i just bought a 94 civic to learn on. so far i have had about 3hrs of practice. i don't stall in first anymore but i gotta work on my smoothness on the starts and in between gears. i guess also more practice choosing the correct gear. any tips to learn quicker?

 

it took me a few days of riding around to get the basics (i was stationed in orlando at the time...no hills ) a little longer to get the hang of starting on hills and all that.

 

About a week to get it just right... Once you get basic driving really good, head out at rush hour and practice in some traffic, and find some easy hills. It will be tough to endure traffic for the first time, but once you get it right, every time, theres no automatic in the world that can compare

 

About a week.

 

I bought a $50 1970 AMC Javelin to learn on... Took about a week to get the basics down...

I found a nice hill behind a mill to practice stopping and starting on a hill... This is the hardest part to learn about driving a manual IMHO. Once you get that down, it's just a matter of practice before you get proficient at it...

It probably takes weeks to really get smooth at it...

 

A few days, but I hate hills! What are you planning to buy once you get it down?

 

s2000 to complement my tsx at

 

For me, that's easy. The hardest part is downshifting properly and perfectly, and heel-toeing. I've been driving manual for a total of 6 years (had auto for 2 years or it woulda been 8) and I'm still learning those 2 things.

 

The basics I learned in about a day, but hills took a couple more days to get good at, but I learned on my cousins porsche. I lied and told him I knew how to drive stick just so I could drive it. Wasn't the easist car to learn on, but it made driving my prelude that I later bought much easier.

 

GM. It took me a few days/week to get the basics down, and took a little while to get really smooth. I found a nice hill to practice on, and it helped me get the feel of the car etc quickly.

 

I still get nervous on steep hills after 2 years when you have an ass sitting 2 inches from your bumper.

 

10 minutes. Of course I started with stick

 

Mabee a total of 5 or 6 days,
That is in the school of "Once you learn on a vw with 3 cylanders and worn out linkage on beach sand, everything else is easy"

 

See if this helps you out. Go to post #11.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...t=downshifting

 

3 hours of driving around in the city and you should get the hang of it.

 

I should add that now's the time tto learn good habits about operating a manual transmission. Avoid doing things like holding the car on a hill with the clutch or holding the clutch in at traffic lights or resting your foot on the pedal or riding the clutch or using the emergency brake when on a hill (this is a hard habit to break once learned).

Spend the time now and learn correctly.. it will pay dividends down the road.

 

a very long day. took my friends car and kept driving around the neighborhood until i felt comfortable. feeling comfortable in San Francisco...a little longer

 

I'M A SURVIVOR


well here is my story.


my Vauxhall Carton engine blew(engine oil was gone!) in the middle of Epping, north london. i didn't know what to do at the time, i was new to london. i sat in the middle of the road asking for a help and this chubby guy came up to me and helped me pushing my car to side of the road.

i was supposed to pick up my girlfriend within 3 hours(victoria station), so i asked him to take me to the nearest tube station, and i would pay 20 pound for it. so we were going to the nearest tube station(epping station) and while we were on our way, he asked me

"you need a car? i have one that i don't use anymore. it runs."

found out he was a used car salesman and a mechanic.
anyway, i said yes because i was gonna buy another beater anyway. he offered 250pound for his 1990 escort manual(doesn't look like the u.s escort).


i gave him 250 pound. he introduced the car, and i filled out the paper work, and the car was mine!! we shook hands, and i was about to ask him to teach me how to drive a stick for another 20pound, but then he left because he was supposed to be there somewhere. i never ever driven a stick, but i just went for it. it was just a 250 pound anyway.

and all hell broke loose. i just realized that i had to pick up my girlfriend, and i didn't have enough time to practice. i practiced for about 20 minutes in the empty parking lot, and i decided to drive it to the heart of london!

i was a 3 year old kid trying to learn how to ride a bycycle in the middle of busy city. i sweat like a pig, and car stopped at every roundabout.

i left to victoria station which is about 40-45 miles from where i was. it almost felt like a suicide. i had horns blowing at me every 3 seconds, and it stalled every 10 seconds.

it took me almost 3 hours to victoria(45miles!!), and lots of angry londoners. also, it was so strange to shift with my left hand.





but i survived, at last.

and it took me about a week for me to drive smoothly.

months later i got 3 mailed in tickets!!! i didn't even know there were cameras in london until that day. the ticket showed pics of my car, but didn't describe what i did wrong.

and oh by the way, if you see the grey escort in the 2nd floor of Gatwick airport parking lot(long-term), that's mine. i lefted it there. and i didn't pay the tickets and flew back to the u.s 6 months later.


i hope my beloved escort is still there.

 

Took me about 30 minutes to get used to shifting and then another week to refine my technique until I was driving comfortably. Then it was a couple of months of practice in order to get the more advanced techniques down.

 

I'm still trying to find someone to teach me stick. I know the basics, but I can't practice because I don't know anyone that has a manual. The first manual car I ever played with was an S2000 (car was off of course). The first car I ever stalled was a 2002 Mustang, I reversed out of the parking spot, and when I turned to go into first, I let the clutch off to fast, and it died =(

Will anyone in Los Angeles teach me stick? I'll pay for the gas, and it doesn't matter what car!

 

Just a few days for me. I actually learned how to drive stick drunk

 

You havent learned to drive a stick until youve driven it in stop n go traffic in SF on the hills....

 

<--- didn't drive stick till he bought his new car (had driven a few times, but never more then say 5 miles)

 

that would drive me nuts, I bought my car on a sunday night and got stuck in traffic on the way to work monday A.M. I wanted to shoot myself

 

bwhahahahah!!!

 

the only time i've bitched about driving stick in the 12K miles I have on it

 

Wait til you start upgrading and get a bitch of a clutch......fucking 3 puck race clutches are either on or off!!!

 

About an hour. Rode motorcycles alot as a kid, so I had the whole clutch & shifting of gears concept already down.

 

the reason why I wouldn't do that to myself

 

Took me a few days...I am definately regretting buying the 3Gen Auto...should have gone with the 6 speed!

 

It took me about 1 week to learn on an 87 Hyundai Excel that I purchased cheap for the purpose of learning stick. Within 6 months, I traded it for the MUCH faster 89 Dodge Colt GT Turbo.

 

I am still learning.

 

I learned stick when I was 14. My first car was stick so thats when I really practiced. Takes about as long to learn as it does to get good at a videogame (bout a week). It takes years until you can heel/toe perfectly. And of course, every car is different.

 

3 days to drive with 100% confidence on local/highway roads.

Couple weeks to drive "smoothely" without making the passengers puke.

Couple months to make it second nature (shifting without looking at the RPMs, knowing how much to rev to never roll back without over revving, etc)

Couple years to make the drive as natural as an automatic.

 

it is alot easier and faster to learn if you force yourself to learn (you only have 1 car and it is stick)

try to use handbrake if you get urself stuck uphill with cars behind you.

you will eventually get used to it and hills is no big deal.....

It took me about 6 month to get used to rev match and heel&toe... but work on the smoothness first then work on the little tricks...

 

 

^

 

 

took me a whole day on my moms old sunfire GT..

and probably a week to drive with confidence

 

For some reason I seemed to know how to do it immediately. Took awhile to get it really smooth though. I jumped right in my granddad's '84 S-10 and had it moving before my dad even had a chance to hop in and tell me what to do. I was 13. I think I already had it figured out because I used to watch everyone I rode with shift when I was a kid. I was infatuated with cars and grew up around the garage.