please dont laugh...i have a question..pics are up!
 

For those of you who drive manual how long did it take you to become good driving it? because i got the nismo 370z and today was a full day of manual driving and im used to auto.. i did good stalled couple times since i barely droven manual...any tips? today was a actually a whole day i drove manual...got kinda stressed out reversing..thanks for the advice...im 18 by the way

A week maybe? Not much you can do, I would just go to a big open parking lot, so when you stall you don't cause an accident

yea i been going to empty lots..pps are lik wow a nismo 370z...and such a crappy driver....:shakes head:

yeah, go to an empty area. no need to mention ur age, has nothing to do with it. just practice!

Not much you can do mate. I remember feeling similar, but most people can't even drive stick anymore, so dont sweat it.

yea my dad is going to take me to a empty place for 1 or 2 hours to practice first gear good...so only time will tell how long it would take me to get it

When I first learned, my grandfather took me around our neighborhood and had me stop at the top of a hill. I was like......are you serious? I'm gonna stall it! He said yep, and then we're gonna start it back up and keep doing it until you get it.

He was right.....I got it! And everytime we drove around the neighborhood and we got to that hill.....we'd stop and I'd have to learn how to release the clutch and give it gas. I guess what I'm saying is.....find a nice, safe hill and you'll get the hang of the clutch and gas pretty soon.

Now that I read what I wrote, I guess I should preface it with...if your neighborhood has something like this. Just a thought, tho.....hope it helps!

ok thanks frost...+1:tup: ima just take my time with it..

I remember what helped me was just watching the RPMs and doing whatever I could to keep it between 2 and 3K when starting in first.

all right thats where my friend took me... on a hill and pretend there is a car in the back and n the front and i cant hit the car in the front ...i peeled out put to much gas...aaa ima get it just some time today was my first day officially with manual..so i guess it was a beginning

yea that what i do...after i drove for to long i started getting tired and got out of the zone...at first i was doing good..after a while i sstarted stalling then getting irratated....i just gota keep my cool...

Yeah, thats understandable. Its a fine line between where those rpm's start to go down and ya give it gas....give it a bit too much and pop that clutch and "SCREEECH*!!! off ya go! :p

One thing that I remember from learning long ago was that shifting quickly is NOT part of driving a manual at first. I remember thinking that doing it 'right' meant quick shifts between gears. It just complicated matters.

Practice your starts from a stop in a parking lot. I like the tip of watching the revs and modulating the gas pedal while you release the clutch, keeping it at about 1500 rpm.

For shifting, go SLOW at first. There is no need to shift quickly...it will just complicate things for you at first. So, get rolling in first gear. Then depress the clutch, let off the throttle, slowly shift to second, and slowly release the clutch and depress the throttle. It's like learning any other muscle memory task. If you can nail the technique slowly, you can speed it up as you learn it.

The first day I bought my manual car I must of stalled it like 30 times, but you just got to practice a lot. The next day I drove and I stalled only a couple times, but I needed to get the smooth shifting down. A week later I was perfect

the only thing you need to learn is going from a stop, to 1st gear. Do that over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

did i mention over again and again?

the rest of the gears are easy and will come to you with experience, just learn to get the car moving in 1st gear and dont sweat the rest.

make sure you reach the pedals easily and your seat are close enough so you can gain more control from it.

i learned on the z too. when i brought it home i drove it for 3 days 4 hours each day. 2 in the morning and 2 in the after noon. after the 3rd day i got the hang of it but it takes you about a month to really get use to it. its been like 3 months now and i can heal to toe and rev match and all the little tricks lol. just take it very slow and stay away from hills for at least 2 weeks. plan out your route before taking it. also try to learn the handbrake method for hills. one more thing you wont hurt the car much if you stall it at lower rpms but dont rev it high until you can actually drive it and shift normaly. leave the syncro rev on for a whole month or two. think of it as your best friend because its going to help you out a LOTTTTTTTT


practice first gear the most because after you have mastered that its going to be very easy to learn the rest. put it in first take off then go in neutral, STOP and then take off again.

also if i may add to all the great advice given by everyone, when i first started my friend kept telling to keep my left heal on the floor, so it would be easier to control the clutch as your releasing it.

Congrats on ur car and good luck, it shouldn't take long.

A couple days. Didn't take long @ all..

A big parkign lot and 1 week to get the hang of it. Thats how I learned.

took me 5 mins. when i was 12 my dad asked me to reverse his car out of the garage. i said i didnt know how to drive stick, so he said "learn!". got in the car, put it in reverse and stalled. then...i got SLAPPPPPPPPPPED! (brown parents). I have only stalled three times since then. anyways juan, answer ur fone homo. im washing the car in 20 mins, so if u want swing by the house. ill come by and make sure ur doing it all right. dont go to city place in it yet...those damn parking garages will kill u! ill teach u that too haha

Like others said, a parking lot is your friend. Also, it really helped me to understand why I was doing what I was doing. Great info here of how clutches work: HowStuffWorks "How Clutches Work"

Took me a couple of hours to feel comfy. The best thing I can tell you is if you freak out, or just start to feel nervouse, put the clutch to the floor, then press the brake. Take a deep breath and try again. No biggie.

Took me about 4 hours. I learned in 1986 in an old Nissan pickup in the middle of winter on the day after a good 3" to 4" snow. The roads were plowed but matted with the snow and ice. I went to a parking lot and drove it for about an hour. I then took to the streets and drove all over the city and highways for 3 hours. The only frustratng moment I stalled it was at a red light on a steep hill sitting on top the matted ice and snow. That one moment in time took me about a half-dozen stalls to get the feel of feeathering the clutch. That was probably my defining moment because once I did the correct feathering to get going on that hill the light bulb went on. It was a piece of cake afte that.

Honestly after growing up next to my dad driving a manual, I got use to it so when it was my turn I stalled 3 times and I had it. It was pretty simple for me just remember give a little take a little. Oh and if you are not good at it yet and you are stopped on a hill, pull the parking brake up start giving it gas and clutch off and slowly let the parking brake off and when your rolling take it all the way off.

Funny thing about me is I never operated a manual transmission car, however I'm am avid sportbike rider. I remember giving slightly more gas than needed going from a stop to avoid stalling at first in my beginning days. :D

yea i just drove the nismo like one hour from 1st to neutral..over and over intul i eventually getting the hang of it..

yea that what i did..thank you a lot from the advice of everyone...today i stalled only 3 times...yestarday i lost count lol:ugh2:

jajaa u got slapped lmao...:icon18: yea well u can come over but i think is going to rain...anyways just call me .. you can come over now..bring the GTR so we take pics today since couldent yestarday!!:tup:

I taught myself when I got my 2003 Celica, I listened to whateveryone had to say and concentrated. I drove on public roads that weren't that busy so in case I killed it I wouldnt panic.

I started with small hills and would floor it burning my clutch, and I relaxed and then it started coming naturally.

It took about 3 weeks for me to get manual down.

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.