Noobie, eh? Friendly piece of advice, be real careful when you make worthless statments like this on this forum. Chances are you'll either get flamed or start a stupid war. Do a search and you'll see.

 

Give me a break, I was just kidding around....

I know sports cars have to come in automatics, so all the girly men have something to drive

ok..ok... before i get flamed i know if i lived in a big city with lots of traffic i'd be driving a automatic myself.... some situations require automatics unless your a masakist and like driving manuals in heavy traffic...

 

I actually plan on getting the Z in a 6-spd and it will be my first 6-spd. I have driven my friends 89 cavalier once(his dads old commuter car) lol. I am really excited though and hope I don't screw anything up. And the dealer is on a steep hill in pittsburgh with a traffic light right in the middle lol. West Hills Nissan, if they have the best deal that is. Thanks for the info guys.

 

You probably didn't mean anything by it but, if you do a search on manuals and automatics you'll see that your comment tends to bring out the 6MT Elitist who will further rile the hive and the thread turns into a flame fest or a war.

BTW Welcome to the forum.

 

I have yet to get into 6th gear (hey, give me a break, it's only been 1 day).

As for learning to drive a manual....learning on a Z might be a little more difficult than some other car. I learned on an old Bug years ago and have been driving automatic SUVs for the past several years. Stepping into the power of the Z was a bit tricky for me at first. The gas seems more touchy than the clutch.

Best advice: Find a friend with a really crappy manual transmission car and ask them to let you try it in some empty parking lot somewhere.

 

Yeah, manuals are fun but I live in the west hills of Portland . . . lots of rolling hills and enough traffic to make it a pain in the **** at least a couple times a day, everyday.

Impacted my decision to go with w/auto. If I lived in Kansas I might have gone a different way.

 

learned the balance concept in a day...so basically after that it just came naturally...

 

Not long at all hardest thing is the first gear and starting up going uphill then becomes second nature u dont even think about it. (Been driving a manual for little over a year now) and would never go back

 

Sorry for bringing this thread back from the dead but i have some questions i want to clear up. First of all...i don't own a Z yet. I'm hoping to have enough money to buy one in a month or two. =)Anyways, i'm have some questions about driving manual. I been driving manual for a few months on my brother's mazda 3 but i'm not sure if i'm driving it right. When i shift gears, i don't depress the clutch all the way down. I press it enough to pass the friction point and shift. Am i burning/wearing out the clutch by doing this? Also, when i'm at a stop, i find myself finding the friction point alot and inching forward...does that hurt the clutch too? If im burning/wearing out the clutch, I want to break these habits! Thanks.

Derek

 

As long as your past the friction point, no, your not doing any damage.

As for inching forward, yes, you are wearing the clutch.

 

Brickyard Rat- thanks for the reply! From now on i'll just leave my car in N and don't mess with the shifter. But for starting in first. gear...is it ok if i'm in first gear but don't press the clutch down completely(just enough past the friction point so i don't stall) and sit at the light and wait? I also wanted to ask how i can shift more smoothly? Is it ok to apply a bit of gas after i go into gear? eg. Say i'm going from 2nd gear to 3rd gear, first i press the clutch...shift...then while im releasing the clutch i press the gas a bit. Is that ok? I know thats rev matching in downshifting but i'm not quite sure if it's ok while upshifting.

Off topic. I notice that you're from Sacramento..which part? I'm also from Sacramento. I live in the greenhaven area. Last question for ya, which dealership did you purchase your Z from? Was it a good experience buying from them? Thanks.

Derek

 

If you can drive a manual now smoothly, don't change what your doing.

There was a big discussion here in the past about needing to push the clutch all the way in. I was doing fine shifting the way you are doing until I read the discussion.

So, since I didn't want to hurt my car, I started pushing the clutch all the way down too. Well, it not only made shifting and driving harder, but soon there after, another discussion came up stating that not pushing the clutch all the way down makes it easier to shift! Well, this is what I was noticing before I changed, so I decided that unless I'm having a prob shifting, I don't take the boards too seriously and pick and choose what i want to do.

So sounds like you're shifting just right except for the moving forward at friction point which is slipping the clutch and causing excessive wear.

Few other pointers:

1). Put car in neutral at stops-better for clutch longevity.

2). Reallly no need to down shift when approaching a stop. Just place car in neutral and brake. Again, saves clutch and prob tranny.

3). Don't keep hand on shifter when not shifting-ruins synchros.

4). Learn to shift with you fingertips, palms, and wrist. Don't grab know and pull. This is the biggest probs that most people with MT don't do. They grab shifter and pull/push. You don't want to grab, but just flick shifter with wrist. This helps you to shift smoother, faster, and saves tranny. This is hard to learn and the website I learned it from no longer exists. It's hard to explain without pics.

5). Heal-toe is excellent but hard. Go to parking lot and learn it. It's a racing technique. Again, hard to explain without pics. Do a search on google or even this forum.

Hope this helps.

 

I forgot an important point:

6). Always, always rev match. Very important and necc..! Will save your engine in the long run.

Best.

 

Yes the 6 speed has a very tight transmission when new - it was about 3000 miles before mine really loosened up! I kept thinking it was just me. Have had sever manual transmissions over the years - my first was the 1952 Studebaker ( yes 1952 is correct!! ) It had a "hill-holder" feature - when you stopped on a hill and applied the foot brake - it would not roll backwards - to start just put it in gear and apply the gas, a very nice feature. Why hasn't someone used that feature in the new cars??
Yes , reverse was difficult for me to find also ( even though it was similar to the 1959 bug I owned. I took the Z home first day - dececided to take my wife out to dinner - started to back out of the carport - took me 5 trys to get it in reverse - had it in 6th and thought I might go through the front window first!!

 

lol....I worry about valets not being able to get it in reverse

 

don't laugh...but what are synchros?

Also about rev matching...is it just simply pressing the gas a bit after downshifting into another gear? Say i'm going in 5th and want to downshift into 4th...first i shift into 4th then when i'm releasing the clutch..i press the gas to rev my RPMs a bit higher before the i fully release the clutch? Correct?

Is it ok to do the same when up-shifting? Thanks guys.

Derek

 

I learned to drive stick on an 86 VW cabrio. I think it was actually harder on that cause it was old and the clutch wasn't all that great. It took some time to get going in 1st. I actually found that reverse was very easy and after getting used to that, 1st wasn't bad. Once you can get going in first, you will get better with practice driving out on the roads of course you will stall out some probably, but you will get used to it. Stay away from stopping on hills until you get used to it though. I'm still not a fan of starting out on a hill, i dont have any problems though but still. Just use the parking brake to help you out.

 

watch it; some ppl have auto Zs here.
i was planning to get auto G but the price...anyways
IMO, there's nothing wrong with auto Z...its still awesome
people like me consider more looks than performance. i personally dont care about tranny. even tho i am not driving in heavy traffic.

 

I Believe Synchro's is something that Synchronizes your gear when shifting, so that you don't have to double-clutch all the time (When in Gear, You Press The Clutch, Then Pull it Into neutrall, release the clutch, press the clutch again and then put it into the next gear) so this actually smoothes shifting so you can press the clutch once, and then shift into the next gear without releasing and pressing the clutch again!

Am i right guys?

 

I re-learned how to drive a stick, but how do you LAUNCH a stick car?