So has anybody actually learned to drive stick on an RX-8? Considering all the issues with flooding, including related to stall, I wonder if it would be OK for the car or not? Is it only a cold stall, or even a hot stall, that could cause a flood?

I let my bro drive who hadn't driven stick in decades. I drove it a few miles first to warm it up, so in case he stalled... And he did. No flood.

I've stalled the car before, but only when warm. No floods.

Yea. Just let it warm up before you start "learning".

I test drove a brand new one still with the white hood stickers on it and I stalled it probabl 7 or 8 blocks away from the dealership. Restarted no probs. Then stalled it again probably 15 mins into the test drive and again no probs.

I stalled one during a test drive, in an intersection of course, it started right up no problem. I would not get paranoid about this.

This whole flooding issue is overrated .. don't worry. I learnt driving stick literally 20 yrs ago and didn't do it since then until I got the RX-8 09/2003, I stalled it twice the first week, and maybe once in the second week oh, and once when I was going up this REALLY steep driveway with wet fir needles, quite slippery..

I also don't give a sh!t on this warming up, I pull out the car almost daily and move it back in right away afterwards, when swapping cars in my tandem garage.

And it never flooded.



knock on wood :-) Maybe tomorrow morning I'll have bad news.

I'll raise my hand on this one.

I had driven stick a few times but not enough to really know what I was doing.

The first 8 I had I stalled it a ton of times...never had a problem starting it up again. But I was beet red with embarrassment, cuz everyone is looking at the car and you can feel them smirking as you stall out in a shopping center parking lot

In my case I lucked out b/c I had to send mine back due to a lot of scratches that they caused and I got a new one. This was on Sat. and I only stalled this new one once, in a really stupid incline situation.

Kewl, thanks for the feedback.

I wanted to allow my wife to drive the car if she needed to and she won't learn to drive an MT. Concern over that was the principal reason why I bought an AT, but I also was apprehensive about learning to drive an MT on a brand new RX-8. One dealer I spoke to had no ATs on his lot and, despite this, told me he thought it would be a mistake to buy the MT.

Having bought an AT and having flooded it, my advice to anyone considering the issue would be to proceed with caution, but certainly buy the MT if its wanted. No doubt there will be a week of trepidation, but if half the clowns in this forum have mastered the MT, I'm sure anyone can do it. ;)

Megareds is right.

And incidentally I prefer to be referred to as a "bozo" instead of a "clown".

Please keep this in mind. :)

Yep, put me down for Bozo too. I bought my first MT when I bought my 8. I've stalled the living bejeezus out of it over the past month (hmmm month ago today as a matter of fact.) Stalls are now quite rare and the whole MT thing is getting to be intuitive but it took me longer than I had figured. Anyway, all stalls were when the car was warmed up and in none of the stalls did I ever come anywhere close to a problem with re-starting the engine. I'm still new enough to the MT that I don't crank it and immediately shift into first, but that's a personal preference. I figure, if it works-don't fix it and so far by avoiding cold-stalls, it's remained flood free.

I'm glad I got the MT by the way but I did enjoy the test drive that I took in the paddle-shifting AT.....

I think the RX-8's MT is really smooth. I didn't try alot of 30k$+ MT, but compared to others MT I've driven, I think it's really easy.

Another smooth MT that comes to mind is the RSX-S.

Even being novice at shifting, I didn't come close to stalling it in my test drives, compared, for example, at the WRX which I did stall one or two times, and my friend's crappy colt which I keep stalling :)

Although I find the 8 to be an easy MT to drive compared to others I've owned, I also find it easy to stall on takeoffs due to the extreme quiet/smoothness of the engine. With the stereo going, I hardly can hear or feel the engine at all unless I take it close to 4k RPMs, and I don't usually launch that high, especially in stop and go traffic. Since I'm typically watching the car in front of me rather than the tach, I sometimes come close to stalling because I can barely feel the difference between an engine lugging 1300 launch and a nice, slow and smooth 2500.

Originally posted by DisneyDestroyer
So has anybody actually learned to drive stick on an RX-8? Considering all the issues with flooding, including related to stall, I wonder if it would be OK for the car or not? Is it only a cold stall, or even a hot stall, that could cause a flood?

I learned to drive stick on it.. 3 months now.. I still stall once in a while, usually while backing up out of the parking spot.. I stalled frequently when I was learning, but I have never flooded.

Pursuant to this conversation, what is the ideal RPM for a smooth launch?

As a new stick driver I tend to probably over-rev a little just to make sure I don't stall. Of course if I want a fast start than I intentionally over-rev but that's another story.

The reason I ask is I don't want to tear up my clutch by revving high and only partially coming off the clutch in stop and go traffic, which is what I'm doing now.

Is 2500 a good, smooth release point for the clutch going into 1st?

I learned to drive stick on my 8 and stalled it way more times then I ever want to admit to. Christ, I think I stalled it within the first 20 ft of driving it... never flooded though


I launch just off idle for the smoothest take off

Originally posted by Rotary Titus
I test drove a brand new one still with the white hood stickers on it and I stalled it probabl 7 or 8 blocks away from the dealership. Restarted no probs. Then stalled it again probably 15 mins into the test drive and again no probs.

Actually now that I think about it, I remember the dealer was VERY concerned with letting the car warm up before I go for the drive. He said something about the car being started for the first time.... now I know he was probably more concerned with the flooding... but probably isn't going to tell me until I ask :mad:

I am learning stick on my 8. Been at it for two days now. I've stalled it plenty of times, and it's actually getting quite frustrating. I'm having trouble starting from a stop and reverse. What's the trick to starting smoothly? I can't seem to figure it out.

mjd, try adding gas first then letting up on the clutch. 2500 rpm is good. I learned to drive stick on this car, and it does get nerve racking on a hill, but I am way good now. My car has never flooded, I think the flooding issue is mostly for AT.

The most difficult thing to learn for a stick newbie is to drive off on an incline (think San Fran). Have you guys learnt how to use the handbrake in such situations? Can be quite nerve-wrecking for a newbie, especially when there is a car on your tail.

Well since I´m german and english isn´t my native, what does it mean to stall or flood a car???
Do u mean if u rn´t able to sincronize ur gaz and clutch foot???

no one ever taught me how to drive a stick...I just kind of did it. But I was the only one who was able to teach my wife how to. (4 people before me tried!!) The key is patience, and make a very mindful effort to do this one thing. BE VERY SMOOTH. The key to a smooth take off is releasing the clutch as slowly or as quickly as you press the acclerator in. meaning, when you have the the clutch all the way in, don't start to release it until you begin to push down on the accelerator, and you don't have to really over rev the eigine before you start to release the clutch. It takes practice but you'll get it. Happy Learning!!

Originally posted by mjd
I am learning stick on my 8. Been at it for two days now. I've stalled it plenty of times, and it's actually getting quite frustrating. I'm having trouble starting from a stop and reverse. What's the trick to starting smoothly? I can't seem to figure it out.

Revving to 2500 is OK. After a while you will get a feel for where the clutch actually engages and it will become second nature. Once you learn on one, you will be able to drive anything. Be warned, that the RX-8 6 speed tranny is one of the smoothest units out there. Don't expect all other MT's to be this easy to drive.

I'm teaching my new girlfriend how to drive MT on my Mustang GT, and I am getting flashbacks from when I first learned on an 1985 Audi Quatro. It is all feel and experience. Don't worry about any damage to the tranny, it is designed to handle way more abuse than a few stalls, etc.

Originally posted by hotpot
The most difficult thing to learn for a stick newbie is to drive off on an incline (think San Fran). Have you guys learnt how to use the handbrake in such situations? Can be quite nerve-wrecking for a newbie, especially when there is a car on your tail.


damn its hard learning in the hills,yes handbrake is a must for newbei i still use it when a car is to close
the only good thing about drving stick in san fran is it makes u drive aggessive so you wont die out in a inclined stoplight or stop sign
my cousin has a stick and lives in a really steep hill he parks(facing the bottom of the hill) inches for another car and when he backs up he doesnt used the e-brakes
i guess pactice makes perfect

my dad let me drive it a few months ago when i was about to get my license. i already KNEW how to drive it, it was just the matter
of actually doing it. it was alot of fun, and now i can drive it all the time.

I learned to drive on an RX-7 and never had an issue. The only problem is the lack of torque makes for some more finesse.

Also I had never heard of the stalling issue on the RX-7, but that didn't have the side ports and all...

Well I picked up my RX-8 yesterday and stalled the car at least a dozen times. But I'm quickly getting the hang of it, which is really cool. One pointer my friend gave me about hills, is if you are on a hill, let your clutch out slowly until you feel it start to grab, and then take your foot off the brake and your car will not drift back. I attempted this myself and I was surprised, I didn't drift back except maybe a few inches.

Also just to let you know, this is the first manual I've ever owned, and the only training time that I have in a standard is the 15 minutes the dealer, and one of their sales people taught me in a honda civic. So my best advice as a newbie is slowly let the clutch out until you feel it start to grab and then just give it gas and get going. But hey wish me luck because I'm still picking up the whole standard thing.

I'm 20 years old and my family has owned nothing but MT cars. When I was underage and my father used to teach me on MT in parking lots in his All Trac Celica. He is also a believe in keeping driving aids off while learning. Its wierd, but I thank him for it. I will probably only buy MT cars for the rest of my life (unless everything goes F1 style... which would be cool) Actually, all the cars we have now are MT, including my sisters 91 firefly.

With that said though, with all the experience I've had in the last 4-5 years driving all sorts of different MT cars, they are all diffeferent. I find sports cars to be the easiest because you dont need to fully disengage the clutch (I mean, push the pedal in all the way). I don't have my 8 yet. I haveta wait another month. But on my two test drives I hadnt stalled it yet.

RX8 is my first manual car. Just driving from the dealer back to my house, I stalled 4 times. I got the 8 on July, back then no one knows about the flooding. I think the hot temperture in CA saved from flooding. Now, I paid extra attension to warm up the car before shutting down the engine.

I didn't have any problems drive the stick on the rx-8, I drive mostly manuel trucks and the rx-8 was the first car manuel car i ever drove.

Originally posted by CjsfastSS
Well I picked up my RX-8 yesterday and stalled the car at least a dozen times. But I'm quickly getting the hang of it, which is really cool. One pointer my friend gave me about hills, is if you are on a hill, let your clutch out slowly until you feel it start to grab, and then take your foot off the brake and your car will not drift back. I attempted this myself and I was surprised, I didn't drift back except maybe a few inches. One thing to remember - don't do this unless you really, really enjoy paying for clutch replacements.

I would recommend using the handbrake if required; even on hills once you've become used to driving stick even hills are no big deal anymore...