Check the new Z

Originally Posted by polarity

What helped me out with my first stick was taking the car somewhere without traffic (get a friend or parent who knows how to drive a stick to get it there with you).

Setup away from traffic/people/anything that will make you nervous or less focused on what you're trying to do, from there it gets pretty easy actually.

Let the clutch out slowly, while giving the car a little gas. You can start off at higher RPM if you want, but if your sitting in heavy traffic and try to dump the clutch at 2k rpm you're likely to rear end the poor bastard in front of you. Try to keep the RPM at or below 1k, the real trick here is just doing it over and over, pay close attention and see at what point the clutch actually starts to engage, once the car starts to roll it's easy sailing from there, continue to let the clutch out slowly and just keep rolling (dont worry about giving it more gas yet, this is just to learn the feeling of the clutch. Once you're rolling put the clutch to the floor, take it out of gear, come to a stop and start over.

You will probably stall the car quiet a few times. Once you have the hang of that, next part would be to follow the exact same steps.. Clutch out slowly around the 1k rpm mark, this time when the clutch is almost fully engaged (your foot off the pedal) start giving it more gas. Then go ahead and drive around a bit, shift to second, and move the car to the starting point and do it again. If you can get the car out of first, the rest of it is nothing =)

With about 30 min of sitting on an empty street or parking lot you'll be driving it like it was an automatic not even thinking about it anymore. You'll love the car so make sure you take your time and enjoy it.

-William