Learning manual, stalled so many times

[ermax]

Originally Posted by highway7

This is a pretty hard car to drive IMO


-Clutch pedal is really soft, makes it harder to know exactly where you are



-Clutch bite engagement is too high. The clutch starts engaging at the halfway mark to creep slowly, but the point where the clutch needs to be to actually take off is nearly at 9/10 of the way up. Any less and it will be too slow, any higher and you end up fully engaging the clutch.



-Throttle lag and DBW system makes it harder to do a "see saw" between the gas and clutch in comparison to a traditional throttle cable. The DBW delay has to be accounted for. And depending on humidity and air temp the throttle is very inconsistent, some days the weight of my foot resting will result in the engine shooting up to 3k RPM, some days it will be 1.5k RPM. Makes taking off very inconsistent until I get used to the throttle "mood" of the day.



Overall my only advice is to sit the same way and wear the same shoes and even socks if you want to get the perfect smoothless shifts...

Oh boy you are going to get some pushback on the DBW comment. I totally agree with you though. Most modern MTs are harder to drive due to DBW lag. I have an IS300 which was one of if not the first cars with DBW. It has tons of lag and a major pain to drive smooth. I also had an G35 6MT which was also laggy and even harder to drive smooth than the IS300. I’ve been impressed with the DBW on the FRS but I agree it’s still there a tad. For me the most annoying thing is the FRS throttle response is inconsistent. Sometimes you do a blip and it's as if it completely ignores you. Other times it's perfectly fine. It's extremely bad for the first 200 miles after an ECU reset. I think people have forgotten what a cable throttle was like. The easiest combination would be a car with mechanical throttle, hydraulic clutch and engine with lots of low end torque.

[ermax]

Originally Posted by FRSBRZGT86FAN

I used a value steve99 posted awhile back for both 93 and e85 to correct them, and it no longer goes to the ridiculous 127 signed integer value when your off throttle My E85 is 20 mpg and my 93 octane is around 24.6

Seeing the gauge indicate 28mpg on 93 and then my own calculations on E85 made it feel like the E85 had a massive hit but I think in reality I'm not really getting the indicated 28mph on 93. Maybe I will start with steve99's values as a starting point and go from there.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by highway7

Overall my only advice is to sit the same way and wear the same shoes and even socks if you want to get the perfect smoothless shifts...

My advice would be to go practice until you don't have to change your shoes to drive your car. This is an easy car to drive. You should be able to operate it with anything from flip flops to North Korean army boots.

[FRSBRZGT86FAN]

Originally Posted by ermax

Seeing the gauge indicate 28mpg on 93 and then my own calculations on E85 made it feel like the E85 had a massive hit but I think in reality I'm not really getting the indicated 28mph on 93. Maybe I will start with steve99's values as a starting point and go from there.

That's best, the "Stock" settings for the MPG readout are off as it is, at least on the older cars

[highway7]

Originally Posted by ermax

Oh boy you are going to get some pushback on the DBW comment. I totally agree with you though. Most modern MTs are harder to drive due to DBW lag. I have an IS300 which was one of if not the first cars with DBW. It has tons of lag and a major pain to drive smooth. I also had an G35 6MT which was also laggy and even harder to drive smooth than the IS300. I’ve been impressed with the DBW on the FRS but I agree it’s still there a tad. For me the most annoying thing is the FRS throttle response is inconsistent. Sometimes you do a blip and it's as if it completely ignores you. Other times it's perfectly fine. It's extremely bad for the first 200 miles after an ECU reset. I think people have forgotten what a cable throttle was like. The easiest combination would be a car with mechanical throttle, hydraulic clutch and engine with lots of low end torque.

Yep... experience this as well...



Also wanted to add there is DBW delay when taking your foot off the throttle. So if you hit the clutch right after releasing the gas, the revs will hang at that RPM for a little longer or may even jump up. You need to make a conscious effort to wait a split second before hitting the clutch

[Chikna]

This guy is too good! I watched this video almost 10 times and did some adjustment with my driving. Heel and toe, clutch releases like smooth butter. One difference between BRZ and Mini Cooper is the frictional point - BRZ is almost near to the floor and Cooper is almost over half point. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1A6bzdb8MY"]Video[/ame]

[HKz]

Originally Posted by Chikna

This guy is too good! I watched this video almost 10 times and did some adjustment with my driving. Heel and toe, clutch releases like smooth butter. One difference between BRZ and Mini Cooper is the frictional point - BRZ is almost near to the floor and Cooper is almost over half point.

hmm? first time I've heard this as most newbies struggle with the twin's friction point being so high off the floor

[woojukim116]

Traction off, rev up to 3k+ rpm, dump the clutch+floor it to redline!
lol jk

try give 1-3k rpm throttle before engaging the clutch and see if that helps (DO NOT hold throttle constantly, just step on to engage clutch without stalling the car)

[Rabidpug]

If your having trouble in 1st, hold break slowly let clutch out till you start to feel it bite. Hold clutch and switch to gas pedal, give a little gas and slowly release the clutch the rest of the way.

[Tenzin01]

Originally Posted by Chikna

I watched this video and drove again as per Robbie - Watch from 10:38, it wasn't smooth. He just releases smoothly without even stopping at biting point. I am confused.

I cannot describe how helpful this particular video was to me. I went from stalling just about every stop to rarely ever stalling anymore

[Chikna]

I was driving home on highway this evening and for the first time I encountered a heavy traffic and I think there was a major accident. Anyway, traffic was moving slowly about 3 to 5 miles per hour (I used 1st gear) and a lot of time stop and go. I never practiced hill start, but today at one point car stalled on higher elevation (overpass) and after starting the car I couldn't move the car and started going backward and luckily the driver from behind honked so badly I could stop the car otherwise I would have hit him just about 1 feet gap. Again, I had to stop, but this time I used E-Brake and I could move the car more easily. I saw the driver behind me left me a lot of space. Thank God nothing happened and it took an hour to reach home rather than 15 minutes.

I guess manual/stick cars need more practice everyday. Geez, when will I be a pro?

[imped4now]

Originally Posted by Chikna

I was driving home on highway this evening and for the first time I encountered a heavy traffic and I think there was a major accident. Anyway, traffic was moving slowly about 3 to 5 miles per hour (I used 1st gear) and a lot of time stop and go. I never practiced hill start, but today at one point car stalled on higher elevation (overpass) and after starting the car I couldn't move the car and started going backward and luckily the driver from behind honked so badly I could stop the car otherwise I would have hit him just about 1 feet gap. Again, I had to stop, but this time I used E-Brake and I could move the car more easily. I saw the driver behind me left me a lot of space. Thank God nothing happened and it took an hour to reach home rather than 15 minutes.

I guess manual/stick cars need more practice everyday. Geez, when will I be a pro?

One aspect of being a "pro" is being able to modulate your car (back and forth controllably without going past set boundaries) on a steep incline. That implies you understand the mechanics of the clutch, understand where the bite point is, and have a solid grasp on the coordination between clutch and gas. Oh, and you can't use any form of a brake.


The BRZ doesn't have much torque down low (or anywhere for that matter) and the bite point is pretty vague and drawn out. This makes this exercise a bit trickier than with other cars. My Focus RS is a piece of cake in these situations....best clutch I've ever driven and gobs of torque. I can modulate it throttle-less on inclines.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Originally Posted by Chikna

I was driving home on highway this evening and for the first time I encountered a heavy traffic and I think there was a major accident. Anyway, traffic was moving slowly about 3 to 5 miles per hour (I used 1st gear) and a lot of time stop and go. I never practiced hill start, but today at one point car stalled on higher elevation (overpass) and after starting the car I couldn't move the car and started going backward and luckily the driver from behind honked so badly I could stop the car otherwise I would have hit him just about 1 feet gap. Again, I had to stop, but this time I used E-Brake and I could move the car more easily. I saw the driver behind me left me a lot of space. Thank God nothing happened and it took an hour to reach home rather than 15 minutes.

I guess manual/stick cars need more practice everyday. Geez, when will I be a pro?

Why haven't you enabled hill start assist? It's amazing. Soon as you're on a hill and go into gear with the clutch in and on the brake, a little light will flash letting you know you won't roll back. Bada bing, off you go. It's in the manual. Just find the section and follow the steps to turn it on.

[Chikna]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

Why haven't you enabled hill start assist? It's amazing. Soon as you're on a hill and go into gear with the clutch in and on the brake, a little light will flash letting you know you won't roll back. Bada bing, off you go. It's in the manual. Just find the section and follow the steps to turn it on.

I didn't know BRZ has hill assist. I will look into it. Thank you.