A "Method" of Learning to Drive Stick in 5 Minutes

[Kirby]

My 16 yo daughter is learning to drive right now. She told me that she wanted to try a manual car sometime, which I currently don't own. As fate would have it, I wound up trading company cars today with the owner (Saab 9-3 Turbo for an Explorer - always a good trade!) for a few days. When I got home I took my daughter out to give it a try.

She picked it up in FIVE MINUTES! I was shocked! She has never driven anything with manual shift. I had taught my wife to drive stick years ago which almost ended in divorce! She finally got it after about 1 painful hour. So I was trying to come up with a method that would make it easy to learn step by step. Here's what we did on a big, flat parking lot:

1. 1 Minute - explain gearshift operation/shift pattern
2. 1 Minute - practice shift pattern with the clutch IN only
3. 1 Minute - practice Slooow Clutch engagement WITHOUT pressing gas, to teach smooth pedal operation and why the car stalls if you release too quickly. Goal - Get the car rolling at IDLE speed only and then come to a smooth stop.
4. 1 Minute - practice depressing accelerator slowly to get up to 2500 rpm and back to idle smoothly and evenly, sitting STILL in neutral.
5. 1 Minute - Do all of the above together. She stalled it once or twice and then was able to smoothly start and stop at will! Moving on to progressive upshifts was very easy.

Maybe this is no big deal, but I hear so many horror stories about people trying to learn manual shift. This really worked! Now she wants me to get her a car with manual shift, the old Volvo automatic is boring.

Does anyone else have any good tips (or funny stories) about learning manual shift?

 

[M_Six]

My Dad taught me to drive a stick. We had a '66 or '67 Dodge Dart with 3-on-the-tree. He wouldn't let me take it out by myself until I could hold it on a hill with just the clutch and gas pedal. He was always afraid I'd roll backwards into someone if I ever had to stop at a light or stop sign on a hill.

 

[gbf1lm]

My Dad taught me to drive a stick. We had a '66 or '67 Dodge Dart with 3-on-the-tree. He wouldn't let me take it out by myself until I could hold it on a hill with just the clutch and gas pedal. He was always afraid I'd roll backwards into someone if I ever had to stop at a light or stop sign on a hill.

same exact thing - my dad wouldnt let me untill i start ona steepass hill w/o handbrake, w/ minimal roll back. excpet on my not then but is now 325 also hold it there.

some people just have better coordination. u dont regularly use that foot to drive, u cant control it with the clutch right away u have to build up the control, som epeople naturally have it. it really doesnt have much to do with how good af a cltch driver they wil be, most ppl have to develop it. but if sum1 having a REAL hard time doing that, they could jsut not have that dexterity in them and be not to good of a driver.

this is my method, not how i was taught but how i would teach u think its right/good good way?

1. explain how clutch works, it will help their judgement.
2. practice moving through gears.
3. no gas. pull out clutch and get movin, use the clutch only to drive thorugh a parking lot, use the clutch to kil the car for a turn. come to bite/catch/friction point right away.
4. raise rpm to 1500, hold it pull out clutch as practiced in 3, gas in clutch out. at same time.
5. clutch out as gas in while starting and shifting.
6. hill practice.
7. real streets.

 

[Pink_Floyd]

My dad and I just took out an old Isuzu pickup we have to learn how to drive the stick. I was able to drive it right away with absolutely no problem. I attribute this to knowing exactly how a manual transmission works. Once you understand the workings of it you just know by common sense how to operate it. I did stall it on a hill once, but that was it. I think most of that is just getting to know the cars clutch and exactly where the moment of contact is, so you can hold it there and ride the clutch to keep it from rolling back words.

 

[gbf1lm]

exactly, if u know how it works u get better judgement on what teh car should do, tings ur teacher/father/motehr/uncle/firend/ cant tell u. like if u knew how it works u know what blipping the gas does, why u need to operate gas and clutch indpently and simeltaniously how you u should do it, that kind of judgment that teacher cant tell u bc they cant feel what teh driver feels. they cant tell u ok u shoulda brought the lutch out a bit more, and reved balh blah blah . . . bc they cant feel it but u can and knowing how it works helps ur judgement. i tried to tell that to a person i tried to teach and hes like blah blah blah boring . . . i couldnt even get him moving an inch, and u know what eh tells me: how u told me not to pres the gas yet. o well that was his first and final lesson

 

[epj3]

I just got in the bmw, and drove it home, taught myself.

 

[bignate]

Driving is the best practice

 

[bahnstormer]

wait kirb, u taught her to start from a stop at 2500 rpm?
wtf?! less than 1500 please

i mean when she's just starting out on a new unfamiliar car
yeah, it'll be a little higher, but i hope u don't always start
that way =]

congrats to your daughter!

 

[MrElussive]

bahnstormer, Kirby instructed her to rev progressively to 2,500rpm sitting STILL in neutral, so she gets the hang of modulating the throttle....not so she can enguage 1st at 2,500 rpm.

Kirby, that's amazing that she learned stick shift that quick. Personally, I learned how to operate manual transmission on a motorbike, and when I first got my Jetta (my first manual car), I drove the thing home. My father gave me some pointers on starting on hills, but the rest of my skillz were developed by yours truly. Stick shift is really just about driving....the more you practice, the better (smoother and faster) you get at it.

 

[andreyiv]

I don't even remember who and how taught me to drive a stick but the first car I drove (that was at about 10 years of age) was a stick. I remember I stalled at a really steep hill because I didn't go into second from third and the car didn't have enough power to get up the hill in third at that speed. Half a year ago I drove a stick again and had the most fun ever but it was only for a few hours and too bad I couldn't find the right bimmer with a stick. Manual tranny is so much better than an auto.

 

[frolf]

Driving is the best practice

and driving alone!!! first time i drove a stick was when i was about 12 in a 57' chevy pick up, i did'nt know what i was doing.

first time i ACTUALLY tried to drive a stick was in my buddies subaru 2.5RS, it was nerve rackig knowing it was HIS car. So later that night at a party or something he jsut gave me the keys and i got to go tool around (though i didn't have a license at the time) and i picked it up pretyt well. I dont' know why, but i couldn't learn under that kind of pressure. My dad intimidates me too. Driving alone when you know no one is going to laugh at you if you stall, is the best. cause you also know that no one is in the car to save your ass either.

 

[codex57]

I picked it up in 5 minutes when I was 12. You get a good teacher and an enthusiastic student, it can be done. If it's on an easy car (like a Honda), confidence builds very quickly and the principles sink in easier.

 

[mclarensmps]

yeah, i learned how to drive on stick, my main problem was that i'd let go the clutch too early and my foot was shaky on the gas so the car would start knocking (LOL) and then start jumping forward... stalling wasn't really the issue although i did stall a couple of times lol. its just a matter of practice! congrats on youre daughter learning stick real quick kirby bet we're gonna have another speed demon on the road soon lol!

 

[MrElussive]

I think stalling (although annoying), really does help you out....it teaches you what your car likes and doesn't like.
Also, each car is very different from another when it comes to manual transmission. For example, my Jetta 2.0 was so freaking easy to drive stick. The clutch was light, the accelerator wasn't that sensitive (so it made for easy modulation), and location of the pedals was just right. And the engine was very slow-revving and didn't have so much power, so it was pretty easy to drive smoothly.
But when I got my G35C, it was learning stick shift all over again. The accelerator is much more sensitive, the clutch is much stiffer, the engine revs much faster, and there is much more power to deal with. It took quite a bit of practice to get perfectly smooth with it again, but I've gotten to that point and I never forget...which is why I never let anybody drive my car, even if they know how to drive stick shift (which is VERY few people anyways).

 

[Ghost]

I learned with three on the tree in a 1963 Chevy Biscayne. Ironically one of my best friends taught me when I was 14 and he was 12. His father reupholstered professionally and one time when someone brought their car in for work he taught me. After learning with the stick being on the column, the cars the sticks on the console were so much easier to drive.

 

[Kirby]

bahnstormer, Kirby instructed her to rev progressively to 2,500rpm sitting STILL in neutral, so she gets the hang of modulating the throttle....not so she can enguage 1st at 2,500 rpm.

Kirby, that's amazing that she learned stick shift that quick. Personally, I learned how to operate manual transmission on a motorbike, and when I first got my Jetta (my first manual car), I drove the thing home. My father gave me some pointers on starting on hills, but the rest of my skillz were developed by yours truly. Stick shift is really just about driving....the more you practice, the better (smoother and faster) you get at it.

Yep, Mr. E is right. That 2500 RPM was just to focus on getting the feel of controlling an unloaded engine. I had her actually pulling out at around 1200 - 1500 RPM.

I also learned primarily on a motorcycle when I was 13. My first 4 wheel clutch experience was in a pickup truck when I was 15, working summers on job sites for my Dad's contracting company.