View Single Post
      03-01-2009, 07:38 PM   #341
Remonster
Lieutenant Colonel
United_States
824
Rep
1,584
Posts

Drives: E90 M3
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: San Diego

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by trauma2020 View Post
I've just started learning how to drive stick and while I have the basics down, I think my biggest problem is getting going from a stop in 1st.. I can do it slowly but I'd be pretty shaky if I had to do it on a hill or in heavy traffic.

Right now I've found the smoothest way (or only way without stalling) for me to get going so far is to release the clutch , wait for it to hit the engagement point and the car to start rolling a little bit, then i give it a little bit of gas and release the clutch all the way. Since this does take a little longer than I'd like, I was wonder if this is the correct way and I'm just not used to it yet, or if there was a better way to do it?

I watched the "gentle launch" video on page 2 of this thread and saw that the guy would give it gas and rev up to about 1000rpm and then simply just let out the clutch smoothly - kind of the opposite order of what I was doing but seems a little more straightforward. Is that a better / quicker way to get going?

Thanks

-edit: just thought of another question. I read this whole thread and a lot of the discussion was on rev matching on downshifts.... If you were slowing down to take a turn on a normal city street you wouldn't need to rev match do you? Because you are braking as you clutch in and select the lower gear, so by the time you let the clutch out you should be down to an appropriate speed for that gear at the rpms you were already going right?
To answer your first question, I use the same method as the video you mentioned: give it gas to about a thousand rpm and let the clutch out smoothly.

To answer your second question, I shift quickly all the time even when I'm just cruising smoothly and because of this I rev match all the time. Since I do it every downshift, I get a ton of practice. You don't really have to rev match but, as I said, I do it every time because it's better for the car and makes it smoother for my passengers. When you get it right, you can't feel the shifts at all.
Appreciate 0