Can She handle it?

[MisterTurbineTwister]

I don't think teaching someone is a bad idea. Just tell them to bring the RPM up to 1500 and let the clutch out in less than a full second. They will be weary at first, but he should get the hang of it after about 1 hour and different driving conditions.

You shouldn't be worried about your clutch as long as they listen to you and don't feather it. Tell him that there is no need to let the clutch out slowly while the vehicle is in motion. Just drop it after the shift is complete. Just remember, it only takes about 1500 RPM initial before letting the clutch out and it should take just about 1 full second to let the clutch pedal out. The throttle shouldn't be needed until the clutch is all the way out, given that there was 1500 RPM on the engine before letting out of the pedal.


I first learned how to drive a stick shift in a 1985 Buick Grand national GS. I was 14 and the guy told me to let it out at 4500... I did. LOL...

I taught my brother how to drive a stick when he was 17 in my '68 Dodge Charger 440/ A833 4 speed... Now that may have been a mistake. He loved it because he couldn't kill it, but I was scared to death!

 

[solid400]

I first learned to drive stick in a 96 trans-am with a clutch that was almost shot, I've got an RPS street clutch in my supra and its tons easier to drive than the trans-am. As long as they aren't riding the clutch I wouldn't worry about it, only thing I worry about letting people drive my car is how they are gonna handle all that power

 

[CTsupra]

lol. I learned how to drive standard on a piece of crap late 80's s-10, I was 15. I was also high on the ganja while trying to do this (yes I quit that crap, I'm 21 and quit for good when i was 17). Anyways, my only problem was that I had a hard time letting off of the gas between shifts. Taking off was flawless, shifting was flawless...just didn't lift the pedal up high enough, lol. This was the first time drove a manual. 2nd time was when I bought my first supra (black 87' turbo) and mastered the manual transmission... i.e. hills, lol.

 

[shane87turbo]

I first learned how to drive a stick shift in a 1985 Buick Grand national GS. I was 14 and the guy told me to let it out at 4500... I did. LOL...

there was never a stick shift in a Buick GN much less a GN GS ??? what is that

 

[s383mmber1]

I tought my friend whose never touched a 5-speed in my supra, after the thrid try, and 4 minutes, he was golden.

 

[ChadMKIII]

Whoa, hello 2 y/o thread.

And, CT, I learned on a 90 S-10. Which happens to be the one I'm driving right now (see sig). Its SUCKS compared to the Supra. I've had people tell me I shift as smooth as an auto in the Supie, but I piss myself off every time I take off in the S-10. Stupid pedal doesn't engage the clutch till I lift my damn foot off the floor. And WHY THE HELL doesn't it have tilt wheel??? Does NOT work so well for a 6'3 guy.... Ugh.... /rant

 

[1jzdreamer]

Whoa, hello 2 y/o thread.

And, CT, I learned on a 90 S-10. Which happens to be the one I'm driving right now (see sig). Its SUCKS compared to the Supra. I've had people tell me I shift as smooth as an auto in the Supie, but I piss myself off every time I take off in the S-10. Stupid pedal doesn't engage the clutch till I lift my damn foot off the floor. And WHY THE HELL doesn't it have tilt wheel??? Does NOT work so well for a 6'3 guy.... Ugh.... /rant

Heh i learned on a 95 s-10... mine had a tilt wheel, same thing with the clutch tho... and the gas pedal was the touchiest one i have ever used. other than that it was a beater truck and great to learn on.

 

[Mr.PFloyd]

i taught one of my girlfriends how to drive stick in the supra. she did fine.
-Thomas

 

[annoyingrob]

i taught one of my girlfriends how to drive stick in the supra. she did fine.
-Thomas

Yeah man, I taught my girlfriend to drive stick in my JZA70. She did great. I have a slightly stiffer clutch, but it's not that bad. She was always scared to rev the engine though. "It sounds bad, I don't want to hurt it". "No, the engine likes it, trust me" ...proceeds to rev to 7500......

I learned to drive stick on my dads old 87 Saab turbo. The master cylinder leaked so you had to pump the clutch a few times to disengage it, then it re-engaged about 1/2" off the floor when bringing it back up. Needless to say, if you can drive shit like that, you can drive anything.

 

[Mr.PFloyd]

Yeah man, I taught my girlfriend to drive stick in my JZA70. She did great. I have a slightly stiffer clutch, but it's not that bad. She was always scared to rev the engine though. "It sounds bad, I don't want to hurt it". "No, the engine likes it, trust me" ...proceeds to rev to 7500......

I learned to drive stick on my dads old 87 Saab turbo. The master cylinder leaked so you had to pump the clutch a few times to disengage it, then it re-engaged about 1/2" off the floor when bringing it back up. Needless to say, if you can drive shit like that, you can drive anything.

heh funny story, but i actually learned how to drive stick with an 86 jetta diesel also with a leaking master cylinder, and messed up synchros. It would pop out of gear so you would have to act quickly or else, well yeah hahah. It was a game whether or not it would actually stay in or not in the first 3 gears so city driving was interesting hahah.

 

[Dirgle]

I learned on an 86 mustang. Now compared to the Supra those things have a heavy clutch. Yes teaching someone the manual can be very hard on a 5-speed. I had a friend who bought a Cobalt Supercharged SS. He went out and glazed the clutch on the first night. He came to me after that and I got him going in the right direction in no time.

When I'm teaching somebody the first lesson I teach them is, spend the absolute minimum amount of time with your foot on the clutch pedal while maintaining as smooth a transition as possible.

Tell them not to worry about the RPMs yet, just get your foot off the clutch. This will also develop good habits in the long run as well. I find a lot of people sit there with there foot resting on the clutch pedal as they drive around, this puts excessive wear on the throwout bearing. The need to learn to keep there foot off the pedal if they are not using it.

You will find that as someone gets the hang of the clutch they will naturally start trying to make a smoother transition between disengaged and engaged, and by doing this they will unconsciously gain more control over the rpms. Once the have gained good control over the rpms you can start telling them what the good engagement point are for different situations.

Teaching someone this way will have them driving fairly proficiently in just a few hours.

That said I do believe that the Supra does have a fairly steep learning curve, simply because of the size and power of the vehicle. A small light weight vehicles with out much torque is a good beginner car. Cars like this allow the driver less distractions so he can concentrates on working the clutch. We don't notice it but our cars do provide a little bit of a subconscious distraction due to there size.

 

[masterchief819]

I learned 5spd in a bpu 1jz with a spec stage 2 clutch. lol it sucked so bad, i didn't really get the hang of it until a month or so had passed of daily driving it.

 

[slidebabyslide]

I learned 5spd in a bpu 1jz with a spec stage 2 clutch. lol it sucked so bad.

hahaha, thats crazy.:biglaugh: I drove on of my good buddys to get a 300z turbo with some stillen turbos , so the car was making like 380hp, and we get to the guys house. He ask my friend if we would like to drive it, so my friend gives the guy the money. my friend starts the car and looks around and he tells him , why does it have 3 pedals , lol. (I DID NOT know, HE did not know ho TO DRIVE STICK)
so the guy tells him, for the clutch, the car was in gear. in the guys drive way the guy told him, step on the clutch , well guess that happen when he let go of the clutch lol. he got him self a new car with a broken,right head light and smashed front bumper lol. The fun part was the drive back home, lol

 

[ForcedTorque]

I was taught in Tractor Trailer driving school that any vehichle with a clutch should have enough power to pull itself from an idle. This means you can tells the first time driver to forget the gas pedal all together, until he/she gets the feel of the clutch. They will need to let the clutch out slowly enough to not kill the car. Once they have that, they can add gas slowly until they get the feel of it. After the car gets going, shifting will be rough at first, but it won't die. It gives the student confidence, and it will smooth out naturally as time goes by. This method is very successful.

 

[Tanya]

I learned how to drive stick on an 84 Celi GTS

The clutch did not fail or even start slipping at any point