The basic skill for learning to drive a manual car is clutch control.
Drive Manual Car Simple Beginner Lesson
- Hi there, smart driver.
Rick with Smart Drive Test talking to you today about moving off and stopping a manual car.
Stick around.
We'll be right back with that information.
Hi there, smart driver, welcome back.
Pedals from right to left: accelerator, brake, clutch and dead pedal.
First exercise, mastering clutch control.
If you don't master clutch control in a manual car, it's like trying to learn how to read and not learning the alphabet first.
You have to master the clutch.
And I know there's a lot of driving instructors out there that'll tell you, "Give it some gas "and then let the clutch out."
I'll tell you right now that is going to cost you money in terms of a expensive repair in terms of repairing the clutch, not right away, but in a couple of years if you continue to do that throttling up and then letting the clutch out.
How the Manual Car's Clutch Works
Essentially what, the clutch is two plates and they're spinning.
The cluch connects the engine and the transmission.
And you want to have the clutch plates almost together before you start stepping on the throttle so that you don't wear out those clutch plates 'cause that's what has to be replaced.
When you learn clutch control, you bring the clutch out to the friction point, and then you add throttle.
Essentially what you're doing is getting the two plates together like this and they start to spin and you reduce the amount of wear.
If you've throttled up and you've got one clutch plate spinning, it's like sticking your hand against the grinder.
You're essentially just causing premature wear and it's going to cost you a lot of money.
Mastering Clutch Control - Lesson 1
First exercise to learn clutch control, push the clutch in, put it into first gear, have the parking brake on, and then watch the tachometer, listen to the motor, and just let it out until you can see the tachometer begin to dip.
A tachometer measures how fast the car's engine is turning.
When the tachometer dips, push the clutch back in, just out, listen to the throttle, feel the vibration in the car, and then push it back in.
Do that 10 or 20 times until you get comfortable with that.
You've got your foot on the brake.
Release the parking brake.
Move Your Manual Car Without Gas - Exercise 2
The next exercise in terms of learning clutch control, bring the clutch out, no throttle until you see the tachometer dip.
Release the brake pedal and very gently bring the clutch out all the way and the car will roll forward.
As you can see here, we've got a pylon in front of us and we just roll up until the pylon.
It doesn't matter how big your engine is and your car.
If you control that clutch through the biting point, through the friction point, it will go on a flat surface, okay?
Put the transmission into reverse.
Same thing, watch out.
Hold the brake out until the tachometer dips down.
You can feel the shutter in the car.
And then simply release the brake and let the clutch out the rest of the way and back up until you get to the pylon.
So we stop there.
Back into first gear and same thing.
Hold the brake.
Vehicle begins to shutter.
The tachometer dips down.
Release the brake.
Very gently bring the clutch out through the friction point, okay?
Now this time you're going to slow the car down with the brake and you can feel it shutter.
Just as it shutters, push in the clutch.
That's how you come to a stop in a manual car, okay?
Reversing a Manual Car
Back into reverse and we back up, okay?
Tachometer dips, the vehicle begins to shutter.
You can feel it's just wanting to go.
Release the brake and then very gently back up.
And we back up to our pylon, okay?
Brake, push the clutch in before it stalls, okay?
Do that exercise 15 or 20 times because first and reverse are going to be your most difficult gears.
Once you master that, then you can do some of these other exercises and get out onto the roadway, but it's going to be a lot less embarrassing to do it here in the parking lot than it is out on traffic to try and do this.
Work in a parking lot to learn clutch control and how to drive a manual car.
Master clutch control.
Once you get that, then you can do these other exercises.
I'm in the parking lot so I don't have my seatbelt on and we're just going slow.
But now we're going to go a little bit faster so we'll do up the seatbelt, all right?
Out to the friction point.
I still have my foot on the brake.
Release the breke out on the clutch and we proceed.
And we're just going to drive around the pylons here, all right?
And we turn and we bring the vehicle to a stop.
Driving Your Manual Car in a Parking Lot
Push the clutch in and break, out to the friction point, off the brake, nice and easy on the clutch all the way out, and then throttle up.
Okay, turn turn the car.
You're going to let off the throttle as you're turning the steering wheel.
Wear comfortable foot wear to have good contact with the clutch when driving a manual car.
And the other thing I would recommend is as you can see, I have a piece of tape on the top of my steering wheel that'll allow you to keep track of the steering wheel at a glance.
Turning.
This time we're going to...
Okay, stop.
Let the car roll, push the brake, push the clutch in, brake, okay?
Out, tachometer dips, the car begins to shutter a little bit.
Off the brake.
Nice and gently release the clutch out.
That's clutch control.
You have to have clutch control to get moving off in a manual car.
When in neutral the selector rests at 3 & 4.
And that's the fundamentals of moving off and stopping a manual car.
First and reverse are going to be your toughest gears.
You must master clutch control before you get into the other gears and take off and start working in traffic.
Do this in a parking lot.
It's going to save you a lot of embarrassment.
Look up in the corner here for the complete video on driving a manual car for beginners.
That'll really get you going and give you all the details that you need to get yourself going and becoming proficient in driving a manual car.
Question from my smart drivers.
Do you have any tips for new drivers learning how to drive a manual car?
Leave a comment down in the comment section there, and remember, pick the best answer, not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day, bye now.
