Learning to drive the 6MT
 

Hi Guys,

My first post here and I have a question. I am pretty much a noob with regards to driving a manual transmission...

How hard is it to learn to drive a stick on the RX-8?

Probably not much harder or easier than any other stick. I sure wouldn't want to be learning on my way home from the dealer though.

If you have a really good friend with a manual, you might be able to get them to teach you. If not, check with your local driving schools, they may be able to help. Learn to drive a stick, you won't be sorry. :D

Good luck!

Dave

I learned to drive a stick on a brand new Miata. Didn't know how to drive the car home when I bought it, so the dealer delivered it to my home. I had the rest of the weekend to learn before I drove it to work the following Monday morning. Had no trouble at all. Yeah, of course I stalled out at a couple lights, but I still did that on rare occasions eight years later. It's really no big deal. You'll do fine.

When you have to drive, you will learn. Though, I'm sure the RX8 is much easier to drive for first timer due to its soft clutch and rev friendly; although I would not recomend you learn to drive while you break-in the car, 'cause you might break something else :p

But honestly, learn to drive stick isn't hard if you have a good instructor (friends who will let you drive his/her car?). Took me 5 minutes, then a few months to master.

I think it may not be the best car to learn on because the car doesn't really let you know when to shift. It is so quiet and it doesn't really give an indication that you need to shift.
That being said, it really isn't too difficult to learn. You can learn all the essentials in one session and be totally comfortable in just a few weeks. If you have a different car to practice on, that would be great but if not, I'm sure you could learn just fine on the 8. I learned to drive stick on my 94 RX7 and it didn't take me too long to get the hang of it.

Loco is right. One weekend(or a two-day couple-hour session) with a patient and knowledgeable passenger you'll have it licked. Then you can graduate to steep uphill starts. No E-brake cheating!
:D

If you ride dirt bikes it comes much quicker. ;)

Worste case senario he can look for the shift light to tell him when to shift. Once he has learned how to shift he can worry about performance shifting, etc.

As far as going to driving school, not much point unless it is a performance driving school. My son learned to shift in a parking lot in less then an hour. He learned how to launch, panic stop, emergency lane changes, at a performance driving school/autox school. Best investment I ever made.

I can't stress this enough to anyone just learning to drive, especially a performance car like the Miata or the RX8. Get thee to a performance driving school and find out where the limits of the car and the driver are in a safe environment, not on the street.

If you are going to drive it in the winter, take it to a winter driving school. Also a great investment.

I'm a noob at this too... but I intend that to be a short term concern as it always has been.

so my noob question is, for an upshift, is it just throttle down to a stable 3.5krpm, then just let the clutch out slowly until you feel the car move?

How long till I can heel and toe? :)

Thanks!
 

Thanks guys for all your helpful suggestions! :)

Us noobs greatly appreciate it! :D

I am also a noob when it comes to a mt. Although I have enough experience to "get it home", I am concerned about driving in stop-and-go traffic with lots of up-shifting and down-shifting. (I will be driving in the D/FW metroplex). Also, many people say that driving a mt in traffic day in and day out begins to wear on you after a while. Is this true or do you get so used to driving it that you don't even really think about shifting anymore?

It can be a bit tiring yes. Esp. when traffic just rolls forwards a few feet, then stops, rolls, stops, repeat. Those times can be annoying. But hopefully your commute won't be like that everyday. And yes, after a while you become so used to shifting that you really don't think about it anymore. I'd driven manuals for 11 years straight. I bought an automatic in 2001, even though it was an electronic auto-manual there's so substitue for really shifting your car. Nevertheless, I disliked the auto so much that I specifically went looking for a manual.

Maybe those times are just annoying for everyone :p

I learned manual on my current FC RX-7.

definitely need to rev it up a bit more than a piston engine car to get it rolling from a stop.

but, because I learned on a rotary, piston engine cars now feel like a piece of cake :D

I drive my miata in stop and go traffic a fair amount. What I like to do is leave it in a low gear, 1st or second until the traffic really starts to flow. Leave a lot of room between you and the guy in front of you so that you don't have to stop. If you need to, leave it in 1/2 and let in the clutch and coast rather then step on the brake. If you try to go up to 3 or 4 you will be going too fast for the traffic and will catch up to the people ahead and have to slow down a lot. If you take it a bit slower you won't catch up and you wont need to shift/stop.

Most auto drivers ride the brakes since that is the only way to slow the car. If everyone starts to step on the brake it makes a chain reaction that quickly brings the line to a halt. By driving a bit slower, I hardly ever stop or need to shift.

Allow room for the idiot in the next lane to move over in front of you. One thing that often stops traffic is that some turkey did not plan ahead and is now stuck in the fast lane and needs to get to the next exit, 100 feet away. If you allow room, people can change lanes without slowing you down.

Also, be curtious. Racing up to the guy in front of you or riding his bumper is only going to dent your nose. Leave room between you and him, let other people in in front of you, you will get home a lot faster and in a better mood.

I've been driving a stick for about 5-6 years now. I first learned on a friend's Camaro who's engine was so beat that if you idled and turned the wheel without giving the car gas the power steering pump was enough to stall it (compression very bad).

Anyway, even after driving for 5-6 years it still took me about a week of driving the RX-8 to get really familiar with it. That, however, is probably due to the fact that my two previous cars (Firebird and Z28) both had heavy gas and clutch pedals. The RX-8 gas is touchy in comparision and this made it hard for me to match RPM when shifting because a little tap and I was at 5k and if I let off it what felt like a centimeter too much and it was down at 1k. Anyway, I'm pretty used to it now...but here are some things that may make learning on this car difficult in my opinion:

1) The gas pedal is so light and very responsive, which is nice when you get used to it, but in the beginning you need to train your foot to be pretty accurate on fluctating the gas.

2) The engine bogs very easily on take off, it seems to take a bit more work to launch it nice and smooth than other cars I've driven. Maybe I just don't like dropping the clutch from 2-3k as I'm not used to it...but I find that a reasonable release of the clutch with very light gas work with final release around 2k works pretty well.

3) My 1-2 shift took a bit, probably because I was babying the car however.

4) Matching RPMs was hard, but I found once I stopped babying the car and just drove it by feeling it out and stopped watching the hell out of the tack I got much better.

I'm learning to drive a manual on the RX-8 too. I've put 300 miles on it so far so here are my thoughts. I've always hated first gear because it was the hardest for me to get. I had only 2 hours of driving a stick before I got my 8 and I stalled a couple times coming home. After that, it got a little too much fun reving the engine and upshifting(watch your speedo). You get used to shifting in heavy traffic although I just leave it in first gear and coast instead of going 1,2,1,2 all the time. Now that I got first gear down, I'm working on inclines. Any tips for me? I tried heel/toe but I couldn't get it to work and there was a burning smell (presumeably the clutch) so I e-braked it and cheated. I'll probably be the first one on the forum to have to replace the clutch.

Heel and toe is more for downshifting and matching revs so you can power out of a corner. Not usually necessary for normal driving.

Unlike Toadman, I recommend using the e-brake until you get used to modulating your clutch and gas. It beats backing into someone on a hill just for ego sake.

I would find some empty hills and practice. Even a steep driveway. Basically you learn the "sweet spot" in your clutch, and rev your engine, and let the clutch out to that "sweet spot". You should be able to hold the car this way without any brakes at all, but this will soon wear your clutch out, so I don't recommend doing it, except the first couple of times while you are learning.

So, basically you quickly let off the brake and rev the engine, and let the clutch out until you feel it grab. This should all happen in a second. You really need to figure out what RPM you want to take off in, so you can rev to that point. Too much RPM and you burn clutches, too little and you stall.

Just keep practicing...I have driven manuals for 15 years, so it soon becomes second nature. So much so that I keep pushing a clutch and grabbing for a stick in my MPV minivan! :D

well, at least you're learning in your own car :) don't worry about stalling, everyone stalls, sometimes people get lazy with manual.