meeno

Well i'm going to be getting a 350z in 6spd form soon, and wanted to get a head start, since i have about 5 minutes of driving stick under my belt. So, I go to a Nissan dealer (still under construction, very slow, etc), and a young guy comes running towards me (I guess it was really slow or something), so he asks what I'm interested in.

I point to a yellow SE-R (couldve easily driven a Z but i wanted a crappy car that they didnt care about), and say I wanna test drive it. 2 Minutes later, i'm in the car with him next to me.

Me: Ok, lets see now...havent driven a stick in a while so i may be a little rough around the edges...

Him: ookkkaaaaay....

I proceed to shift into first, and I guess I let the clutch out too early, cuz the car jerked like crazy then stalled. damn

Him: Maybe its not a good idea for you to drive, let me show you.

I agreed and we switched seats. He proceeds to beat the hell out of the car by slapping the rev limiter repeatdly (this made me feel less guilty)

1 minute later I tell him to pull into a quiet side street so I can "try" . This time the car jerked but i didnt stall...i got it moving!! shifted into 2nd (awkwardly, but i did it none the less).

Man that was fun...gotta go to another dealer and try that again.

BTW: when it jerks really badly, it means I let the clutch out too early right? I revved to about 1000 and slowly released the clutch but it still jerked....do I rev to about 2500 and then release the clutch? I guess it differs on every car...


BTW this was a while ago, not in the snow hehe

ares

iTrader: (2)

as a newbie in a car you dont care about, 2000 should be sufficient. in a 4banger tho you will definitly need 2000 or so, not as much momentum and power in it.

in the Z, I typicly get going at about 1500, sometimes less sometimes more; its just easier and IMO smoother at a bit higher vs 1000; I find that a bit rough still.

1000 is very low tho; atleast for me, it depends how good you are at controlling the throttle in response to the clutch; as you let it out and put resistance on it; give it a bit more gas to keep the same RPM but with more power to it. as you get better you can go lower and lower in RPM.

sadly, driving SE-R doesnt quite equal the Z, the clutch is just much more sensitive. I drove a stick for 4 months daily. then test drove the Z. first thing I did? stalled it on the test drive. then when I did get going, proceeded to drive in the roughest manner. took a few days to let the clutch break in a bit, and get adjusted to the touch.

itll come just give it time. just take your time on shifts, be sure its in the next gear before letting up. tough to tell if its in gear at first cause their such short shifts.

rands

oh man,
before buying the z, i had a total of about 3 hours of stick driving practice total (spread over about 3 years). i actually was planning to buy a boxster some years ago and the salesman took me out and let me practice (it was surprisingly easy). a couple more hours on my friends' miata, old 3series bmw, and m3.

the drive out from the dealer was stressful, let me tell you, and the traffic did not help. it takes about 2 weeks get it, and 4 until you start being really good at it. keeping the car under the breakin rpm is also a big pain, since you have to shift so often. expect alot of hard starts, stalling, and a terrifying fear of stopping on a hill. but it'll all go away, and pretty soon you'll be kicking it down to 3rd through a corner, flooring it, and watching your passenger hold on for dear life.

i did take a stick z for a test drive, though. twice, actually. the first time, it went pretty good (i didn't stall the car at all). the second time, really awful and i gave up pretty quick. i figured it out, though, it all had to do with the position of the seat. take your time to get it just right.

DB19

Only drove stick once before test driving cars. So far I've had lessons from salesman while test driving 2 350z's (at different dealerships), a BMW 325i, an Audi A4, and an Acura RSX. Great cars to learn on! The RSX had the smoothest shifts for a beginner by the way. The Z was much more fun though!

toykilla

iTrader: (1)

i learned to drive a stick on customers cars

meeno

how did you convince them to do that? I would love to have a salesman actually teach me. my salesman was just plain scared sh*tless

meeno

haha thats reassuring

tcz

you can just go by feel, if you feel the car start jerking a bit give it more gas(stalling) or by the sound, loading it up a bit doesnt hurt if you dont do it to much just to get the feel of the clutch, dont think about it when you doing it, just try and feel your way out of it, now i just ahve to learn that toe heel stuff
TC

meeno

ok I know how to shift fom 1-2, 2-3, etc...but im still having a little bit of trouble launching

lets say i just want a smooth, gentle launch. I rev to about 1500, and keep it steady. Then i start to let off the clutch slowly...is this right? what if i start rolling back?

thanks guys I appreciate it.

DB19

Only the second Nissan dealer I went to didn't offer much advice on driving stick. The BMW was the first one I drove and the guy really spent a lot of time teaching me how to do it. The Acura was next and was pretty easy to shift, but the salesman still gave lots of tips. My first Z test drive the guy spent a lot of time again. He even offered to practice with me again if I get the car. I geuss they really wanted to sell the cars.

Unfortunately, I've decided that getting the Z as my daily driver is not practical for me right now in the snowy midwest so I'm gonna put it off for a couple of years and buy my boring Honda Accord off of lease. I plan on paying it off in 2 years and then getting the Z with the honda as my winter car.

n8vz

i learned it on a rental trucks.. too back most rentals aren't stick anymore.

zurn

Sounds like a well thought out plan.

GreenE69s

meeno, as you slowly let off the clutch, you need to slowly press the gas...at the same time. that'll keep the rpm @ 1500 until the clutch completely catches.

I learned to drive a stick after i bought my honda prelude. the salesman gave me an hour lesson and then i drove home. that was the first time even tried the drive a stick. fun stuff.

tcz

you may roll back a bit but whatever you do dont panic, you will almost always stall it if you do, just treat it like any other time your letting off the clutch, keep the revs up a bit and let the clutch off until you feel it start to engage then slowly let it off, hills suck if your a beginner, ive been driving stick for a year now and i still try and avoid steep hills, its good to know how to launch from them tho, you may need it someday
TC

SiNdHiWaRrIoR

the guy who sold me my Z, Matt (KmanZ) knew i had no idea how to drive stick... luckly he took me out in his Z for a test drive cause my Z was on its way to the dealership... well anywayz it probly took me like a total of 1.5 hours to be able to drive the car home... it realy helps if you have a good stick driver to teach you when you test/buy a Z, or any car

ZIABLO

iTrader: (7)

the se-r spec v is a terrible car to learn stick on. i had one.

Paul_BB_Guy

I learned to drive stick on a Motorcycle.... Well I learned about shifting and clutching anyway.

One way to think about it is as a See-Saw...
Clutch pedal comes up, Gas pedal goes down...

coil222

Heh.. i took my boss out for a lesson in my LSVTEC integra beater tonight. she did alright after a few stalls, one of which was in the middle of an intersection.

RJW0501

Anyone know where I can buy a yellow Nissan SE-R in the Jersey area? Oh yea....in a manual!!!!!

djkern

i learned how to drive stick when i was about 8 years old (maybe younger). well, i at least learned the technique. video games always help. yeah...it's not 100% accurate...but i never played video games in automatic mode. the video games you actually sit in and play...not game pad ones.

so, when i was about 14 or 15 i decided to give it a try in a real car. well, i hopped right in, turned the car on...and i was off. never stalled once, never really jerked it around. i haven't driven automatic since.