practice practice practice! and try not to ride the clutch because your going to smoke it and that won't be good. :driving:

Also make sure to press clutch all the way between shifts. I too am learning to drive manual on my Z, my first ever manual car. After a week of driving it, about 300 km or so, I'm now much better and smoother. I still stall occasionally, but not that often any more, and my gearshifts are relatively smooth. So far I still have the SRM on. I'll experiment with advanced techniques like hill start, rev matching, heel and toe in a few months after I master the basics.

Also, familiarize yourself with the point at which the clutch begins to grab. Because that is the point at which you will modulating clutch and gas to start the car moving. Basically, there are 2 ways to do it. First is to keep your right foot on the brake, and very very slowly lift off the clutch while keeping your eye on the tach. the moment you notice a small dip in engine rpm is the moment at which the clutch is starting to make contact with the flywheel. the other method is to keep the car on a perfectly flat horizontal surface. Do not touch either brake or gas. Very very slowly release the clutch. The point at which the car begins to creep forward is the point at which the clutch started to grab.

Everyone has posted some great advice here. Keep practicing and you'll pick it up no problem.

For me, I learned quickly but I grew up watching my mom drive a stick. Then I got into bikes and it was all manual there too. When I learned in a car it took me 1 hour to have hills completely covered. I'll never drive a auto if I have any say in it, manual FTMFW!

Plus, its surprising how many people can't do it anymore. Its nearly a lost art.

i learned one night cuz i had to drive my friend home he was heavily drunk n owned a civic 5 speed.. i was sober n he was.. lets just say not. haha. and i taught myself pretty much from watching him all the time.

For Fu*ks sake be careful.

Your car is a powerful rear-wheel-drive sports car - and can hurt you bad if you lose control - probably financially, but maybe physically too.

Currently you seem to be doing the right things, but DON'T GET OVER-CONFIDENT.

Like a pit bull, she will bite you if you don't control her at all times.

On the other hand, control her and she's a beauty.


Edit - Why would anyone laugh at your sincerity, unless they were a jerk?

Edit 2 - I am amazed at how many americans use auto - here in England most cars are manual. Auto drivers are missing out on so much fun.

^^ statistically, around 20% of the Americans drive a manual, but over 70% of the Europeans drive a manual.

might even be a worse gap because those stats were from like 8 years ago.

I told a female co-worker that I was planning on getting a 370Z and that I was taking stick shift classes and she laughed. She's originally from Nigeria and she said that back there, everyone drives a manual.

I guess for some reason or another, automatics have taken a hold here in the U.S.

Must have something to do with all of the fast food drive-in's in this country.

Can't enjoy corn on the cob with a manual!

Martin

Weird, isn't it.

I can't see a reason for it - so the corn on the cob theory may just be true.

thanks for all the advice today i did much better i drove around the streets dint stall intul i got home =( but im getting better.what do you guys ride the clutch? like hold it in to much?

The best way to learn in my opinion is to find a nice level parking lot and get good at starting without touching the throttle. With practice you will be smooth and relatively quick at taking off without giving the car any gas. When you get comfortable with that start adding throttle for a quicker takeoff.

Make sure that when you clutch you push it all the way to the floor and when you're not pushing it your foot isn't on it. :) At a stoplight for example you want to keep the clutch all the way on the floor until you are taking off. Better yet, take the car out of gear and keep that foot on the brake.

Hills will now become a nightmare and so will traffic.
Welcome to the manual world! :tup:

i learned manual on the 370z in march and its very forgiving.

With Reverse, you dont fully let go of the clutch. You have to keep your foot on the clutch and play with the gas, if you let Reverse get into gear by letting go of the clutch, you will move like a bat out of hell.

for like 4 solid days i struggled, and was getting buyers remorse becuase i could not get past the struggle of starting from zero to first smoothly. Then i went to a flat surface and tested letting out the clutch with no gas. Thats right, if you let it with out any gas, it lets you feel where it stalls at, once you know where it stalls at, you know when to get gas.

You also can feel when it starts to move on a flat surface, thats a indicator of when you need gas too.

That little trick helped me out greatly. YOu need to stall it a few times to get a good feel of the sweet spot.

After i did that, i drove around for 2 hours each night around town, stoping, hills, all like 2am when nobody is out.

Some hills give me a little trouble becuase i still have not mastered a 100% smooth acceleration on a steep hill with out the e brake.

:pics:

Whenever I teach someone to drive a manual, I always tell them the most important thing to remember is...

Gas before clutch.

Never let your foot out on the clutch unless you are giving the engine some gas, otherwise you will stall and freak out because the car just shook like a crazed animal before dying.

I also have them rev the engine pretty high to get them used to the engine noise because I have noticed a lot of people tend to freak out when the engine spools up but the car isn't moving.

So to sum up, gas before clutch and don't go crazy when the engine gets loud. :p

thanks:ugh2: