like in my other post i said i am converting my trans am over to a t-5. is it hard to learn to drive a manual car? i catch on to stuff pretty quick so i'm not too worried but i don't wanna kill my tranny or anything. and plus i always got my 87 camaro for when i don't feel like shifting. l any tips would be greatly appreciated. thanks
chris

 

I didn't learn in a Firebird but for me, yes it was kinda difficult at first (yes I burned a clutch). And it is more uncomfortable driving a manual in a bird than it is on say a small compact car because of the bird's size and how low it sits. I think the toughest part for someone just learning will be releasing the clutch without jerking or stalling the car.

If you can learn in another, smaller car, that would be better.

 

It depends on the person. Back in the day when I learned stick (on a 68' XKE) I did'nt stall and withing a few days I was heal and toe driving (w/ no instructions), but that's me. One of my friends' first cars was a 5.0 and he still goes WAY back when starting up a hill and he's had that 5.0 for like a year now. It seems some people are born good at it, and some arnt. Try if your really worried learn to drive it in a big parking lot.

 

There was post a few months ago which went into in some detail.

 

hehe, i learned on a 78 z28 4spd. not the best car to learn on. cable clutch, loooong throws with the shifter, it was fun as hell though.......

 

If you want to learn, learn on an old pickup with the low range first gear. You can basically just let go of the clutch. That's what I did. Then my friend put on some bigger tires, I now had to press on the gas a bit. Then I bought my bird. I have 3.08's in the back. I used to press on the gas and slowly let go, but it was wearing on the clutch. Now I tap the gas and let go as I release the pedal. As soon as I'm starting to roll I let go of the clutch, and press on the gas. It doesn't jerk, and I'm not riding the clutch.

 

learn on the hardest thing that you can find. so when u get in ur car it won't be as hard. i learned in a 89 ford 7000 series at work, u wanna talk about clutch release, gotta be a damn good driver to get her to move in high range. but anyway, learn how a clutch works and you'll understand who to use it better.

 

buy a 4 speed chevette for 200 bucks.. thats what i did. about a year later when i was able to drive, i took it to a field, set it on fire and pushed it off a cliff.. man that was funny.

 

hahhahaah! heres my quick experience driving manual cars. Im still not good at driving manuals but Im decent at it. When I bought my Firebird with a manual it sat in the garage for about 4 months while I "made it road worthy." In the mean time I learned stick on my cousins VW Rabbit. Ive driven a sorts of stick cars since I work at a garage and I hate to say it but I think that VW's have the smoothest shifts and the easiest clutches to depress. Just my $.02 Later..

 

get a job at a car wash. practice on other peoples cars.

 

that's how i don't get rusty while my trans am is down for the winter. it's the only good thing about changing tires at NTB

 

park your car on a steep hill with a brand new $60,000 mercedes about a foot behind it........you'll learn REAL quick

 

I was fortunate I learned to drive on a standard....

had my learners, parents had a standard car.... I was living at school 3 hours from home, my dad would drive home, I'd drive back... and he'd read or sleep while I drove back...

Took awhile to get good at hills.... now I've driven pretty much everything, including trucks where you have to double clutch, and with a hi/low diff

 

i hate when im stopped at a red light and its a steep incline.. i always squak the tires.. chevvette or camaro.. if im in the camaro i just pretend that i did it on purpose and ill actually make it a good patch.

 

One thing you may want to consider when going with the 5-speed... I bought an '89 RS convertible 305TBI 5 spd about two years ago. I love driving the car but I was worried about leaving the top down. I had a crimestopper FM 2-way pager alarm system installed. After reading the owners manual I found out that I could easily hook up a remote start with the system... I think you know where I'm going with this. I was always careful about leaving the car out of gear. One night while grabbing my guitars out of the front seat I accidentally knocked the car into gear. The next morning I started my car before leaving for work. I heard a really strange noise and my heart fell to the floor. I turned to look at my front door and...SMASH!! Here comes my car through the front door of my condo. (Good thing I parked in front of my own door the night before) My point is, if you're considering an alarm system and want to do a remote start, you may want to weigh that with the 5 speed idea. Otherwise, I say the 5-speed is so much more fun to drive. I'm glad I held out until I found a convertible with the stick. Good luck.

 

who said anything about an alarm /remote start?

 

I wrote "If you're considering..."

 

oh ok

 

I'm "considering" swapping my 5-speed for an automatic because I like the remote start and can't afford to remodel my condo and restore my ragtop AGAIN. (about $3,000 all together)

 

Learned on a 97 Z28, my dad's company car. Not hard at all for me, much more fun IMO too.

 

i learned stick on a brand new ford F250 diesel. had a though time with that truck. it just didn't want to move. then i found out that i was trying to start off in third gear. when i got my car i was still a little rusty at driving stick. when i first drove it, it was so much easier that the truck. on my car, you can let the clutch out slowly without stepping on the gas and it will start to go. good luck

 

Learning to drive stick takes less then five minutes with someone helping you. First, find someone who drives stick. Have them take you around for 10 minutes or so, to get an understanding. Then, you get in the drivers seat and remember everything he taught you.

If you don't have anyone to teach you, my suggestion would be to first look at an encyclopedia, and get an understanding from that. Look under "Manual Transmission" or something like that. When first taking off, get the car to about 1500 rpms with the clutch in of course, and the car in first gear(Almost all trannys have first gear farthest to the left and up including a T-5)Then slowly let the clutch in, not letting the rpms get below 1000. That would be the easiest way I know to first try.

If you don't have an encyclopedia, then I can scan and send you the pages.

I was first taught on the 02 Trans Am. Then I drove my dads 71 4 speed with a Ram clutch. Man that thing holds.

 

I taught myself how to drive a stick in a day using what is right now my temporary vehicle. To me driving a manual wasn't hard at all to learn. The only bumps I got was taking off from a stop. I drove 3 hours that day and by the end I was able to drive a manual without overheating the clutch. But of course this is just my case, others may vary

 

Get in a big parking lot and go nuts
No slow crap Just remember how the drive line works and you will be fine
If you put the trans in yourself have a mechanically inclined stick shift driver help you out and tell you how exactly the process goes about

 

I learned on the big rigs, let the clutch out in low gear and shift without it. (Don't try this at home, you'll end up frying your synchronizers)

Stick isn't hard, you just have to move the correct appendage at the proper time. If you can pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time, you should catch oon without a problem.

 

Learnign how to drive stick is easy

getting good at it takes a looooot of practice....

and... I wouldn't put a remote start on a standard...

 

yup, thats illegal in NJ.

 

to learn a stick. I just stayed in the driveway going foward and backing up intill I got the hang of it. then I went out on the street. it's really easy to get the hang of. good luck!

 

I learned to drive a stick on gravel in a 1963 sunbeam alpine with no sycros on first gear and trust me it is not that hard just take some time learning how to take off and stop once you get that down learning to shift is not a problem.

 

a kid i go to school with put it on his jetta, and went to start it one morning, after getting home drunk from a party. he didn't know the person who drove his car home left the car in gear and didn't put the ebrake on, so it smashed into his garage door.

 

i learned to drive a manual mostly on an 81 vw rabbit then my dad let me drive a 2k1 trans am ram air with a hurst (he works at a pontiac dealer).....wow is all i can say. it takes a bit to learn to drive one, its just a matter of learning when the rpms are high enough to get into 1st from a stop, all the other gears are relatively easy. and i wouldnt reccomend starting from a stop on a hill until you have gotten better.

 

i learned by myself and i recently went and test drove a 88 camaro rs with a 5 speed and a 305 the car drove really sweet and the clutch was easy fro me , even though it was my 3rd time driving stick but one thing i noticed was that my foot kept hitting the bottom of the dash, i thought it was very weird, maybe the guy messed with his pedals or somethin

 

or... maybe you have big ****ing feet?

 

My advice would be to try to think of what is actually happening mechanically when you drive the stick. I really don't think there is any need to buy a junker to learn on. I learned on my car when I bought it. Just go out to a country road with a friend who knows how to drive standard, get in the drivers seat, and give her!

 

if all else fails, hold the gas down witht he clutch in, then drop the clutch.. thatll get ya goin.. may stink though.

 

i wear size 13 shoes. thats not that big, or maybe it is

 

When i got my camaro with a t5 i didnt take me but a day or two, and im 16 years old. I have a 6 speed yamaha quad, so i already had the idea, it was just changing from using the clutch with my hand to using it with my foot, but yea, it helps if you actually know what is going on mechanically when driving a manual transmission.

 

i learned on my 1990 celica, just remember, give gas/let off clutch, its a little harder on hills, but you'll get it eventually. Same thing with shifting gears, put the clutch in, switch gears, and let off the clutch while giving gas. GOODLUCK!!:lala:

 

That's what I did. The first stick I ever drove was a brand new BMW.....it's a good thing the customer was inside at the time.

 

the worst issue i had was learning to take off in first from a stop. first also sucks because its just used for very slow driving or just to get the car moving. i found this out by jerking my brains around in my head a few times. just remeber you can let the clutch out as slow as you want as your giving it gas. this will give you the non-jerky start. just practice on your car, thats what i did with my 92 camaro. its alot cheaper to replace a clutch than buy a beater to learn on.

 

Wasn't too bad for me... I learned in an '86 Honda Prelude. I stalled the first time, a little 'jumpy' a few more after, and went from there.

Then my cousin actually let me take his '52 Ford F1 for a little supervised spin around the block. Had a 3-on-the-tree, a 3.91 rear end and a 239 Flathead V8.

Talk about pressure, lol

All went well, but I gotta say... driving my 5 speed Z28 (mechanical linkage '83) is like no other car I've driven yet... nothing like the '52 and nowere near the Honda.

I drove that Honda again about 2 weeks ago, and since I'm used to my relatively stiff pedal in the Z28, I pushed the pedal on the Honda and it felt like it wasn't even connected, lol... felt exactly like when my cross-shaft lever split in my Z28, lol