New to manual driving, looking for advice

[chicagojoe16]

My Camaro is my first manual car and I'm looking for advice for two things: getting off the line and smooth shifting. I'm not drag racing or anything but I hate lurching forward at stoplights in my brand new camaro while everyone watches because I can't get into gear easily. I either get off the line really slowly or I lurch a couple times before I get going. I don't want to ruin my clutch because of bad driving so how can I improve my clutch work? Thanks for your advice.

[coolman]

practice makes perfect.

[bhut]

The best piece of advice I can give you is to locate a quiet neighborhood or find a fairly deserted road where you can practice starts and stops. After you feel fairly comfortable with takeoff and smooth shifts, find a fairly deserted hilly area and practice taking off on an incline. It will take you some practice to do this smoothly (without going backwards), but it's worth the time investment.

The Camaro has plenty of torque, so you won't have to get the revs up very high to move on out - that's good news for your clutch. Smooth motions are what you are after. My manual was pretty notchy for the first 500 miles and still has it's moments, so some of the difficulty you are experiencing getting it into gear may be the fact that it's new. My second gear was particularly touchy. A hydraulic clutch can be more difficult to learn where the engagement point is. I've managed to stall the car a few times (much to my surprise), and I've been driving a stick for 15+ years.

If you have 8 minutes to kill watching a somewhat humorous take on driving a stick, check out this link: . About halfway through, you get a PIP display of the footwork to match the sound and action in the larger image. You get an idea of what you re aiming for in the footwork.

Did I mention practice? Yep - find some back roads and play around. You'll get to spend some quality time with the car, learn a valuable skill (amazing how many people can't drive a stick), and gain a level of control over your car that people driving automatics miss out on, whether they know it or not.

[anthonybyram]

O Lordy!

[nemosgt]

Check out the thread just below titled "Question for seasoned stick shift drivers".
Look for posts #51, 58, 59, and 60 for their advice.

Cheers.

[Easy Go]

rent a manual tranny car for a weekend and practice on IT.

[Xanthos]

One of the problems I had when I first driving stick was trying to get my foot off the gas too quickly. Yes, you want to get off the clutch soonish to avoid excess wear, but don't be afraid to slip it a bit more slowly when starting. It'll smooth the start out considerably.
- X

[terryzx]

Another good thread to read about how to shift:

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30403

[PAUL SS]

One thing you need to learn is at what point in the clutch pedal travel does the clutch begin to engage. By learn I mean muscle memory. Also don't be afraid to gve it some gas, the LS3 idles around 600 rpm's, you need to get the rpm's up to 1000-1200 as the clutch engages and give it more gas as to not let the rpm's drop which will cause lurching or bucking. Clutch engagement from a stand still should be fairly quick and smooth to avoid excessive wear. Try to visualize your left foot moving up as your right foot moves down at the same time.

As stated above by coolman "practice makes perfect."