manual driving tips?
 

so this is my first manual transmission car. i undestand how the im supposed to drive it and everything but at 340miles im still not as good as i would like to be. does anyone have any tips or a wedsite or something that might help me out or is this just going to take more time? im always afraid im going to hurt the clutch and need a new one way sooner than i should. thanks
mat

Practice......no website can give you experiance.

Start with www.standardshift.com. The no gas exercise sounds stupid but is very helpful in learning the clutch engagement point.

You didn't pick a very good car to learn on.. Clutches aren't cheap and labor isnt either :(

You might try doing a google search:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...ansmission+car

you know the best thing to do, if this is your first manual car, before even driving, you need to do some muscle memory training.

I used this technique when I first started to drive the manual a long time ago.

What you do is stay in your car, and the car's turned off.

Sit down like how you would sit down normally when you drive, and go through the gears with your foot doing the thing they do.

You would just do the clutch in gears changed, clutch out, throttle in, over and over again.

And try to do it without paying too much attention to it.

Do this over and over and over and over.

Then go out and drive around. You'll see that your body's memorizing the repeated action and it'll be a lot easier, since you wont have to pay attention to it that much or it'll go through the motions that you were repeating.

I hope that helps. :)

for me, learning where the clutch engagement point was the most important as a beginner

practice moving the car and stopping it using only the clutch. then when you're starting out, i think it's easier to get on the gas a little before letting the clutch engage. so clutch in, rev to like 2000, slowly let out the clutch till you start moving, then let it out fully and get on the gas. then after a while, you'll get a better feel for the balance between clutch and throttle.

Clutches can be a bit expensive to change but it is better if you wear that our than the rest of the drivetrain. What I mean is, if you are having trouble just be a little bit harder on the clutch to get you out of trouble and don't worry about it. I think the thing that really kills them is hard launches, especially with lots of clutch slip. Once you get a bit better see if you can start with only a little of bit of throttle (just above idle) and then feed on more as you start to move, instead of a lot right at the start. That is only when you can already start ok though, get the basics first.

I don't think a Lancer Evolution is a bad car to start with. It weighs a bit which can make it harder to get moving, especially on hill starts, and the AWD system doesn't help that either but I really don't think it is any harder than other cars I have driven (this is with an Evolution VI and Galant VR-4, I haven't actually driven an Evolution VIII).

Aston

Don't stall :D If you want to learn just get out there and practice.

learning should only take about 3-4 times in the car. I just learned a couple months ago, i roasted the tires a few times on accident and stalled twice but after like 4 times out in the car i was shifting like great.

Actually I learned to drive on a RSX manual somewhat and when I went to my Evo, it was a lot different. You have to slip the clutch a lot more to get an Evo going. I was probably one of the few people that actually stalled their Evo's driving it off the dealer lot. Lol.

i stalled it out of the lot too. so embarrassing...

thanks for the tips. well luckily i didnt stall leaving the dealership but i have stalled a couple times. i guess slipping the clutch seems to be pretty common. meanwhile the more i drive the better it has gotten so i guess all it takes is practice. thanks again for the tips
mat

Hey don't feel bad.. I almost stalled mine a few times pulling out of the dealer lot.. I think I was more nervous and excited more than anything.

I learned first on my buddy's 97 Civic EX. Did terrible. Peeled out, buckled the car, and killed it, all in a timespan of about 10 seconds. I got a bit better with his car later, but still had engagement issues. Later on, I practiced some more on my buddy's 05 Eclipse 5MT V6. Muuuch better. Still need more practice though. Learning to engage 1st smoothly was definitely the biggest challenge though. Slippity slip slip... at least that's how I did it until I could get a better feel for the engagement.