Any first time manual drivers here?

[ThisIsChrisKim]

I've always felt that learning on a Honda is the easiest way. Hondas have great shifters with very light throws but distinct gates. They also have clutches which aren't too heavy and have a forgiving amount of clutch/gas before it stalls. That said, it took me about 2 days to get used to the BRZ's engagement point--it was shocked at how low it engaged compared to my Mazda3 (previous car).

[qoncept]

Far from my first manual but it did take me a while to shift smoothly with this car. One thing I've noticed is the DBW throttle body closes slowly and I've tested to verify. I'll let my foot off the throttle completely and quickly push the clutch in and watch the rpms rise.

[dotdotdotPaul]

Originally Posted by qoncept

Far from my first manual but it did take me a while to shift smoothly with this car. One thing I've noticed is the DBW throttle body closes slowly and I've tested to verify. I'll let my foot off the throttle completely and quickly push the clutch in and watch the rpms rise.

Oh thank you for saying that -- I thought I was doing something wrong! On fast acceleration from the highway onramp metering light, I was noticing that although I was coming off the gas before hitting my tach light, the revs would blip up just enough to trigger the tach light when I put the clutch in for a fast upshift. I thought I wasn't getting my foot all the way off the pedal or something, but it didn't "feel" like that. (BTW, I have the tach light set low because I'm still breaking in the car )

...Paul

[kALMIGHTY]

Originally Posted by dotdotdotPaul

Oh thank you for saying that -- I thought I was doing something wrong! On fast acceleration from the highway onramp metering light, I was noticing that although I was coming off the gas before hitting my tach light, the revs would blip up just enough to trigger the tach light when I put the clutch in for a fast upshift. I thought I wasn't getting my foot all the way off the pedal or something, but it didn't "feel" like that. (BTW, I have the tach light set low because I'm still breaking in the car )

...Paul

What is yours set at? I'm not in the break in period. Just got out of it last week, but I'm curious. I set it to 3000 RPM for the first 500 km, and then 4000 RPM for the remaining 1109 km (1609 km is 1000 miles), now it's set at 7400.

[dotdotdotPaul]

Originally Posted by kALMIGHTY

What is yours set at? I'm not in the break in period. Just got out of it last week, but I'm curious. I set it to 3000 RPM for the first 500 km, and then 4000 RPM for the remaining 1109 km (1609 km is 1000 miles), now it's set at 7400.

I set it to 4k to start, then realized that if I saw the light, it was already "too late", so I think I set it down to around 3800 or something like that... Another 350 miles and I'll crank it up.

Edit: That said, I've also noticed the upshift-for-efficiency blinky triangle light, which goes off around 2000 rpm, so when I'm not trying to stretch my legs a little, I shift way early. Looking forward to seeing what it feels like to really use the whole band.

...Paul

[ST185RC]

My first car with manual transmission was 11 years ago. Still use handbrake on steep hills to save some wear on the drive line. No roll-backs or bogging the engine down for me. When I'm walking on the street and I hear people burning their clutch on a hill for a good 5 seconds, bogging down their engine without a handbrake assistance, I cringe every time.

Hand brake, not just for parking and sliding the ass out. Trust me.

One of the harder cars to get it right on is the s2000. That car really doesn't like low RPMs.

I prefer a beefy clutch and the FR-S' clutch is a bit too soft for my liking. Older Toyotas were easy to learn on for me it's easier to modulate a heavy clutch.

[dbrandt01]

Just joined, this is my first manual. Had the car for a few days now. My father went with me and drove it home (far from his first manual) and he even stalled it and had shaky starts, so that made me feel better.

I have the shift light set at 3500rpms and I'm finding out with me getting started is by far the hardest part. I do watch the RPMs and usually keep it around 2000RPMs, but I find myself either letting my foot off the gas when I let the clutch out or I release the clutch too fast. Kind of hard to get use to doing both. I find out as well that when I start thinking of it, or worrying about other cars I stall more then when I just kind of have a "tunnel vision" so to speak.

After I get started everything else is pretty much smooth with shifting unless I miss a gear (only happened once) going to third, but went to fifth by accident.

At nights traffic is the worst here (which is when I go to work for the graveyard shift) I've been driving my parents car then when I get home at 0530 I been driving my car for an hour before traffic picked up.

[uEih]

As far as stopping what do you guys do? This topic has all sorts of answers but I usually just leave it in the gear I'm at until I come to a complete stop, I use to downshift every gear to 3rd but that's just putting more wear and tear on it.

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by Admiral Ballsy

This is the only car I've driven with what feels like a linear clutch pedal - the amount of force remains the same (or close to it) throughout the entire pedal travel. Normally there's something of a cam-effect where the force builds to a peak, then drops off.

I'm not sure if that's good or bad, it's just different.

There's definitely a change in feel at the engagement point; the pressure builds up and up and then once you reach that point it lets go. It's still reasonably easy, but it's certainly a difference at least IMO.



The only thing I've had problem with is consistency on rev-matching. whaaap's method doesn't work for me, I am NOT that coordinated. I don't necessarily give it an indiscriminate "stab" either. It's a metered jab that is usually right around where I want to be or at least within 200-300 RPM.

[RacerX]

Originally Posted by uEih

As far as stopping what do you guys do? This topic has all sorts of answers but I usually just leave it in the gear I'm at until I come to a complete stop, I use to downshift every gear to 3rd but that's just putting more wear and tear on it.

I'm certainly no expert, but I'd guess that it's more fuel efficient to put the clutch in and just coast to a stop. Like say you're driving downhill to a stop sign at the bottom. I know I NEED to stop so I get off the gas, put the clutch in, and shift into neutral, and let the clutch out. Then once I'm going 2-3mph, I'll put the clutch in again and put it in first as the car comes to a stop.

If I'm coming up to a red light I'll usually leave it in gear a little longer, just in case the light turns green.

Is it true that it's better for the tranny to be in neutral with the clutch out while at a stop, like in traffic at a stoplight, than to be in gear with the clutch in? A buddy of mine told me that but he wasn't really clear why thats the case.

[SigmaHyperion]

Originally Posted by RacerX

Is it true that it's better for the tranny to be in neutral with the clutch out while at a stop, like in traffic at a stoplight, than to be in gear with the clutch in? A buddy of mine told me that but he wasn't really clear why thats the case.

Technically, leaving the clutch depressed while stopped puts extra wear on the throwout bearing.

But I've done it in Manuals for many, many years without any issue at all. If it causes any problems it's one of those ones that may arise after 100,000 miles or something. It's not one of those I would worry a ton about if it's a habit that you're in.

Personally I always leave the clutch depressed and the car in-gear if there are no vehicles behind me. The only time I may release the clutch is if someone is behind me and I know the wait will be fairly extended. I do this is for safety reasons as there are a multitude of reasons why I may need to quickly get out of the way, most of which are no longer potential issues once a vehicle is stopped behind me.

That said, there are compelling reasons why you should keep the car out of gear in that situation as well. While I prefer to leave the car in-gear with the hope (illusion?) of possibly avoiding a rear-ending, if you are rear-ended and pushed into a live intersection, having a vehicle that is stalled because you dropped the clutch in the impact is not a safe position to be in.

[uEih]

Originally Posted by RacerX

I'm certainly no expert, but I'd guess that it's more fuel efficient to put the clutch in and just coast to a stop. Like say you're driving downhill to a stop sign at the bottom. I know I NEED to stop so I get off the gas, put the clutch in, and shift into neutral, and let the clutch out. Then once I'm going 2-3mph, I'll put the clutch in again and put it in first as the car comes to a stop.

If I'm coming up to a red light I'll usually leave it in gear a little longer, just in case the light turns green.

Is it true that it's better for the tranny to be in neutral with the clutch out while at a stop, like in traffic at a stoplight, than to be in gear with the clutch in? A buddy of mine told me that but he wasn't really clear why thats the case.

Ok here's what I know, you should always be in gear while moving, never coast on neutral as there isn't any control there in case you need to speed up or avoid something by speeding up. Coasting on neutral will also wear down your brakes a lot faster as you're stopping the car at a with more force. Here's also how I think of it when driving an automatic you don't put it to neutral to stop, you just leave it in drive and it's always in gear so you should do the same with a manual.

It is better, you should never clutch in unless you need to. If you're at a stop clutch out and stay on neutral until you need to go into gear. Basically try to stay off the clutch as much as possible.

My real question is I know people that drive and downshift 4->3->2 then neutral everytime stopping and it seems like they don't blip the throttle so I'm assuming they're letting go of their clutch slowly which will kill the clutch also but what I do is if I'm on 5th or whatever I'll just leave it in 5th until I'm almost at a stop, causing less wear on the gears. I downshift at times but not at everystop for sure, especially with blipping it'll get a bit too much unnecessary wear.

[BRZBlack]

This is my first MT and I'm pretty sure I have it down after 1k miles. Not a racecar driver mind you, but I haven't stalled it since the few weeks after purchacing it. My older brother (coming from a 6.0 GTO, 95 Mustang Cobra ect.) says its just about "medium" difficulty. I will say from my experience with it so far, the first few minutes of driving can be a bit tricky (trans not warmed up yet?), but other than that, the shifter is very notchy (in a good way) and the clutch bite point seemed very small.... meaning your foot is almost all the way up before it engages. Driving will wear it in a bit and make it a little more forgiving. Given the car doesn't have insane amounts of power should make the learning curve a little less steep as opposed to other MT's. Just watch for hills. The engine responds fast enough that the "e-brake" trick isn't necessary IMO. Just concentrate on your starts and smooth upshifting/downshifting. Knowing what gear to be in at what speed helps too. (for driving around town.) I generally stay in 4th or even 5th @ 30mph. First gear is short so you can only really take it up to about 10-15mph... and it sounds like the engine is screaming. But it really likes being in the 4500-7000 RPM range. But small steps The high RPM fun comes after you get some practice.

[dotdotdotPaul]

Stupid newb stick driver question:

When starting from a stop, I'm finding I don't get all the way off the clutch in 1st before I push it back in again to upshift to 2nd. Is that normal/right? Doing that gets me the smoothest acceleration from stop to 2nd, but I'm not sure if it's "right".

...Paul