FR-S as first manual car?

[FX86]

Originally Posted by 02.ACCORD.DUDE

But what do I do with my hands?

No Hands

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

If sliding your hand "down" the leg you were doing things wrong!

Sooooo .........I used to have a foot fetish .......

One could suck on toes at the drive-in, without getting thrown out ......


humfrz

[MuseChaser]

Not much to add; this is a great transmission, and you'll be fine. The only caution I'd give would be to find a kind friend who'll let you drive their manual first, just to make sure you LIKE driving manual. There are folks who just don't like the extra "work." Me, I HATE driving automatic cars. Maybe it's the control freak in me.. I don't know. There's bound to be folks who feel the same way about manuals. It'd be good to make sure you're not one of them before buying a manual car.

Automatics are nice if you drive in a LOT of stop and go traffic jams; that's the only time that, after a half hour or so of that garbage, I kind of start to appreciate the automatic tranny of our SUV. Other than that, give me a manual anytime. Learned to drive on a 1960's four speed VW bus.

[RichardsFRS]

The MT in this car is super fun, but if you are in heavy traffic daily (which I am) you might regret your choice a little bit (at least till the traffic becomes lighter LOL) The clutches are pretty stiff and they have a high release point which doesn't allow for much feathering. Coming out of a manual it took me a minute to learn this one, its not like a lot of manuals. But the car is so much fun when you rip those gear in high rpms

[lantsalot]

5/7, would highly recommend this car to anyone learning. I did not learn on it, but prior to my girlfriend ordering her first ever manual (2017 wrx), I taught her on my 2013 frs and she picked it up no problem. In my experience of maybe...i dunno, 10-15 manual cars--it's easily one of if not THE easiest to shift.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by RichardsFRS

The MT in this car is super fun, but if you are in heavy traffic daily (which I am) you might regret your choice a little bit (at least till the traffic becomes lighter LOL) The clutches are pretty stiff and they have a high release point which doesn't allow for much feathering. Coming out of a manual it took me a minute to learn this one, its not like a lot of manuals. But the car is so much fun when you rip those gear in high rpms

Stiff?????
This is easily the lightest clutch I have ever driven by several degrees of magnitude. The high release point does take some getting used to but for anybody that has never driven MT before it won't matter since they will not know the difference. To them the low release point of other cars will feel weird.

[lantsalot]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Stiff?????
The high release point does take some getting used to but for anybody that has never driven MT before it won't matter since they will not know the difference. To them the low release point of other cars will feel weird.

Have you tried adjusting the release point? I'm curious, I haven't messed with it because it never felt THAT weird to me...but maybe i'm missing out on an even better driving experience?!?!

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Fishbed77

Very similar to the late 40s Chevrolet Load Master hay truck that was the first manual (outside of tractors) that I drove as a kid (in the early 90s).

.

Yep, ours was a 1941 Ford 1 3/4 ton truck ....... that my father could manage to get 2 1/2 tons of grain on.......

A ferguson tractor was my trainer for clutching .....


humfrz

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by lantsalot

Have you tried adjusting the release point? I'm curious, I haven't messed with it because it never felt THAT weird to me...but maybe i'm missing out on an even better driving experience?!?!

I suggest you leave it alone ..... the engagement point is where it is for a reason......

For the reason, check with @Tcoat or @Ultramaroon ......


humfrz

[j_motion]

Yes is a good car to be the first manual..

I drove my MT brz out of the dealer with no experience lol
(dealer wont let me test drive an auto too).
The process of mean leaving the dealer was SMOOTH..
I thought" Hey ..MT is not that bad"...............until i hit my first stop light and car behind me. :P PRESSURE IS ON..

Stall a couple of time and eventually made it home.

But if you know some one that can help you drive the car to an empty log to practice before you get on the street, it would be ideal.

Dont worry about Stalling, is not embarrassing.
We all have to start some where. Practice makes perfect.

There is a lot of thing to learn driving MT but is a fun.

The stock engagement point with assist spring on is very..........ambiguous .....
is very high up, and with the assist spring on , you will feel like there is 2 zone of tension when you step on clutch.

I left my Assist spring on for the first 6month ..thinking i can get use to it...hahaha but that not the case ..and i took it off

[j_motion]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Stiff?????
This is easily the lightest clutch I have ever driven by several degrees of magnitude. The high release point does take some getting used to but for anybody that has never driven MT before it won't matter since they will not know the difference. To them the low release point of other cars will feel weird.

Stock is super soft...

And yes ..the high engagement point hard to get use to..

(is my first MT.. and even i find it super high.)

It bite just right before you left off completely

[revaholic]

FR-S was also my first manual. Like others have said, it took me a while to get used to the high engagement point, because frankly I taught myself off of Youtube videos and other cars seemed to have a lower engagement point. Otherwise I find the manual pretty nice to use as soon as I learned to be really smooth with clutch, particularly with the 1-2 upshifts that I had a hard time smoothing out for a while. At this point I'm pretty comfortable, but I find my heavy acceleration shifts could be smoother.

The other thing that I've noticed is that the engagement point seems high when starting off, but it doesn't seem as high when going through the other gears. Don't know if this is me being crazy, but that's what it feels like to me.

[billwot]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Stiff?????
This is easily the lightest clutch I have ever driven by several degrees of magnitude. The high release point does take some getting used to but for anybody that has never driven MT before it won't matter since they will not know the difference. To them the low release point of other cars will feel weird.

The first thing I did when teaching my granddaughter was have her just slowly release the clutch until she felt it begin to engage, then step back down. I made her do this several times without moving forward just so she would know where the engagement occurred.

You very quickly learn where the engagement occurs, so once you know, what difference does it make?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by lantsalot

Have you tried adjusting the release point? I'm curious, I haven't messed with it because it never felt THAT weird to me...but maybe i'm missing out on an even better driving experience?!?!

Nope, never touched it. I know a lot of guys find it high but it never bothered me. I have driven so many different MTs over the years that none of them feel strange to me anymore and I am not into adjusting things for the sake of adjusting things. If it bothered me in any way or I thought it would be "better" I would do it in a heartbeat but why fix what ain't broke?