5 ms·

It's unlikely it took you five minutes to get the hang of clutch control and shifting gears. OK, it is possible you managed to avoid kangerooing but only for a

It's unlikely it took you five minutes to get the hang of clutch control and shifting gears. OK, it is possible you managed to avoid kangerooing but only for a small range of circumstances. From rest (with a gear selected and clutch depressed), you have to unlatch the handbrake, whilst at the same time gradually engage the clutch and deploy power via the throttle pedal. You have to ensure you don't go backwards on a hill nor stall the engine and quite a few other factors. You also have to be aware of what is around you and deal with weather etc. That's the simple description with only a few complications. At home we reverse hill start onto a narrow gravel track that runs at 90 degrees from the concrete parking stand - it is quite tricky! More so in a long wheel base Transit. I drive two manuals - a car and a large van, and one auto - car, at the moment but I've driven most vehicles from 7.5t down, with or without auto. An auto feels torque from the engine/wheels/conditions and your fuel input. You can floor the pedal to get going and then reduce power gradually as speed is picked up and eventually you know when the auto changes gear and can influence that accordingly - hard to describe. In a manual you can see what is ahead and take action accordingly. You don't feel the actual torque but you can tell (with experience) from the engine noise and the feeling of acceleration. It's all about using your array of sensors - eyes, hands, bum etc. and a shed load of experience. You do not learn that in five minutes and autos are not simply stop/start either.

ghaff 4y ago
When I bought a manual about 25 years ago, I had tried out a stick a few times but had never seriously driven one. I definitely wasn't comfortable in anything like 5 minutes. Especially on non-flat roads; for the first month or so I planned my commute a bit around not being in stop and go traffic especially on any hills.
Dreami 4y ago
In Switzerland, most instructor cars are Diesels, since they have higher torque and are very hard to stall. Then you go home and drive your parent's petrol engine car and you stall it all the time
- mnw21cam 4y ago
  Huh. That's completely the wrong way round. My instructor's car had a petrol engine that would have been appropriate for a skateboard, so I had to get the clutch just right and learnt properly.
  - masklinn 4y ago
    Nonsense. The goal of a driving instructor is to teach how to behave on the road, not how to cajole your car into not giving up on you. The pupil can do that on their on time, on the first shitbox they acquire. If you want to learn how to start an 037 without stripping the gear feel free to do that.
- johnwalkr 4y ago
  This is a really interesting comment for me. I’m a mechanical/aerospace engineer, I size motors by their stall torque all the time, I’ve owned/driven many manual cars over the last 25 years, I’ve done a few clutch jobs in cars, including upgrading a sports car (so I learned about and experienced some of the parameters that make a performant clutch perform). I’ve even had to replace a magnetic clutch on an industrial lathe when I did an automation upgrade on it and it exposed the fact that the clutch was worn beyond its spec - before it was manually operated and the operators just compensated for the wear over time although I forget how. Yet I’ve never put 2+2 together and thought about the torque in a car when starting out and how that relates to how easy/hard it is to stall a particular car.
BirAdam 4y ago
It took me quite a while to really get the hang of driving. I was learning on standard shift. Definitely stalled a lot that first day, and second. On the other hand, it comes easier to some people. I taught my best friend, and he was better than I within about a minute. I gave him the general instructions on how it works and he stalled twice and then he was fine. I think that the ease of use curve is entirely dependent on the thing between the shifter and the seat.
driverdan 4y ago
I had the same experience with my first manual car. I learned the basics by getting in and driving it. Like many things if you understand it at a high level then getting the basics down quickly is easy. It's the details that require practice and experience, like starting on a hill.

ghaff 4y ago

When I bought a manual about 25 years ago, I had tried out a stick a few times but had never seriously driven one. I definitely wasn't comfortable in anything like 5 minutes. Especially on non-flat roads; for the first month or so I planned my commute a bit around not being in stop and go traffic especially on any hills.

Dreami 4y ago

In Switzerland, most instructor cars are Diesels, since they have higher torque and are very hard to stall. Then you go home and drive your parent's petrol engine car and you stall it all the time

mnw21cam 4y ago
Huh. That's completely the wrong way round. My instructor's car had a petrol engine that would have been appropriate for a skateboard, so I had to get the clutch just right and learnt properly.
- masklinn 4y ago
  Nonsense. The goal of a driving instructor is to teach how to behave on the road, not how to cajole your car into not giving up on you. The pupil can do that on their on time, on the first shitbox they acquire. If you want to learn how to start an 037 without stripping the gear feel free to do that.
johnwalkr 4y ago
This is a really interesting comment for me. I’m a mechanical/aerospace engineer, I size motors by their stall torque all the time, I’ve owned/driven many manual cars over the last 25 years, I’ve done a few clutch jobs in cars, including upgrading a sports car (so I learned about and experienced some of the parameters that make a performant clutch perform). I’ve even had to replace a magnetic clutch on an industrial lathe when I did an automation upgrade on it and it exposed the fact that the clutch was worn beyond its spec - before it was manually operated and the operators just compensated for the wear over time although I forget how. Yet I’ve never put 2+2 together and thought about the torque in a car when starting out and how that relates to how easy/hard it is to stall a particular car.

BirAdam 4y ago

It took me quite a while to really get the hang of driving. I was learning on standard shift. Definitely stalled a lot that first day, and second. On the other hand, it comes easier to some people. I taught my best friend, and he was better than I within about a minute. I gave him the general instructions on how it works and he stalled twice and then he was fine. I think that the ease of use curve is entirely dependent on the thing between the shifter and the seat.

driverdan 4y ago

I had the same experience with my first manual car. I learned the basics by getting in and driving it. Like many things if you understand it at a high level then getting the basics down quickly is easy. It's the details that require practice and experience, like starting on a hill.