New from NJ!

[potownrob]

Some words of encouragement: It took me a good month to not be bucking and stalling all over the place, 6 months to get pretty smooth, and a year to realize I had it down and have confidence in my shifting, and this was after having driven several other people's manual cars over the past 4 years (albeit only once in a while). Give yourself at least a month to drive more normally. Even when I went from my Civic to the Maxima, it took a month or two driving the Maxima to figure out the clutch and get smooth shifts. This may not seem encouraging but I hope it encourages you to be patient with yourself .

edit: i don't think the weekends only thing will be as bad as you think; it's sometimes good to take a break from things and come back to it and i doubt you will get rusty in the meantime, once you have a good idea of what you're doing at least.

[beowulf80]

Nice car man! Beautiful lines. As for the manual and getting smooth starts: Just keep at it, it'll all come eventually. My Camaro was the first manual car I've owned as well. I won't pretend to be an expert, I'm not even close. What worked well for me was alot of practice with no-gas launches in 1st. You should have plenty of torque to pull this off. On anything but an uphill slope you can always default back to this method until you're more confident. There's a good article on no-gas lauches in the FAQ section. Once you have the confidence to not overthink it and just feel for the engagement points it'll become second nature. Now I've gotten a feel of the engagement fine enough that I can do no-gas launches in 2nd or even 3rd. Before everyone starts flaming me for it, it was just to see if I could, not a regular event! =]

Stalling sucks. I know I was embarresed when I did it. Just give yourself some time and you'll get the hang of it, I promise!

I also garaged the car over the winter like you're planning to. I was nervous that I'd lost my skill in those 4 months. But after about 10 min I was right back where I was when I put it away. Just like riding a bike. =]

[beowulf80]

Oh, and second thought...with a higher powered car its going to be harder to drive it smooth until you get your rev matches down. I know if I miss by even 200 rpm and have a quick clutch foot I get a pretty good jolt. Whether its an acceleration or deacceleration depends if I overshoot or undershoot the match speed. Again, this will come in time. Good luck!

[AHTOXA]

Nice car!

Don't despair because you're bucking and stalling here and there. This is how we all learn. All of us still occasionally stall no matter how long we've been driving. It'll take you a bit of time but the learning curve is strange. It'll be as if you've made no detectable progress for a while and then - bam - and something clicks and all of the sudden you've made a leap. At least that's how it was for me when I was leaning.

Have fun with your car and drive it often. Don't let it sit too much and gather dust.

[FDSpirit]

Welcome. You're from good ol' NJ! You can drive fast there and not have to worry about anything since everyone there drives 90 . The people on this site will have you driving well in no time. Just practice practice practice and don't get discouraged . And like the others have said, none of us are perfect and we have our bad days.

[theholycow]

I don't plan on driving it in the rain/snow so the winter time may be out as well. I can only imagine that the amount of time in between driving sessions would make me at the LEAST really "rusty" in terms of my manual driving skills.

It's like riding a bicycle. I parked my VW for the winter late last year and have moved it in my yard a couple times. After not driving it for months and with its tires frozen to the ground I was still able to break it free without stalling.

[potownrob]

i think the 90 mph thing is because we new yorkers (upstaters at least) usually only drive on the highways in jersey, so all we see is yellow plates flying by (probably since they know where the cops hide out). i personally don't think jersey drivers are any worse than new york drivers, in general at least.

[lionhartzero]

Honestly...I think i'm getting better fellas! I do think that I can come off of the clutch a slight bit faster, but I'm definitely not on it for more than 2 seconds when launching from a complete stop, and all of my launches are alot smoother. Thanks again...and keep any new advice coming

[theholycow]

You're doing fine.

I finally un-mothballed the VW today and drove it to work. My first couple launches were a slightly imperfect see-saws but then everything was back to normal.

[lionhartzero]

Thanks. I think the thing that had me a little confused was the fact that, in my case at least, there seems to be ANOTHER "catch point" while releasing the clutch AND giving it gas that comes after the point of engagement when you're just releasing the clutch. For instance, when doing the no-gas starts/launches, you release the clutch until you feel that point of friction/engagement and let it sit for a while so that you can fully remove your foot from the clutch and the car doesn't stall.....understood. However, even after feeling that friction point, when I'd give it some gas I'd tend to come off of the clutch before feeling another "catch point" where i kinda feel that the car can take off w/o the clutch being pushed in (and this doesn't take long to get to and my launches are under 1200 rpms...MAYBE 1100..). Kind of like you let your foot sit at that sweet spot while giving it a lil gas for a really short amount of time before fully taking your foot off...this is the way it seems w/ my Cayman at least, and i haven't smelled anything burnin yet!!

[FDSpirit]

Nice to hear you're doing well! .

[lionhartzero]

Just saying thank you to everyone for all of the advice.. Yesterday was the first time that I can honestly say that I didn't stall at all during about 2 hours of driving to an event that I attended. EVERYTHING..from up/downshifting to launching is starting to feel "natural", and the "zones" of the clutch are really becoming more easy to find. I really felt like a TRUE manual transmission driver yesterday, and didn't even second guess myself when I got caught by a stop sign on one of the fiercest hills in the city...didn't stall out either!!

Looking back, I can honestly see exactly where my problem was, and it was coming off of the clutch way too early. I used to feel the initial point of engagement and come right off of the clutch while still giving it gas, but I realized that even after that point of engagement where the clutch is released and the car starts to move slowly, you still give it gas UNTIL you feel what I can best describe as a "catch point" where there car literally feels as if it tells ya that it's ok to let the clutch all the way out (and all this is done within 2 seconds). Now that I wait long enough to reach this point before coming off, I rarely stall...and I have to thank you guys for that!

[theholycow]

I had the same problem. I felt like once the car is moving, my clutch work is done and I can dump it the rest of the way. I eventually found a way to think about it that really helped, which may confuse others so I won't post it.

[FDSpirit]

It's an ancient bovine secret . I had the same issue when learning as well. I had to linger at the friction point for a second or 2 and then I could fully release the clutch.

[theholycow]

It's an ancient bovine secret . I had the same issue when learning as well. I had to linger at the friction point for a second or 2 after the car was moving and then I could fully release the clutch.

I put the important part back in there for you.