Knowledge and physically doing something are two different things. I can read all I want about flying a plane but does that mean I will be able to fly a plane the first time I try? Probably not. Having some background knowledge helps but isn't a substitute for practice. Like everyone is saying here, go learn on another car first. This will prevent a good amount of abuse on your G when you do get it. Heck, even taking one session of manual tranny driving from a driving school will help tremendously.

 

Comparing that to learning how to fly a plane is definately not a good comparison. No matter what, knowledge always helps. But i understand what your saying though, your right. Its just that im only getting one car and thats it, a practice car would be my car a couple of years. All the cars my family has are automatics, so that definately doesnt help.

One thing i will try to do is take a session of manual tranny driving from a driving school, but i have NO idea if theres any around my area, in Socal (L.A area)

by the way...thanks to any person who gives me advise.

 

Bro, if you call up rent-a-wreck they have loaners that are stick shift for like 20 bucks a day.

 

I find it pretty funny, or sickening, that your first experience with a manual car is with one costing $35k. Didn't anybody learn how to drive a manual when they were 16yo on a 76 vw rabbit or other pos.

 

a really good way to learn your friction point and get some muscle memory in there is the following:

find a level area to practice on, like a parking lot. don't do this on SF hills or you'll end up needing a new rear bumper from rolling into the person behind you.

The main routine: Practice getting the car to move WITHOUT using the gas pedal. This will get you to learn the friction point of this car.

- Turn off all music.
- Depress clutch, put in 1st gear
- Slowly let go of the clutch and get the car to move.
- Once the car is moving fast enough, you should be able to let go of the clutch. Let go of the clutch slowly at first, though, so that you don't stall, and so you can get a feel for how slow/fast the car needs to move before it will stall.
- AGAIN, NO GAS PEDAL.
- If you think you are going to stall, feather the clutch a little (pressing it in) to get some load off the engine.

Caveat: Don't try to drive like this in traffic. People will get really pissed off.

After you are comfortable with this, you'll start to learn how to let go of the clutch really quickly right to the engagement point where the clutch is slipping, but not completely engaged. This is where you want to give it a little gas and let go of the clutch (SLOWLY) so that you can get the car to start rolling more quickly.

A good way to 'feel' for when to let go of the clutch is when the clutch is NOT slipping anymore, but the clutch pedal is not completely depressed. This means that your transmission and clutch are now spinning at roughly the same speed, even though the clutch isn't completely engaged. When you get to this point, you can let go of the clutch without causing the car to lurch forward (or worse, stall).

I usually let the clutch right out to the friction point, rev up between 800-1200rpm, slowly let go of the clutch to cause it to slip until I can feel that the clutch speed is sync'd with the transmission. Then I just drop my foot off the pedal quickly and off we go. Again, once the clutch/flywheel are spinning at around the same speeds, theres no reason to 'slowly' let go of the clutch. You can just let go.

If you downshift without rev-matching, be sure to do the same motion of getting to the friction point quickly and then slowly and smoothly letting the clutch out so that you can get everything sync'd up. When you get better, you'll do rev-matching. And in the G, it's really easy.. just depress clutch, blip the throttle, and let go of the clutch smoothly (and quickly). And when you get better than that, you'll heel-toe.

 

Agreed !!! Not a good idea to kill ur G clutch...better way to rent if there's!!!
Don't worry, Manual is easy !!! but it's hard to get good at it...

Kcc

 

I agree with this statement. Knowledge will prevent you from really doing anything disastrous to the car, but it is no substitute for practice. I gambled and relied on knowledge and patience and got away with it, however I would not recommend it if you can avoid doing so.

 

The guys are right. The G is a hard car to learn on. Then again, if it's your first clutch experience, you'll get good at driving a G. I've driven stick most of my life and it took me a while to get used to the G. (I learned on an Edsel with 3 on the column, that's how old I am) But the G is tricky. I had my clutch replaced last week and the new one felt so different, I had to be really cautious merging with traffic from a stop. You would really be wise to rent a car for a day or so to learn the basics of shifting. Once you learn, you'll be hooked. It puts so much fun into driving. It's hard to describe.

About starting on a hill. You will probably use the hand brake trick when you are a newbie and there is a car right on your ***. But once you become an experienced shifter, you'll be able to hop off the brake, rev the engine to the right speed, let out the clutch and go in less than half a second without using the hand brake.