When I get the chance I won't to go and drive a manual but I need to clear up a few things first.
1) If I was in 4th gear, slammed on the brakes for some reason. Can I switch straight back to 1st?
2) If I was in 4th gear, put on the brakes at a give way sign. Can I hold in the clutch and go 3rd ,2nd ,1st without lifting the clutch?
3) Reversing must been a pain in the ares. Is there a way of making it easy without stalling it?

Cheers

 

Well I am a very crap driver but I will try and give you some hints. You should probably wait until some other people respond to tell me I am wrong though.

1) yes it is possible to go from any gear to any other gear (1st - 5th, 5th - 1st) but it would be better to go back through some gears to get some engine braking (to help slow you down). Also you would have to be travelling slowly when you changed and heel and toe and/or letting the clutch out VERY slowly will help to stop it being jerky. Just remember 1st only goes to 40-60km/h in most cars.
2) yes. But why? If you don't want to use the gears to slow you (you need the clutch out for that) just go straight to the gear you want. Most instructors don't like you to coast though (meaning clutch in the whole time you slow down).
3) slip the clutch heaps, meaning let the clutch pedal about half way out until the car just starts moving and then hold it there. You might also need some accelerator. Be warned, this is not good for your clutch. Or you could try letting the pedal all/some of the way out then pushing it in again and continue this. It is better for you clutch but probably not as easy.

 

Don't forget the magical Synchromesh gearing that makes most cars incapable of going down to 1st without being at an appreciably low speed. Dropping to 1st gear at say 150 kph would destroy your car.

 

you can only go into first below 20mph.

Link

 

right but we're talking the land of Oz not the US here

 

manual is fun

 

Experience is the best teacher. No questions about it.

If your really willing to learn stick shift, it will come to u naturally. As u stall all over the city it will eventually become second nature. Don't worry if u **** up during the first few days, EVERYBODY goes through that. I learnt to drive stick at a young age, but it still took me 3 days to get back into that "groove".

And maybe its just me, but i never ever go into first for any reason. When i get to a red light, stop sign, i usually finish off in 2nd then go to neutral. 1st gear to initially accelerate the car and thats it.

One more thing, do not hold on to the clutch too long when waiting to drive off after a long street light, thats what messes beginners up, cuz u get scared if u let go too fast, it will stall. If u let go too slow, u will get in the way of traffic behind u...and then stall quite the **** off. Try to....give A BIT of gas THEN start to release the clutch, when u feel the car moving a bit, gradually do the rest of the process.

 

yep hes right about experience, when i got my car i stalled it so many times the first couple days but after that you get used to it. when i first started driving a stick my main problem was not pushing the gas pedal in far enough before releasing the clutch, make sure you have it revved up a lil before you started taking the clutch out.

 

When I learned to drive a stick during my driver's training the only thing the instructor let us do for the first hour was play with the clutch. We had to push it in, turn on the car, and slowly let it out until we could feel when the clutch engaged. Then we had to let it out, slowly, until the car died.
I still do this at least a little when I haven't driven manual in a while (not a problem in Artemis- 5M OZ) and it really helps on hills or when you want a quick launch.
However, this does put some wear on the hydraulic parts of the clutch and can do some damage to the plates if you try to launch too fast. It's not advisable to, say, keep your foot on the clutch with the car in 1st at a light and then release when the light turns green. You'd want to shift to N and let your foot off of the clutch. You'll eventually get to the point where you're coming to a red light and you're just popping the shifter from 5 or 4 or 3 in to N and not even using the clutch. As low rev driving (neighborhoods and such) I don't even use the clutch in 3-4-5 shifting.
As for driving in R, it's no harder than 1- they're the same gear, reversed. R sounds funny but you'll notice that you're moving about at fast as you would if you were going forward.

Good luck and see if you can't find a friend who has a car with an older, more broken-in clutch, or,even better, one that they're thinking about having reapired anyway.

 

Here's my .02 on the subject,

NEVER use 1st to slow down. Thats what 2nd and 3rd are for. 4th can help slow you down at high speeds other wise just skip it and go into 3rd then 2nd.

Don't keep you foo on that clutch long, you don't want to be buying clutches every year or maybe sooner.

Remember holding in the clutch all the way
won't cause damage just don't do it all the time use your gears.

Guess thats my .02

 

here's my rules for downshifting:

NEVER downshift into first unless ur doing under 5 MPH.

Only downshift when ur RPMs are under 3500

When ur RPM's are under 2000, u can downshift to gears (like right from 5th to 3rd)

 

i think the best way is stomping on the gas and dumping the clutch

 

sorry, found that funny

 

i taught my gf how to drive stick she can drive pritty good now, and my neck feels alot better

 

So I can safley change from 5th to 1st without stuffing up my gearbox?