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Re: Tips for a beginner?
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Posted by Tom Young [Email] (more from Tom Young) on Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:21:08 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: Tips for a beginner?, BZF, Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:00:01
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I'm no super-expert driver, but not having learnt how to drive until I was in my early-30s and having learnt on a stick, this is still sort of fresh in my mind (even though I guess it's close to twenty years ago now).

You need to get a sense of where the clutch engages, which varies some from car to car, and how the throttle interacts with this.

There are only two situations that are really hard. Otherwise, moving through the gears gets easy pretty quickly.

The first hard part is, alas, the start of your journey, setting the car in motion. You need to learn the point at which the clutch disengages and give the car just enough gas right at that point. Too little or too late, you'll stall. Too much or too soon, you'll spin or lurch. Find a nice level spot where you can practice stopping and starting until you're comfortable with it. You should get better and better at hitting the sweet spot and gently easing into motion.

The other tricky one is how to hold the car when pointed uphill. There's a balancing point of clutch and throttle where you can be in first gear with foot off the brake and the car will remain in place. You'll have to find some place where you can practice this without risk (or undue embarrassment), but once you've mastered it, you're over the worst.

As your confidence increases, work on spending less and less time with the clutch depressed. And try to not get into the habit of sitting with the clutch in while stopped at an intersection -- it's a hard one to break.

Be patient with yourself. This all will take some time. And don't fret about occasionally grinding the gears. It happens.

The Saab is an easy and forgiving car to shift. You're going to love both the car and, once you're squared away, how much fun it is to drive a manual.

Hope this of some use.

- Tom
74 MGB GT, 76 MGB roadster, 86 Ranger, 00 9-3

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