drive it like you stole it and u'll be fine.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqtctkznYjk this could proly help

 

yeah man, it takes tons of practice, this is my first MT car as well, but all i can say is that hang in there and you wont regret it.
i drove about...800 miles before i fully got everything down, just remember practice makes perfect, and dont be embarrased about stalling. who cares if you hold up traffic, they cant do anything to you, just do your thing man

 

Since the OP has had 9 months to practice... I'm willing to bet this thread is dead.

bcbtony: We get these "how do I drive my car" threads about once a week. There were already a couple on the front page. There was no need to dig an ancient one up just to post that video.

 

 

haha. Well, considering I am the OP, I must say I agree with you about the weekly "how do I drive my car". Reason this was dug up is because I had linked this thread in one the recent threads. Never hurts to help a noob.


In case anyone is intersted, its been so long since I stalled out that I can't even remember when or where it was. My shifting is fine. Granted I don't drive the Z everyday, I do rev-match pretty well and the bucking is very minimal if any . My 1 to 2 upshift though is very slow since I am try to make that very smooth and its the one geary notorious for being notchy.

My favorite gears to shift into are 4th and 5th since they are always so smooth and so easy.

 

Woah... it really is your thread. I never would have thought. Noobs helping noobs help themselves.... it keeps getting better and better.

Glad to hear you're doing better.

 

just rev to 5k and drop the clutch

 

Hopefully some noob doesn't read that and actually do that.

Then he'll be on here asking why his car smells like clutch

 

Are you calling me a noob?

Hmmm, I think you mis-understood my post/intent. I was attempting to help a noob in https://my350z.com/forum/2003-2009-nissan-350z/230044-learning-stick-2.html (see post #22), so thats probably why this thread was dug up from the archives.

 

I sometimes make left turns right when the light turns green with cars ready to go. its easy think of it like a normal take off. I remember when i first drove a stick. I thought you press the clutch in, put it in gear and let go of the clutch to drive it lol. I did that so much, stalling the car like 10 times until i gave up. but now im not the best driver but i can handle the basics.

 

When i was 15 that's exactly what my old man told me to do.

 

just dont think about it too much. practice. it only took me 2 hours to learn how to drive stick properly. now i'm even blipping while downshifting. having a motorcycle helps as well i guess. but just drive and parctice. practice on a hill where there is no traffic behind you that should help you out.

 

for me the hardest part of learning to drive a stick was the initial take off. i would let the cluch out slowly right up untill i felt the car start moving. then thinking that i was finished i would let my foot off the cluch petal. which would then make the car "buck" badly. so the thing to remember is you have to be smooth throughout the entire "grab" of the cluch...don't take your foot off the cluch just b/c the car starts to move!!

 

+1

 

if your slowing down just put it into Neutral and coast. If there is a red light and you come to a complete stop put it into first gear, if your still rolling put it in 2nd gear and drive on. Practice makes perfect, hit up an empty parking lot and work on your starting and stopping.

 

For the range of motion on the clutch pedal of a stock clutch, I think the Z has a pretty short friction range, all of which tends to be at the top of the pedal travel, which kind of makes it a little trickier. Add that to the drive-by-wire pedal having somewhat less feedback than a typical cable driven car.

 

the only time your clutch should EVER be to the floor is when you are stopped. for the most part when shifting you can just push the clutch in about 2inches of travel (not sure on the EXACT measurement but its NOT far to get it out of gear). in the same sense when you are at a stop just keep the clutch just BARELY from stalling and watch your RPM's move around a little bit and thats your "spot". give it some gas and go!
if you need to peel tires a little bit then do it! but not when someone is in front of you hahaha

BE CAREFUL AND GOODLUCK! patience is key!

 

Yea the Z is a pretty tricky manual to drive so dont feel too bad. Tip for downshifting... apply slight pressure to the brake while downshifting and never downshift into 1st (maybe on a rare occasion). After youre in second and need to stop just go from 2nd to neutral and let the brake do the rest. First gear is way to jerky to be downshifting into all the time.

 

My boyfriend's been teaching me to drive my manual as well and it is tricky! And everytime we go to drive he need a pack of cigarettes hehe just kidding.

I am doing fairly well but in the beginning I was pretty scared. First thing I did was stall by releasing the clutch too quick. I stalled out a few times when I first got in the car but after it got going I was good.

He says I am getting a lot better at it, we found a long enough truck lot and I drive up and down being able to shift from 1st to 2nd to 3rd and sometimes 4th then down shift to 2nd to go around the corner. He says I shift good

It helps a lot to be very relaxed and get use to the clutch and were it engages. I still need to work on going up hill from a stop and not let it roll too much.