Driving lessons redux
Posted: May 25th, 2009 | Author: Karolijn | Filed under: Personal | Tags: Personal | 4 Comments »Today I learned to drive again. I’ve had my full G licence for a while now, but today I felt like I was starting over again when I learned to drive a standard.
I’ve only been out twice before. The first time I didn’t really understand how the gears worked, so I really just followed instructions about when to do what. The second time was during a snow/ice storm without ABS and in evening traffic. Luckily that time the lights were in my favour and I only had to stop twice before handing the keys back.
Today I went out with a very brave Will Spaetzel and finally drove for real!
Once I got the hang of getting started, my biggest problem was overshooting the gears. As scary as this was when the car screamed in pain when I tried to downshift from 5th to 4th and ended up in 2nd, it’s a manageable problem – much more than not knowing what to do at all.
Some things I learned:
- Trying to start from 3rd makes starting from 1st easy
- Driving with the parking brake on makes driving with it off easy
- Shifting into 1st while moving makes a very scary sound as does shifting into 2nd at 70km/h
- Going up a hill at 50km/hr in 5th is not a good idea
Things to work on:
- Finding that sweet spot so I can start quickly
- Transitioning from 1st to 2nd
- Starting on a hill
- Parking
- Dealing with un-ideal weather conditions
- Downshifting for hills/passing
Some of those things I’ll be able to work on myself, others I’ll wait until I can get someone more experienced in the car (particularly the hill start). But I think as long as I make sure I’m careful not to accidentally end up in an area above my skill level, I should be able to practice on my own.
Huge thanks to Will Spaetzel who I now owe plenty of beer as soon as I can drive myself to #KWSMM
I was glad to teach you. You make for a great student. I wasn’t _too_ afraid to be in the car with you
You’ll be able to pick up most of the other things on your own. Don’t be afraid to venture into the city. Spend some more time in the countryside and you’ll be all set.
Do do I have to wait until Bill doesn’t drive to get beer from you?
heh, cool, yeah I drive a standard, driving an auto is boring. When on a hill in first, get alot more RPMs then flat, puts more wear on your gearbox but you dont hit the person behind you.
If your gearbox is stripped you can learn to powershift. Racecar drivers and big truck drivers have to do this by default. Basically you shift over, run your RPM high, let go of the accelerator and then shift into the gear while the RPMs are high. This will almost always jerk, but if your racing or if your gears are shit its better.
If your new almost everyone granny shifts. This is basically where you let the shift box go into the center before shifting into the next gear. Its slow so it should be avoided.
Its pretty easy to tell if your in the right gear, if you put your foot down and you have little or no acceleration, shift down. I sometimes run in 4th in the city to save on gas, but if you do this you do this and stay in the gear it takes longer to brake and speed up. So if you have to do either of these always shift into a lower gear. Yes if you want to speed up or slow down you shift into a lower gear. The difference is you do not use your accelerator if you want to slow down. The only gear you should not do this is 1st. Unless you are going up a monster of a hill, never shift down into first other than to stop as if you shift into first at anything but a crawl you will jerk. Basically first is to start or tow only.
If your lazy or its really busy in the city, most gear boxes are fine in second for up to 60km/h. You will get horrible gas millage but you will have a lot more control in both stopping and speeding up. You will probably hear the engine whine, but that doesn’t mean your hurting it.
When I was learning, me and my uncle went for a 100km ride on backroads. The first thing to learn is braking and shifting into first, you can do this about 100 times in a parking lot.
Never coast on the clutch, you will quickly destroy your gears, shift out of gear to coast or if your gearbox starts going out of control.
One sweet deal about a manual, you do not need a battery or a starter to get it running. Shift it into 2nd(first if 2nd doesn’t work) and have someone push/pull you with the clutch down, when they get you rolling slowly let the clutch out and the motor should start. This is very useful if your starter goes, because boosting will not work.
Congrats again on learning to drive a standard! It’s a great skill to have.
If you ever want someone to go along to #kwsmm, you know how to reach me!
That’s some great feat. I can’t drive a standard at all. My first attempt was my ex’s Porsche Turbo. It was not a good site. He almost cried when I stalled his car when I started the car.