Driving manual....

[anfz]

Hey guys I know there where a few threads on this but nothing really helped answer my question, so I just wondering how many hours of driving manual did you have till you felt completely confident in every aspect ?
also when you guys change gears from say 4th to 3rd or 4th to 2nd why is it that i feel alot of engine compression happening sort of like it pulls ya back a bit, its not a smooth change over if you know what i mean ? How do i minimize that ? thanks for help

[Q_ball]

How many hours till confident:
Cant really answer that, every single person is different. For me to tell u that i felt comfortable after x amount of hrs would jst lead you to believe that you would feel the same too.
Do whats recommended of you prior to goin for your P's - in NSW, its 50hrs of driving. Double check with the Victorian equivalent of the RTA.

Shifting down:
When you shift down a gear, in particular two gears, you feel a lot of "compression" (as you put it), as this is the engine brake. Gearing down assists in the cars braking process. (NB: There are other reasons why you would gear down, but considering this is regarding a new driver, we wont go into those details...jst focus on gear down as a form of braking).
Id recommend people use the engine brake more when trying to slow down, rather than jst popping the car in neutral as it not only helps slow the car down, but allows you to maintain full control of it, but it also takes a portion of the stress away from your brakes as well.
To minimise the jerking sensation when gearing down, try to avoid releasing the clutch too early. Keep the clutch 1/2 engaged, ride it a bit until u feel that gear start to bite, then slowly release the clutch.
This should help u smooth out your driving.

[CRXer]

Just stick at it,dont doubt yourself,it will all just come to you one day.
It would also help if u understand whats going on at your clutch plate at the time,so read something simple like this,

How clutches work

it all made sense to me when my dad explained how it works & i then knew what i was trying to achieve.

It also helps to have a car with a tacho installed to see whats going on.

But in short when u take the foot of the throttle the engine drops near idling revs,say 1000rpm, & the clutch is still doing say maybe 4000rpm so your trying to make the two meet with too much difference in momentum.

To fix this difference in momentum,2 things can be done at this basic stage,either wait until the speed of the car has dropped more b4 engaging the clutch,and dont jump off the clutch too fast until u get the hang of it, thus matching the engine speed more or 2,bring up the engine speed with the throttle to match the car speed b4 engaging.

Go & practice this with no traffic or other around & you'll have it no time,but remember b4 doing this constantly,when braking in a straight line with no great urgency,using the clutch all the time to help slow u down is gonna wear it out faster & brake pads are a lot cheaper & easier to replace then a clutch!

Once you master all this its time to move on to heel toein where you blip the throttle with the same foot as the one used for braking,ie both pedals pressed with the right foot while the left handles clutch duties.Dont learn this in traffic i've seen some nasty results.

[Q_ball]

I think it should also be stressed that cruising in neutral, or engagin the clutch during a turn can be dangerous.
I'd strongly recommend that you DONT learn and get into the bad habit of slowing down by poppin it into neutral and jst gliding to a stop.
Bad habits are VERY hard to stamp out.
Always have your car in gear is my recommendation.

[marte]

yeah always have it in gear. you can break in emergenccies when required.
only time i have it in neautral is slowing down from gear one, cause less then 20kms isnt so bad.

[CRXer]

Will have to remember who to listen to when getting advice on clutch mileage..........

[dsp26]

i bought my first car.. a turbo GT starlet with precious money i had saved up... i learned how to drive it with the owner for 3hrs that night...

it is not really about learning to drive it straight out... THINK ABOUT how a MANUAL car works from engine to transmission to wheels....

WARNING!!! the above mentality only works for some people, it is like buying a $1000 electric guitar while really only knowning the basics of an acoustic... you realise you spent the money and hence are forced to want to learn

[aaronng]

I learnt to drive in a manual and then drove autos for 7 years. When I got back into a manual, it took about 1 week to get completely comfortable and an additional month to smoothen out all the bad habits.

You feel the compression because you did not blip the throttle to rev match when you released the clutch. So what is happening is that you are slipping the clutch until the speed of the engine matches the speed of the transmission. It is bad. Next time when you down shift, you try giving the accelerator a little blip before you release the clutch. If you do it right, you won't feel any compression at all.

[CRXer]

WARNING!!! the above mentality only works for some people, it is like buying a $1000 electric guitar while really only knowning the basics of an acoustic... you realise you spent the money and hence are forced to want to learn

.......???..what does this even mean b4 u explain anything else............

[tRipitaka]

Do whats recommended of you prior to goin for your P's - in NSW, its 50hrs of driving. Double check with the Victorian equivalent of the RTA.

VIC = 120 hours

[sassy_fit_vtit]

take it easy, i found that i knew how to drive properly in manual BUT the only thing that stoped me from doing the right thing was that i was soo caught up about doing the wrong thing that i made myself stress over nothing, take a breather and do things in your own times, some people pick things up quicker then others.

[dsp26]

.......???..what does this even mean b4 u explain anything else............

lol its just an anlogy of my first paragraph. i bought a turbo manual without any real experience... but because i had already bought it gfor a significant amount of cash it gave me that extra push to learn manual properly.

but as you said earlier, actually understanding how a manual works is the key. most manual driving instructors have the step by step diagrams on paper for you to read through on your first lesson...

as for instructors theres no point learning manual straight up... i tried and failed miserably. you have to focus on car control as well as clutch + pedals and it gets a bit too much for an absolute beginner. got my auto license and drove auto for 6 moths while i thought about how manual works... day came to buy the car and all went sweet.

You know when you mastered it when your sweet on taking off from a stop start on up hills as well as reverse parallel parking while up/downhill....