Should be getting my 2019 BRZ Raiu Edition Soon!
 

Sup ya'll

For the past few weeks I've been looking at Autotrader and various dealerships around my area for a manual transmission BRZ. I finally found one and it happened to be the Raiu edition with 55,000kms for $31,000.

Basically just waiting for approval but the financing stuff has already been finalized. I'll be parting ways with my current 2016 BRZ Sport-tech, which is automatic and will finally get to drive the car the way it was meant to be driven.

Only issue is I haven't driven a manual car in my life, so I'm kind of scared I won't be capable of driving it. I've watched a few YouTube videos on manual and honestly doesn't seem too bad. I'm mostly worried about slowing down at turns, stop & go traffic and hill starts/driving on hills.

If you guys have any tips for driving manual that'll make my life easier, or how long it took for you to get comfortable driving stick, please feel free to share :)

hey! I would bring someone with you thats comfortable driving stick when you get the car. I practiced mostly at night time when there was minimal traffic and I also did a lot of practice on hills. It took me probably close to a month of practicing an hour or so a week until I was comfortable enough in traffic. Good luck!

You will be fine. Try not to get frustrated. Patience and practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNAF5pAQENI

Keep calm, practice, patience. Start with just flat areas in a parking lot. When you feel comfortable with that and have a feel for the clutch engagement point then move on to hill starts.

When doing hill starts (especially as a beginner) the handbrake is your friend. Hold the button down and pull up on the handbrake. Now your feet are free to only do the clutch and throttle. Apply a bit of throttle and slowly begin to release the clutch, when you feel it start to bite then you release the handbrake. No rolling back, all calm. The more comfortable and capable you get with the manual the steeper the hill before you feel the need to use the handbrake.

6 years ago when I got my Mazda 3, I bought it manual transmission. Believe it or not, I learned how to listen for the engine playing Need for Speed. I always played with manual transmission controls so I sort of knew what to listen for. I had my godmother test drive the car for me and drive it home. She then took me to an empty parking lot, gave me a quick 15 minute lesson on the basics and surprisingly the only thing I lacked was the take off. Later I came to realize that for a week, I was launching the car on 3rd, rather than 1st. This was of course because those gears were so close to each other. The beautiful thing about the twins is that you can see what gear you're on.

Keep a mental picture of the gears on your head, makes it easy to remember what shift is next.

The transmission on the BRZ is very forgiving, just very notchy. This can be fixed By replacing the oils and some bushings. But other than that, like any other manual transmission, takes time to get used to. Just listen to your engine, feel the pedals because a car does let you know when it needs a shift up or down.

When you first sit down, get your left foot used to the feeling of the clutch, right foot on brakes and gas.

I would even recommend driving on Forza Horizon with a pedal setup.

Is going to feel like driving for the first time, but the key is to go out as much as you can and practice. Once you're comfortable you can get into rev-matching.

Don't stop at uphill intersections for a bit until you get used to catching the roll back....

Two things
When you think the order of operation for shifts don’t think of it as push clutch, move lever, give gas, release clutch. It is more push clutchmovelevergivegasreleaseclutch. It should all be happening at the same time with no gaps between them not as totally separate actions.

Do NOT grip the shifter knob like every single person in a movie. The tighter you grab your knob the harder it is to get into gear. Just loving caress the knob and gently guide it into place by using light pressure with a couple of fingers.

hehehe giggity

Your car will have "Hill Assist". If it's turned on you'll see a little light on the dash showing a car on an incline. If no light, read the manual for instructions. (IIRC you hold the Trac button for 30 seconds.) Saves you friggin' with the E-Brake. Once you get the hang of driving a stick turn it off if you wish.

As a non-american (and coming from somewhere where the driving test requires you to know your manual box), I think all you should know is it's really not that big a deal, and you've probably learned much harder stuff by yourself. It's one of those things where if you have the will to learn, you've already done most of the job.

The single piece of advice I'd give you is that, when the engine's cold, you won't have a box that keeps revs low for you, so remember to upshift early until the car is somewhat hot.

i watched this youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v455OItmASw
video of a guy learning stick on his FRS (i was into FRS Release series 2.0 for awhile)

that "teacher' was absolute crap. The teacher was basically just telling the driver "just push the clutch in or gas it" without the driver really knowing anything....

So in my mind i ended up trying to think of the most painless way to teach someone stick and avoid stalling (since ill have to teach the wife to drive the 86, and i taught a nephew as well) and i came up with this:

Its kind of a step by step process:

1.) Get a feel for the shifter. Row through the gates when the car is off, so you can get an idea of where the gates are, how much pressure you need to slot them into the next, gear, find the neutral point, etc. All shifters feel different so it helps to actually get comfortable rowing through the gears. You dont need to slam them into the next gears like in fast and furious.....
I had a Scion iM stick and that shifter has longer throws, and is sloppy feeling. The 86 shifter is more direct, shorter throws and much tighter.

2.) With the car in neutral just play with the throttle a little bit, rev it out and hold low revs. You need to have much more throttle control than an automatic.
So this gives you a bit of a feel for how much pedal pressure you need to utilize.

3.) With the car still in neutral or off, play with the clutch a little bit. You'll want to get used to how a clutch feels (There's a bit of pressure required and then it transitions to dead travel). This is important because not all clutches feel the same. My Scion iM had a very long clutch pedal travel, but the grab point (the point where you feel the most resistance in the travel) was very early in the travel. The 86 in comparison has a very short travel and the grab point is not as obvious but its kind of in the middle. So its actually somewhat easier to modulate than the iM was.

Once you get a bit acclimated to the clutch and throttle then its time to give it a shot (in a flat parking lot or area with no traffic). First try to identify the grab point without stalling. Put the car in first gear and then slowly let off the clutch until the car starts vibrating and inching forward. Then try to hold it there awhile as the car slowly moves. This gives you an idea how much pedal travel is needed to get to the bite point.
Push the clutch in to prevent stalling and get out of gear.
Pull it out any more and then it'll start to bob and jerk and eventually stall (and this happens pretty quickly unless you react fast enough with the clutch) Do this for awhile to get used to it before the next part...adding throttle.

When you add throttle, first give it a bit of a rev and hold it at no more than 2k RPM (just an RPM number i felt was decent enough without being too high), then slowly let off the clutch. Once it grabs you'll start moving forward faster then you can let the clutch out fully and then the throttle can be independently controlled. It takes practice to get the coordination down so that you can get the car moving without revving first (clutch out>grab point>throttle) which is apparently a bad habit..but i still do it sometimes lol.

The hardest part is starting, the rest comes pretty easy (you dont need to coordinate once the car is moving. Clutch in < gas out > shift > gas in clutch out kind of in a smooth motion. Not too slow though or you'll get some jerky shifts as if the RPMs drop too much the transmission will have to kick it up to the engine RPM. So once you get starting down, you're pretty much good to drive manual. Just be with someone who knows stick to coach you, you don't want to be stuck in a situation where you have no idea what to do or are overwhelmed (like stalling at a traffic light...if you're not comfortable you might panic and then cant get the car moving quickly before the honking starts). Again all of this takes practice to understand how everything works together, and work together smooth.

Hill starts are basically...how fast can you move your feet without holding the ebrake. Do the twins have hill start? cuz i didnt notice it last time i was on an incline....

I find maybe reversing might be a good way to practice all of this, cuz going backwards slowly, you have to modulate the gas and clutch alot to get that combination of speed, accuracy and attentiveness.

I thought maybe it was something added in the 2017+ update (person who posted about it has a 2019) but then I saw you have a 2020.

Google search found this posted (for 2017+):

I have to add the hill assist doesn't seem all that reliable for me. i've tried turning it off and reenabling it when i'm on a flat level road but it does not seem to consistently kick in (no flashing symbol)

What "flashing symbol"? There is just the solid light when it's on and no light when it's off. (Yes, this is opposite to the way it works in other Subarus, like my wife's 2016 STi)
If you are referring to the VSC & Traction Control lights, they don't flash as such. After holding the button for 30 seconds, (as listed above) they will come on and then go off.