lol glad to know im not the only one who leaned how to drive stick on the evo. it took me a month to really get used to it and it helped that theres a lot of uphill stops from where im from. lol. just remember to be either to quick on the clutch or gas and you wont satll

 

wish I could of been lucky enough to learn to drive stick in an Evo.
First two cars I drove stick in was a 91 Honda Accord and an 88 VW Jetta. First stick I owned though was 93 escort gt.

 

[Warning: this post may appear to one of those internet proclamations of how large the poster's package is. (And it probably is, but I'm not the right kind of psychologist to say for sure.)]

I learned to drive in a late-50s Saab 93. No synchros. The car was bought for exactly this purpose and reason.

 

My grandfather had a '39 International truck with 3 on the tree [I doubt almost anyone knows what I am talking about] and no synchros. Plus a steering wheel as big as Alaska. That along with that Saab Iowa was talking about teach you all about feeling the gears engage. I learned oneness at that time with the transmission. This was before anyone ever talked about Zen. LOL

 

Yea we should defiantly meet up one of these days. Since you say every Wednesday you guys meet at sonics I might go there sometime.

 

Hey, either I or my son Joshua, who also has an Evo X can help you out. Joshua is probably one of the best shifters I have ever ridden with when it comes to banging off the shifts. He had an amazing touch with the 6 speed in my 2007 Civic Si. If we don't meet at Sonic, I am sure we will meet up at the Mitsu Cookout.

 

The evo is also my first manual, and let me tell you it is defitely not the easiest car to learn on. I've been driving the car for three months, and I am still a nub. I've only had the chance to put about 1500 miles (mostly from commuting).

My biggest issue, like yours, is starting in first. My though since the beginning has been to not burn the clutch, which results in my giving little gas from a start. This causes me to be so slow from a stop.. To this day, I have still not gotten over my fear of giving too much gas.

I tried to blip the gas when I hit the engagement point, but for some reason I always manage to give it a little gas. It confuses me because I can correctly blip the gas when downshifting... Maybe it's my seating position, but it is very frusterating.

Another thing that tells me I am doing something wrong is whenever I am watching a video and I see someone pulling out or into theirr driveway. You always hear them blipping the throttle constantly, but their spead doesn't increase. I never do this, and really have no idea how they are doing it. Are they sitting at the engagement point while doing this?

Also, all of the write-ups/videos do a horrible job of explaining how to balance the clutch and gas. They all make it sound like immediately as you release the clutch, you should start giving gas, when you actually should start giving it gas around the engagement point.

I'm the kind of person that cannot stand being a nub at something, so learnig stick on the evo has become extremely frustrating.

 

The Evo is my first manual, too. I asked a friend for some tips with starting off in first before I got the car, and his suggestion was to keep the RPM around 1000 to get the car moving. Once you get it moving, you'll have to play around with how much you step on the throttle and how fast you release the clutch.

I'm no expert on the topic, but I think releasing the clutch as smooth as possible will help reduce the jerking.

 

@khmerguyx: I'm 5'2" in shoes & I sit pretty far forward to reach the pedals correctly, but I have the seat leaned fairly far back so I'm not on the steering wheel. At 10/2 position, my arms have a natural slight bend. At 12, almost totally straight.

As for the driving, I learned on an 85 Cavalier and some sort of 1980's big dually truck. Those were both easier to learn on than an Evo. They weren't as picky about getting things right. Like almost everyone else said, smoothness & practice are the key things.

@Kreeker: Going slow from first when you're starting isn't a bad thing. The whole action gets faster to get going faster, not just the gas, so learning to do it right is more important than learning to do it fast. Don't worry about trying to do it just like the guys on youtube. There's a certain amount of narcissism that needs to be there in order for someone to post their actions on there in the first place, so behaving like a tool & showing off are kinda natural on there.

Taking advice from people who drive other cars about some of the specifics ("push on the gas immediately", "push on the gas when the clutch is 1/3 of the way up") isn't really all that helpful, since different cars have different shift points. What works for them may not work for you.

 

Find the point where the clutch engages and you should be able to determine how much gas is needed. Most beginners tend to give it a lot of gas. In reality you really don't need much. Hope you figure it out fast and enjoy the X.

 

[UPDATE] I have gotten MUCH better with the Evo. I have driven a lot in the past 2-3 days and haven't come close to stalling the engine. I would say that about 5% of my starts now are jerky so I can see big improvement each time. My jerks from 1st to 2nd have also gone down as I'm becoming more and more comfortable/confident in this car each day. Its basically the same as I had to do with learning to drive my motorcycle. muscle memory and getting the feel for what gear you need to be in after taking a turn and there is a large speed change.
I want to thank everyone for all of their tips on how to start from a dead stop without stalling the engine. Now the only thing I need to get more confident is changing lanes. That blind spot on the Evo is a *****.

 

Uphill starts will be my next hurdle. Once I'm fine with that, I'll be a demon on the streets. There is an empty parking structure nearby where I think I'll go and practice. I live in Phoenix and we don't have too many areas where you would have to start on an incline (a few offramps on the highway) but I want to make sure that when I'm in that situation, I know what the hell I'm doing and don't get rattled and stall the engine OR take too long to get on the gas/clutch and roll back into some poor soul behind me.

 

So guys if you are going up a long hill from a stop, do you change gears while on the hill or just keep going on the same gear or do you start from 2nd gear?

 

Best advice, do the take away rule.

If ur 100% on clutch, then give it no gas. If ur 90% on clutch give it 10% gas, if ur 80% on clutch then give it 20% gas. If ur 70% on clutch 30% on gas so on and so forth.

Anyway, this % is not rpm so let's get that cleared. I don't want u to burn ur clutch coz ur thinking I'm talking about rpm. And I'm talking about 100% being 2500rpm. Clutch percentage is about pedal travel from floor to engagement point.

If u do that, u will have smooth start all the time.

My dad used to let me steer the car when I was 10, and I was driving by myself when I was 11-12 unassisted.

 

90% throttle with 10% clutch is insane.