How to teach a girl how to drive stick?
 

Well i need to teach a girl how to drive a standard transmission. The problem is, she is friggen clueless no matter how hard to try to explain it to her. Is there any reading I can recommend to her so she can try to understand it before trying to actually practice?

send her to a driving school that teaches it...unless she has her own car she can fcuk up

don't explain the mechanism of how it works, just tell her what to do (at first, explain it later)....have her sit closer to the steering wheel at first also...people have a hard time doing precision work (clutch movement is sort of precise) with their legs

practice the movements with the car not running......

try so video games at the arcade..... not the best but just to get the idea of the clutch and shifter....

how is a video game gonna help?? in games u just dump and accelerate...

going to teach the gf in a couple weeks..should be fun.

I agree, and too few video games actually have clutches

Its hopeless....lemme tell u guys, dun make the mistakes i made when teaching my G/f....1) dun use a car w/lots of toque 2)dun use a lowered car

When i taught my g/f in the TJ i had, it scared the **** out of her whenever we stalled, since it hop up, n it was a very scary feeling to girls. After we used my EL, didnt work as well, cause the sparcos were to low and the suspension was to firm, which gave her a lot of pressure everytime a bump came n she'd juss take her foot rite off the clutch....

go to the arcade, u can show her all the steps and she can practice right beside u...people learn better when they get to see everything happen, much easier for her to see at the arcade than in ur cramped little civic...

after that, try it without the car running...

use the rope/steeringwheel/accelerator/clutch method (difficult to describe)...

i have taught my ex-gf before.....yes, i agree, don't explain the mechanism too much first, but atleast, tell her some very basic infor like how the clutch work, it helps

if she knows how to drive auto, it won't too bad IMO

tell u my story, after my ex got a G2(she only driving when she was in the "training mode", so she never driven in her own), i had taught her how to drive stick, 15mins/day, taught her for 3 days, just let her driving in the parking lot, and used 1,2 gear only. in the 4th day, when i woke up...........u guys guess what happened??? :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:she told me that she bought me some breakfast, and bought something from supermarket.............BY DRIVING MY CAR.........:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

oh....one more advice

don't eat too much before u get on the car cuz u will be like riding on a wild horse..........LOL

just joking

Its prob easier in a car other than a honda. Lack of torque makes it harder to modulate the amount of throttle you need to get the car moving. More torque=less throttle IMO

Try teaching her in a parking lot covered in snow. Make sure you have winters on.I tried to teach my GF and I'm pretty sure she broke my engine mount.:cry:

Re: How to teach a girl how to drive stick?
 

You teach the same way you would teach a guy. There is no difference really. Some guys can't drive standard either no matter how much you taught them.

Unless she is naturally short in leg length.

In 10-15 mins I had my gf (now wife) driving around an empty parking lot in 1st and 2nd gear....she didn't do too bad for some one who didn't have a clue to begin with...

At the time was driving my 94 V6 cavalier, lots of torque=hard to stall.

It's hard to explain to someone in words something that you have to 'feel', like the clutch and how much gas to give it.

Also drives me nuts when they keep asking questions like "how do I know when to shift?" and "how do I know which gear to be in".....they also like saying: "It's too much to think about"....LOL..

:haha:

With some time and practice most ppl can do it no problem.:thumbup:

How I learned and this works every single time I've thought someone.

Press the clutch in
Shift into first gear
Release the clutch till you feel it starting to grab and the engine bogs down a bit
Give it a lil gas
Finish releasing the clutch.

Practice first gear starts as getting a manual vehicle moving is the hardest thing for a noob. Shifting can up later.
Also if you have a friend with a 5spd Jeep, I highly reccommend that. Put it in 4LO and you won't stall it out as easily.

jaz send her to driving school.. so U hav to worry breaking ur Car...

i've been getting my gf prepared for awhile now. sometimes when we drive i let her shift, so she knows when to shift with my car by the sound of the engine. so that hopefully will make things a little easier down the road.

When you gettin that grazer of a hit fixed on your car d00d3?

the ferrari game at dave and busters is sick for that if u wana try it on a game
it alctualy stalls n chit

otherwise, yea as said b4, driving school all the way

Its for my sister. She can drive auto but i'm getting too frustrated trying to explain it to her. I think I'm just going to get her to learn by doing. Hopefully she doesn't mess it up!

The reason I HAVE to teach her is because I want a new, more presentable car for business, but at the same time I don't want to get rid of my car since I have a lot of money in it. Id rather give it to her and still be able to drive it on the odd weekend here and there.

There is no literature I can present her with beforehand? Anything online or even at a bookstore? Is there a "driving standard transmission for dummies" ?

soon i hope. i was going to get a hype-r door for $50, but then it doesn't have side moldings and would look off, so i'm still looking around

google it... i have found so much stuff on how to drive manual on the net for friends...

ill teach her... im really good at teaching people manual... i taught a few of my frieinds... one of them that now races every car he sees (***cough ****cough... you know who you are)

did you teach her to listen for redline? haha then she won't shift until redline every gear hahhaa

The explination of the clutch is essential for sure.
I usually tell people to put it in 1st gear and SLOWLY come off the clutch like your going to be ghost riding, the allow them to roll and apply the clutch and brake; this way they learn the "Engage" Point. Then i describe what the car is doing,
ie: shuddering on slow release of the clutch before the engage point.
To show them thats a good place to start applying throttle, once the brain understands the body understands

lol raj. trust me she isnt gonna learn anytime soon
let her get comfertable just driving an automatic car first then go for this

now that is a mission i thought 1 of my girls to drive stick i was surprised she did pretty good for a 1st timer n didnt give a shi abt the car cuz it was a old ass rusty golf thats sitting in fornt of my frend house now

show her this:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/clutch.htm

Some ppl have it, some don't.

Friend of mine never drove stick in his life...we taught him and now it's 2nd nature to him.

Have another friend, and he refuses to even try, says he can't do it, says he tried years ago and never even got the vehicle moving.

Nobody taught me, I learned on my own (and grew up on a farm driving standard tranny tractors etc...since I was 5).

Teaching the engage point is the best way to go... get them into an empty parking lot and just lift their foot off the clutch until it engages NO GAS at first... i taught my girlfriend and my 12 year old brother, of course my brother was in 4th gear before the day finished.
its pretty easy once u break it down in plain english, or use other terms/examples to explain what u mean.

lol no, she's pretty good and goes around 3700-4000 rpm.

I'd tried to teach my wife a few years ago, but she just couldn't get it and I didn't have the patience to keep trying. She ened up taking a 1 day driver's ed course that was partially in class. Now she absolutely refuses to even consider a car that doesn't come standard.

put a dick in her mouth and tell her to start shifting it.

put a dick in my mouth and tell me to start shifting it. i luv the cawk


ha ha LMAO

LOL :D :D

Thank you for repeating what i said above you.

no... no amt of reading will help her. it's all practice.

have her watch your feet when you drive... have her watch it for like 20 minutes. then just hand it to her and have her practice.

just tell her to figure it out...dont even be in the car...if she wants to learn bad enough she'll figure it out

^the thing is she doesnt really care if she learns or not. I need her to learn so I can give her my car and buy a new one for myself. I don't want to sell it so id rather her keep it which would allow me to drive it every so often. I just keep dangling the free car offer in front of her hoping she'd jump on it.

wow, she's got you offering her a free car.. I think she's waiting for something bigger like a house or ring :goof: