2, and 2-1. You'll notice that a) with the car moving it's easier to shift gears and b) downshifting requires you to blip the throttle a little to prevent jerkiness as the car slows down.
4) Practice pulling into and pulling out of a parking space (not parallel).
5) Practice reversing into a parking space.
<B>Find a unpopulated hill street or loading dock ramp (my favorite)</B>
1) With the car pointed uphill, practice getting the car moving forward WITHOUT a) launching or b) rolling back. This requires you to let go of the brake and get to the shift point quickly before the car starts rolling back. While it caused my ex-GFs more anxiety, I would stand behind my car approx 3 feet (off to the side incase I needed to dodge left). As a substitute, use "borrowed" traffic cones. Since my GFs weren't too keen to roll over me (well, at the time), standing behind the car or putting the cone down gave them an incentive to not roll back too much. The feeling of rolling back is a bit unsettling at first though but your ability to launch smoothly uphill is ESSENTIAL should you need to drive in SF.
1B) Here's one trick that I found helps: Try to find the magical equilibrium point where your clutch is halfway out and the small amount of throttle you are giving the car keeps the car in position without your foot on the brake. Slipping the clutch like this isn't really good for the clutch so you don't want to do this everytime you are waiting on a hill at a red light. This technique is useful though for finding the exact point you need to get to ASAP when you are launching a car uphill.
1C) Some people like to use the handbrake to give them more time and to prevent them from rolling backwards. Procedure: pull up the handbrake, let go of the footbrake, and slip out the handbrake as the clutch catches. Personally, I found this particular technique more trouble than it's worth although I have used this technique on really, really steep hills.
2) I would say you have this nailed down when you are able to smoothly launch a car uphill without any burnouts and without the car slipping back more than a foot.
3) Tip: When driving in SF, if it looks like some clown is going to get RIGHT on my bumper before a light bumper on a steep hill, I'll let go of my brakes and let the far roll back a foot as they are approaching. This usually scares the **** out of them and makes them realize that I'm driving a stick car. They will then give you at least half a car length of room.
<B>On the same hill/ramp, point the car downhill</B>
1) Try reversing uphill. It's actually kind of easier. Much like the uphill launch, I found that standing in front of the car at this point gave them extra incentive to not roll forward. Traffic cones also work. Note: The only time I almost had to dodge out of the way was when my GF put the car into first vs. reverse. She quickly realized her mistake and slammed on her brakes before she got anywhere near me; I guarantee she'll never make it again.
1b) Practicing the hold point where the amount of gas you are giving the car offsets the amount of clutch you are leaving out will help you as well.
2) Setup two traffic cones and try to turn into a "nose-in" parking spot on a hill.
3) Reverse into the same spot. You never know when this will come in handy.
4) Setup two traffic cones as if it was a parallel parking slot. Try parallel parking on the hill both uphill and downhill.
------
You can usually cover all of this in an afternoon. After teaching one of my girlfriends this technique, she flew back home and had to drive a friends manual Civic back from the airport (he left it there for a few weeks). Since Hondas and Toyotas generally have much more forgiving clutches than the S4, she called me up to tell me how easy it was compared to the S4.
In my experience, the distance on the pedal from
where it starts to catch and where its fully engaged is much shorter on the S4 compared to a Civic or an Accord. You can be alot sloppier with these cars.
I hope this helps. If someone would have explained this to me, it would have made my learning experience ALOT quicker. The final suggestion i have is once you are comfortable driving your car, try driving other cars/trucks.
Some of my friends can drive stick smoothly on their own cars but get really jerky (and stall out) driving unfamiliar cars. With experience, you should be able to hop into a vehicle, any vehicle, and pick up on the clutch point and length quick enough to not peel out/stall out at every light.
-g
PS. When I first bought my car, I had to drive it from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins (130 miles). The sales guy watched me pull it out of the showroom and then wiped his brow. "Well, since you could drive it off the lot, I'm not THAT worried that you won't get home. Enjoy."
Thank god it was in the evening and traffic was light.
05-03-2006, 10:10 AM
#20
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You guys are seriously crazy...
I learned how to drive a stick in about three minutes when I was 15. Didn't drive one again til I was 17, when I jumped in my new car and drove off no problem. The only stick I can't drive is Sia's because his clutch point is practically to my knee. 