share your learning to drive stick experiences

[JiveMasterT]

i first drove stick in a bone stock neon with a toasted clutch cause my friend and i were bored and he wanted me to learn to drive stick. i drove fine, didnt stall, and it was good.

second time i drove stick was in my friend's b16g 2g gst eclipse. he started me off on an incline and when the car started rolling back i got scared and let the clutch out really fast. i did a burn out that lasted a good 40 feet and the tire marks are still there to this day (nearly a year later).

3rd time i drove stick was in that same eclipse about a year later (after he said i would never drive his car again...) about an hour before i was to go and look at the car i am driving presently. i drove fine, stalled a few times, but got the hang of it enough. i then went to the dealer, while starting off i did a mini launch, put the car into 3rd instead of 5th on the highway, and stalled a few times when parking.

after that i taught myself to drive stick in parking lots, on hills late at night, and other tricky places. i was told i had the most difficult car to learn on to cause it was AWD, it had a turbo, and it had an ACT 2100 clutch. now when i drive someone else's manual car their clutch feels like rubber... its crazy!

so lets hear your stories. i wanna know about the burn outs, the worst stalls ever, everything!

 

[IHeartTurbo]

I've been driving manuals since I was a kid so I don't remember any of those kinda stories.

 

[GetEvryGear]

I'm with heart. I learned to drive a manual transmission when I was 9 years old. Yes, that is right... 9 years old. I'm just a little beast

 

[DSMSpyder99]

i learned how to drive stick in about 10 minutes. I have never stalled out while learning. I guess playin alot of racing games paid off

 

[Thomas91169]

my first time was our 89 dodge spirit, i stalled it every time. the clutch was weird, as soon as you let off a little, it sprang out and it stalled. i could never get the hang of it.

then my buddy(krazywhitboy)let me drive his rsx-s.i dont remember if i stalled it or not, but it was alot nicer than the spirit.

then i didnt drive a stick again for about a year, till my cousin let me drive his eclipse N/T. i loved how it felt, all smooth, never even came close to stalling it. i was hooked.

then bought my gst in january, didnt even test drive it cause it was night in the bay area, and my dad was worried about stalling it in traffic, whatever. bought that, he drove home, i drove the other car home. we got home, and i got right in and drove it like a pro.

funny things though, sometimes i leave it in 1st when its parked when i start it, and as soon as it starts i sometimes just let my foot off the clutch and stall it(good thing the ebrake is on). then i laugh and call myself a dumass. its like 1 out of 10 times i do this, its kinda funny. and i stalled it once cause my foot slipped but that was it.

 

[MyBlack94GST]

I had an 86 integra when I was in high school... I had driven stick once or twice before... and the auto tranny went out. simple solution, switch to manual. with pick and pull, it was a pretty straightforward swap. now, i coudln't drive to school, or anywhere, until i learned to drive stick. so i did.

 

[93greentsi]

E46 BMW 330 convertable. Top down, empty parking lot.

Then I got my 92 Maxima

 

[jmartinez1228]

I first drove stick when i bought my first car it was a 2000 Civic SI. Before that i had never even looked at a manual trasmission. I loved the car so much that i made myself learn, after a couple of weeks of stalling here and there and the car jerking back and forth out of lights i got the hang of it............ car is no longer in my possesion since then due to some a$$holes stealing it but oh well i have my trusty dsm now

 

[MyEclipse5]

This (GSX) is my first stick, i learned in about 2 days: drivin in the country with my dad the first day, and then on my own the second.

One thing people failed to tell me though is to keep the RPMs up (on a launch) and let off the clutch slowly and itll never die. My understnading was you had to eas the gas and let off the cluth :thumbdown and then it jerks like a bull. Its all good now though

Also in the country i tried my first real launch, dropped it at about 5k, and spun the tires because i was in gravel, scared the crap outta me , but it was fun

 

[r.a. frank]

first time ever driving stick was in California with my Laser. Not the best place to learn seeing how there's hills everywhere! Ohhh yea lots and lots of jerking. killed the car many times too. my uncle was teaching me, i got tired of people honking at me so i said fawk it...burried the pedal and dumped the clutch...that was fun but i dont think my uncle was too happy with that. that was 2 days in Cali then the car got shipped to where i live now. each day i got better but all in all i think it took me two weeks to learn.

soft clutches dont work for me to well i guess, i jumped in my friend's jeep and drove that perfect, it had a stiffer clutch....maybe that's just me tho

-Royce-

 

[DSMtuned]

The day I got my learners permit, my mom took me to this parking lot. I jumped in the drivers seat and took off. I never stalled or missed a shift. I spent most of my life mimicking the driver of whatever car I was in, so I think I learned by watching. It suprised the hell out of my mom!!

 

[DevilSperm]

I learned on a dodge shadow turbo...im not the most patient person so after killing it a few times i did the rev dump thing...once that turbo spooled it scared the piss out of me

 

[BLUEBLOTCH]

I learned in my brothers civic, Screwed up the gears somehow, Thanks fully it was under warranty now I own a stick. go figure.

 

[AdrenilineCrash]

I learned on my old youth pastors Toyota Corolla. That thing shifted so sweetly. The clutch was nice. I got started just fine and I was in a parking lot so I didnt get out of 3rd gear.

Then the first time I REALLY learned how to drive a stick was when I got my first eclipse. My dad had to teach me on his GST cause I didnt know I was getting a car for 18th birthday.

So we started in the driveway and he said youre not getting on the road till you can start it. So it took me like 5 tries but I got it finally. Then once I was on the road I went through first gear easy then I shifted to 2nd and slammed the gas.... My dad didnt like that too much.:laugh:

-mike

 

[DeviantClipse]

in the middle of traffic the day i got my car. i killed it 19 times trying to make a left hand turn... which stoped traffic both ways, a good 10 or more cars each way. then finally dumped the cluth and had a huge burn out, then tryin to make it home with some dignity left i kill it crossing a highway right in the middle. almost sold my car b/c of that day




phil

 

[Dark Phoenix]

I learned when I was 16 on my black Talon. 5 years later, she's still all good, so I didn't damage her that badly. :blush: Took me only a few hours, several bucks and pops of the clutch, and I only stopped traffic once. :laugh:

 

[InferiorWang]

A couple years ago at work (at Dairy Queen) I said something about not knowing how to drive stick. It was when I was between cars after I totaled my first car . Well, a guy I worked with offered to take me home so I didn't have to call home for a ride. We get outside and he told me to hop in the driver's side of his 96 civic 5-speed. The clutch was going and I couldn't get started on the big ass hill by the drive-thru so he pulled it up to the top and let me try again. I got it to go right away then and made it all the way home before stalling in my drive way.

After that, he occasionally let me drive home, another guy I worked with occasionally let me drive his car (old old tercel) when he took me home, and a third friend there let me take his V6 wrangler to pick up chinese food whenever business was slow and we wanted to get something else. Hell, he even let me borrow his jeep one night while he was working so I didn't have to ride my bike home and I could practice. It's nice to have trusting friends. Once, I was going for chinese, and there's still a little bit of a hill right up at the street. Traffic was pretty heavy and I saw an opportunity to get out, so I gunned it a little, made it into the street and spun the wheels of his wrangler through first and second. I looked back and saw my friend hanging out of the drive through window shaking his head and just smiling. It was fun.

 

[lurili]

Heh, I learned to drive stick in Costa Rica, in the hills, at night, raining...

Basically, either go forward and no stall or go back and fall into chasms filled with water, luckily I got it moving the right way

 

[Defiant]

They hadn't invented sticks when I started. You had to remove a floorboard -which was a real board- and unbolt a gear and bolt in another. While moving. Watch the fingers.

Try a Model T sometime. It's pretty much an automatic transmission, but instead of having hydraulics work the brake bands, there's 3 pedals on the floor. Oh, and all the way down on the left one is low, low gear. So when you "jam in the clutch" you're in a gear that can be used to tow houses. And, pile into what you were trying to miss.

 

[a_scobel]

I don't have any interesting stories to tell though..I just did the usual stalling here & there..but that's it.

Hmm my girl wants me to teach her stick...but I have an ACT 2600..........& am VERY hesitant to teach her on it....think I should??

 

[Eliminat0r]

I dont know how to drive sick yet. but the driver's ed car i had, had a m/t and i accidentally went from 2nd to 5th taking off right after a light, almost got rearended by a semi, damn stick saturns. When i get a 5spd eclipse ill drive on the streets but ill make sure what gear its in before i take off, i forsee stalling a few times at a light trying to take off in first, and getting honked at by angry peple trying to go places.

Edit: god dang i was still proofreading i'm not drunk!

 

[a_scobel]

I dont know how to drive sick yet. but the drier ed car i had had it and i accidentally went from 2 nd to 5 th taking off at the ligh, almost ogt rearended by a semi, boy that was fun! damn stick saturns. when i get a 5spd eclipse ill till drive on the streets but ill amke sure what gear its in before i take off, i forsee stalling a few times at a light trying to take off in first.

Erm...wow..dude..Don't post when you're drunk!!

 

[dls93tsi]

First time i drove stick, my dad took me out in my first car, a '87 integra 5-spd. I used the clutch to pull out then he said dont touch the clutch anymore.. made me learn to shift smooth w/out the clutch before i could use the clutch.

it taught me a lot about shifting smooth, and matching rpms.

 

[1fast97gsx]

I technically "learned" on a yamaha warrior 4 wheeler. Then I rode a lot of dirtbikes. Then I got in a manual car and it took about 5 minutes to learn to shift with my hand and clutch with my foot instead of the other way around and that was it.

 

[97GS-TSpyder]

when i learned the car had a really cool feel. Whenever it stalled you barely felt it ....but i had a huge burnout...and a couple other crazy stuff...it was fun though