New Manual Driver

[vooshhz]

Hey guys,

Hopefully this is the right place to put this thread.

I recently purchased a brand new 2016 370z. My dad who is a very experienced manual driver has been teaching me. Although he's really good at driving my car, he's not a very patient teacher. I was wondering if I could ask you guys some questions and maybe you can tell me if I am doing something wrong.

First of all the dealer told me my clutch is going to be really stiff, which actually makes it difficult for me to get the exact point where the clutch "grabs" the "transmission". (hopefully that made sense) This takes getting started in 1st gear about 5 seconds, because if I try to hurry up the clutch release, I mostly stall the car. Is this just something that'll come with practice or is there a way to always hit your engage point with your clutch?

Secondly, I've been worrying about how much damage i'm causing my brand new car by stalling? I stalled about 10 times on my 1st day, and now i don't stall at all.

Third, sometimes when i switch gears, the transition isn't smooth and threes a jerk. My assumtion is because i'm releasing the clutch too fast. Is that also causing damage to my transmission?

Overall in 2 days i'm driving my car mostly fine, kinda slow at the first gear thing but after that it's easy. I'm afraid that until I can get started in 1st gear in less than 1 second, I won't be able to drive around confortably as I'll always be afraid of rolling back and hitting a car behind me on a hill.

Also, what does it mean to "ride the clutch"? I've been told to avoid that, but I'm not sure what that means.

Thanks,

Vishu