GT with PP manual driving tips

6th is a freeway gear for me. I never use it on any city roads. 5th can easily handle anything below constant freeway speed.

airfuel said:

The only time you are slipping your clutch is at start off.
Who slips a clutch while driving because you are in the wrong gear?

Do they teach manual driving in drivers ed?

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Any more . . . do the drivers' ed instructors themselves even know how to 'drive stick'?


Norm

NoVaGT said:

Honestly, the lack of mechanical sympathy around here is astounding. Like, unless it's a written instruction, it's impossible to figure it out for yourselves. It's like some of you are robots, with no feel or flow to what you're doing.

Look, you shift into 6th at low RPM when you are cruising gently and quietly, relaxed. You shift at 7000RPM when you are out-running the cops at max attack down the road. And then there are a million points of light between those two.....

Shifting, when and how and at what RPMs, is situation dependent.

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Best answer to date, NoVa

Listen (and feel) for what the engine is trying to tell you. And if what you're hearing/feeling doesn't seem to be matching the level of response you want to have immediately available, that's when you do something about it. After a while, you don't think about this at all. You just do it, pretty much instinctively, almost continuously in very close to real time.

Don't worry about mph or rpm or anything else besides how it sounds/feels.

Sympathy for the mechanical bits - aka being in tune with the "feel" - works regardless of road speed, how many forward gears the transmission has, what the spacings between the individual gears might be, even what engine lives under the hood. It's completely portable, works with everything from sedans with 1950's 100-gross-HP inline sixxers and 3-speed manuals to 7-speed manual Z51 Corvettes that I know of personally.


Norm

dbegley said:

. The service manager at the dealership told me 1st gear is a launch gear and to use in 2nd if I am not racing. .

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Your service manager is a retard but hey if he will cover that clutch under warranty when it burns up..go for it . Got to slip the clutch way to much to be starting in second imho. The only car/truck that I started off in second was a 78 ford truck with a 4speed and a 390BB. First gear was a granny and ment for pulling stumps loose..or tractors..or houses down..

I use first all the time and sure its short it works just fine.

I use 1st gear to take off in normal driving. It will go in 2nd but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do for sure. I did find out the PP will go through 1st and 2nd real quickly. The first time I did a "race" I hit the limiter in 2nd gear. Immediately knew what was happening and hit 3rd and left the Camaro in the dust.

I learned to drive stick on an '81 Fairmont wagon. No tach. Just had to listen and feel my way through it.

Roman said:

I learned to drive stick on an '81 Fairmont wagon. No tach. Just had to listen and feel my way through it.

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And you're better off for having learned it that way.

In my case, it was a 1956 Chevy (six-cylinder, 3MT, no tach).


Norm

Norm Peterson said:

And you're better off for having learned it that way.
In my case, it was a 1956 Chevy (six-cylinder, 3MT, no tach).

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Mine was my dads 67 Beetle...

an international 574.

No synchros.

No tach.

No engine pedal.

Respect to anyone who learned to drive in a Ford Model T.

Morris Minor for me.

My 97 civic hatchback didn't come with a tach lol. A good friend later gave me one from a higher trim civic that he junked.

S550GTCS said:

My 97 civic hatchback didn't come with a tach lol. A good friend later gave me one from a higher trim civic that he junked.

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No tach on my Dacia Logan. I just press the pedal until that little 898cc turbo engine hits the red line. 90hp of bouncy fun.

I shift between 2-3000 rpms. My cars got plenty of low end to shift there.

00 said:

Respect to anyone who learned to drive in a Ford Model T.

Morris Minor for me.

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throttle lever on the steering column... spark advance on the dash.

One pedal for high-neutral-low, one pedal for reverse, and one pedal for a brake...

easy peasy.

TexasRebel said:

throttle lever on the steering column... spark advance on the dash.

One pedal for high-neutral-low, one pedal for reverse, and one pedal for a brake...

easy peasy.

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Have you driven one?