I've never driven Manual

Devil Z

The first thing that happended was I stalled, is stalling really bad for the car??

It was a blue 350Z

Cown3d

no its not bad for it...i meen it might cause some wear if you do it 100 times over
but no...

DIGItonium

It shouldn't be THAT bad, everyone stalls once in awhile. If you practice everyday, you'll get it down in a few days.

zero

It's not bad. If you want to get good with the manual driving, practice stop and go on the hill....try moving the car forward smoothly without having the car rolling back and try keeping the car stationary without using a brake on the incline hill.

dad

I'd recommend a "slightly sloped drive way"! Much safer than a hill, and less nerve wrenching!

__________________

We can do without any article of luxury we have never had; but once obtained, it is not in human nature to surrender it voluntary.

dad

Sit in a chair, close your eyes. Envision the clutch pedal, gas pedal. Think of what you need to do, to drive the car! Drive a route in your head!

I'm serious, I'm not BS you one bit!

__________________

We can do without any article of luxury we have never had; but once obtained, it is not in human nature to surrender it voluntary.

Devil Z

Thanks guys, I'll try all your advice. The funny thing is I didn't know exactly how to operate a "Manual" lol, and the car was parked with the E-Brake. I thought I could just put the clutch down, shift into first while in park just to put it in first, soon as I let the clutch go it stalled. I wasn't embarrassed about the stall but the mere fact that I did something so blind.

SocalBurt

Hey Devil Z when I got my 350z I had never even touched a manual transmission and I can tell you I caught on in like a week. With tons of practice I'm now excellent at it but yeah take it slow or you'll risk damaging the cars transmission. The 370z has a reworked transmission but its a good car to learn on cuz of the torque, Hondas for example are hard to learn on cuz you gotta rev the suckers so as not to stall but with the 370 learning should be easy. Maybe practice on a friends car lol!

semtex

If it makes you feel any better, I know a guy who bought a Mustang and did the same thing, except he managed to keep it in gear and kept driving!!! The dude drove for 10 miles with the E-brake still on, and then pulls into the parking lot of the place where I was meeting him for dinner, with smoke billowing out of the rear wheels, and tells me he thinks something might be wrong with his Mustang. And then he realized he never disengaged the E-brake! I about wet myself laughing at him.

Those Mustang drivers are a special breed. I'll just leave it at that.

__________________
"There are no small accidents on this circuit." -- Ayrton Senna
316.8whp & 248 ft/lbs (Dyno Dynamics) | 319whp & 256 ft/lbs (DynoJet) (04/23/10)
Stillen G3 CAI, CBE, Pulley / F.I. LTH / GTSpec Ladder Brace / Setrab Oil Cooler / UpRev-tuned by Forged Perf.

zero

You forget to gas it as you let the clutch go or remember that left foot up, right foot down.

Crash

Perfectly OK... The first week I was driving stick, I'd forgot that you have to clutch in at a stop (or put the car in neutral) and I just drove like it was an auto. The second I got up to the line, **Plop** it stalled. Usually in most gears you get a little warning about stalling - the car will start to shutter a little and bog, followed by some mild vibrations. That should be enough to remind you to clutch in or give it gas.

I learned to drive stick on a car with no torque or power, so getting into a car with torque made driving stick MUCH easier.

__________________
2002 Corvette Z06 - Totaled
2003 Corvette Z06 50th Anniversary

Crash

I agree with everything except the last part... Staying still on a hill without using the brakes is a good way of burning up the clutch. I NEVER ride the clutch.

Although, the rest, OK! Definitely learning to drive on hills is the BEST way to learn. I learned by landing in stop-n-go traffic on the 101 during rush hour. I stalled twice in 40 minutes and after that I was near pro! LOL I think in the first week of driving stick, I stalled about 10-15 times. The first day was the worst, but after about 20 minutes of stop and go, I had it down.

__________________
2002 Corvette Z06 - Totaled
2003 Corvette Z06 50th Anniversary

zero

I agree with not riding the clutch. I should say try working the clutch releasing/pressing and gasing combination without having the car rolling back. It's a good practice working left foot and right foot for clutching and gasing. You have to be quick not having the car rolling back more than a foot. Practice, practice is the key.

Crash

YEP! I totally agree.

There's a lot of hill here in Los Angeles and in the Valley, and the drivers here LOVE to get right on your A$s and give you no roll-back room at all. I don't know why they do this, but they do. So you have to learn to do hills with no roll back. But better practice in my opinion is stopping with the brakes on the hill, and then going without rolling back. It's one thing to be on the clutch and gas already, but another to go from clutch/brake to clutch/gas without rolling back.

They used to have a Hill-brake system that would hold the brakes down on a hill until the clutch was pressed in... Kinda cool, but not for me.

__________________
2002 Corvette Z06 - Totaled
2003 Corvette Z06 50th Anniversary

semtex

I'm sure that there's a very relieved Hispanic guy right now.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

__________________
"There are no small accidents on this circuit." -- Ayrton Senna
316.8whp & 248 ft/lbs (Dyno Dynamics) | 319whp & 256 ft/lbs (DynoJet) (04/23/10)
Stillen G3 CAI, CBE, Pulley / F.I. LTH / GTSpec Ladder Brace / Setrab Oil Cooler / UpRev-tuned by Forged Perf.