Starts and Downshifting
 

Hey guys, this is my first post, and I'm wondering why I still stall at intersections, stop signs, etc. and why I'm still getting jarred around while downshifting. The 1st of September will mark the 2nd week of owning my 2013 FRS. I'm a senior in high school and this the first car that I started on to learn manual. Collectively, I've probably put in about 10-12 hours behind the wheel driving and I still stall at the places listed above. It's quite embarrassing and since the car is stock that means no tint and that I'm almost literally like a fish in a bowl. My parents both taught me what I know and this week I've gotten smoother at regular shifting but when it comes to downshifts, its just a really jarring, uncomfortable feeling. Does anyone have any advice for starts and downshifts? I've tried to watch videos, but I'm not sure they really helped.

Bring the clutch up nice and slow, make sure you give it a bit of gas, bring the revs up to 1.5k revs and let the clutch out. Start there. From there youll get used to the car and youll be able to let the clutch out at lower revs. Remember, be slow up on the clutch, youre probably letting go of the clutch too quick and stalling the car.

As for down shifting, be slow on bringing the clutch up. Dont force the car into gear, if youre down shifting without rev matching dont go forcing the car into a gear that it doesnt want to be in.

Find the friction point on the clutch. Slowly bring the clutch pedal up and you will feel the car actually start to crawl forward. Once you figure that out you're good.

also boohoo, high schooler feels self conscious because he sucks at driving his really nice car :)

Spend some quality one-on-one time with someone who's technique you respect. If you don't know anyone, pay for lessons. It'll be worth every penny.

I just bought a brz as well and am learning. Do you guys release the clutch up to the bite point and then add throttle or do you add throttle while releasing the clutch from the beginning? I hope what I'm asking makes sense. I keep stalling

A really good learning exercise is to find a big empty flat spot and practice starting out without touching the throttle at all.

Learn to feather the clutch and then add throttle accordingly. It's a balancing act. You'll get the hang of it. :thumbsup:

Well, first off, DauntlessFRS, welcome to our helpful forum ..... :clap:

I see you already got some good tips ...... :thumbsup:

Secondly, this is not the easiest car to get the hang of as far as starting off and shifting....;) It has a clutch that engages/disengages at a relatively high point in it's travel. The car has a relatively light flywheel and is a bit light on torque (all of which make starting off more challenging).

As far as down shifting, I suggest you downshift through the gears in order .... don't skip gears ..... it will be smoother.

Also, on downshifting, "blip" the throttle after you take it out of the last gear (while the clutch is depressed) and before you put it into the next gear. That helps get the gears spinning at about the right speed.

Next off, pay no never mind to the other drivers around you (except the one behind you, if he is real close). There is a good chance they are driving a car with an automatic transmission ...... and several wouldn't even know how to start driving a manual.

Yep, like said up above, it just takes practice ...... you will get the hang of it.

Hell, I've been driving clutched vehicles for over 65 years ...... and I still stall my FR-S every now and then ..... :(


humfrz

more gas + practice

I didn't feel comfortable until I had 30k miles on the odometer and that was after I had 20k miles experience on my previous car.

Once you get the muscle memory down and learn the exact points of clutch and throttle you need, you begin to apply both at once in an almost seamless and unnoticeable manner, you begin to take off from a stop and people from the outside would think you're in an automatic from how smooth it is, that's just the way it is. I truly think once you learn the fundamental basics of driving a manual, the only way to learn more is seat time in your car in question. Then again, I have a lot of experience with these clutches, I'm a lot guy at a Subaru dealership, so I'm in manual Imprezas, Crosstreks, Foresters, WRXs, STIs, and BRZs about daily, even before I got my 86. So there was no "new car new clutch feel" transition, I had already basically test driven my car by way of all the BRZs I had been in. I will say this, of all the manuals I've driven across Fords, Dodges, Chevys, Toyotas, and Subarus, old and new alike, the 86 is by far the easiest to drive I've personally experienced, Toyota did their homework with their transmission.

The clutch is not an on/off switch. There's a lot of play in it (called clutch slip) that you can use to make the shifts smoother. Slip the clutch a tad to smooth out shifts.

Once you've mastered that, learn to heel and toe

This^
It is almost impossible to learn from reading instructions on the internet. It takes about 10 minutes for somebody that knows what they are doing to show you.
I will say to ignore anybody saying that you need to learn advanced track techniques (such as heel and toe) right away. There is no need for them on the street and you need to be comfortable with the basics before moving up.

Practice, practice, practice and it will come I assure you.

Watch "Learning to drive" videos from the UK. The quality will be better as we have to learn to drive manuals and take a test in a manual.

The advice on learning the clutch without accelerator is good. Learn each pedal one at a time before you learn to combine them. So...

Learn to get the car rolling in 1st without accelerator.
Learn how to hold 1k or 1.5k rpm easily.
Then combine the two and learn to balance them.

For downshifts... don't rush them. Assuming you are not learning to race drive, take your time. There is no need to be in a lower gear unless you want to accelerate. So don't bother downshifting until you need to accelerate. This is how it's taught in the UK.

If you are braking from say 50mph in 6th, you can stay in 6th all the way down to about 20mph (or less) when the revs are down to around 1k. You can then shift straight into 2nd and lift the clutch slowly. The engine has much less "bump" or "lurch" at low rpms, so it's much easier to shift. Late down shifts require much less rev change, so the clutch bit is easier.

When you get these basics working, practice, practice, practice. With time your feet will learn the clutch and accelerator balance on their own and you can start to ramp things up, downshifting earlier etc. Then on to the more advanced 'sports' driving like rev matching etc.

Practice practice practice practice and then more practice. It took me over a year personally to be totally confident in my stick-shift abilities. One thing I always had trouble with during starts is giving it enough gas. To help myself, I kept trying to give it just a little more gas than I thought was necessary and that really helped me get smoother starts. Also practice a lot.

Start practicing your rev-matching and your downshifts will be completely imperceptible