How long did it take you guys to learn stick?

[SkillaSX]

Do you guys think I can become pretty good at shifting within 1 day of driving? I'm saying like 8 hours of driving straight.

[Cold_Zero]

It takes time. You can probably drive to and from work. You will grind a gear or kill it from time to time. Just practice, practice, practice.

[96_S14_SE]

Took my a few minutes to get it into reverse my first time.... I was by myself (well my gf drove me up there), picking up an abused f150 with about 200k on it, from my fathers work to take home to move stuff. I basically taught myself from what I had heard about, or read, and proceeded on...

My dad said it was a 4 speed so I drove home on the interstate in 4th hehe. Got to a hill and while I didnt roll I did try to go from 3rd and stalled it 3 times before catching on and being the only one through the light.... Never did that one again though

Um a block later I found out it was a 5 speed when I shifted from 2nd to 5th hehe... After that first day all was good and I was shifting that pig faster then it had been in its whole life. I drove it a few hours a day for about 2 weeks, both empty and fully loaded as well Even left the old girl (s14) behind a couple of times and took the pig...

I didnt drive another manual for about a year or two and jumped in my friends ragged out 84 sentra (iirc) with 240k on it and proceeded, with another friend, to do some hot laps in the warehouses / storage areas where the shop is, like no time had passed...

[yeswepromise]

i think the best way to do it is to just get in the car and go straight to the street. its sorta like when a person wants to learn how to swim, you just throw them into a pool and they will figure it out. maybe you can do it like that with shifting.

[HongKongChick]

learned in like 30 minutes giving that i never drove before! so the stick is the first car i drove...

[MainEvent212]

i learned how to drive stick when i was like...damn 13? but i couldnt really get the hang of it cuz i never got to practice...after a while i knew all the theorys of race driving from video games mostly, but all theoretical stuff...so then i got my liscense and i started taking my parent's cars out...put the theory to practice like i've been doin it all my life..took me 10 minutes to learn stick all together

[Infamous]

you guys shoulda seen my older bro learning in this 85 stng he got....lmao. he was (at the time) 27 and it was his 5 foxbody stang, but the first manual one.....im surprised the transmission didnt blow within the first 50 miles of him driving it....;p;

[forsaken]

I learned on my first car... I remember first day i drove it went into a mcdonalds drive through lane and stalled about 8 times and peeled out like 4. Killed the clutch within the first week or so. After that it was all good.

[UncleBen]

Learned on a '97 Ranger 5spd. Started in gravel, then got to pavement and killed it 3 times before I got the hang of it. Now, alot of my friends have 5spds (I do now, heheh, well, not at my house yet, but its in the shop, woohoo) so I drove their cars all the time. I can shift faster than all but like one of them now. I dont even drive a 5spd as a daily driver, but I have been told several times I am a better shifter than even the people that own that certain car. So it takes time, but once you learn it, you can drive anything.

[Jesda]

Took me many tries. Overall a few weeks to learn it. Ruined a transmission in the process. Took I guess a year to learn how to drive it properly. Oh well, my Q45 has an automatic now. I do sometimes long for my old 1995 Mazda 626 5-spd.

-Jesda

[Bubba1]

My father didn't believe in automatics, so i was taught to drive with a manual transmission. Very easy

[f8sjester]

I learned test-driving cars before I originally got my 240 heheh

but basically, you'll learn the basics within the first day (2 at the most) . . . after that, it'll just take time to smooth everything out and get proficient at it. . . like everything, practice practice practice. . .

[Thee 240sx Owner]

I had an auto for my first car... and then i went to go drive me s13... (same one now) and i stalled out the first time trying to get out of first... i think that seems to be a major thing with everyone.. getting out of first.. so me and the guy test drove it around and bout 20 mins of driving it.. i started chirping gears... doing donuts.. (the guy was tellng me too) so it became habbit... One thing i do like bout my auto in my old car was not having to shift every 2 secs going from red light to red light..

[574-240sx]

Every car I owned has been five speed untill i bought my 240 last november. I bought it with every intention of converting it to manual. So a few months later I converted it to five speed. Also I might add it took me a hour of learning not to kill it and shift gears in a parking lot. Then the next day my dad took me to the most busy road in our city and said drive. About the third light i wasn't doing to bad, only stalled it twice. A cop was right next to me and i was very nervious, I let the clutch out too fast. Yeah the car did a little bunout. The cop looked over, looked at me then looked at my dad and knew I was learning to drive stick. Nick

[Thee 240sx Owner]

touching story.. almost made me cry (no really seriously it did):sad

[s15nc]

I had a used and abbused '96 mustang which I learned to drive stick on and that car had been in an accedent and had the transmission replaced and either they did not do it right or put some sort of cheap aftermarket clutch in there because the pedal was extreamly stiff, and the engadgement point was really slim (the reason it was cheap is because it slipped occationally not either of those). You would push the pedal a really long distance and when you came off the pedal you would go most of the way up and then the clutch would engadge in the shortest distance. I learned without too much of a problem in 30 mins in a parking lot but after I did not have too much of a problem but even right before I sold it if I was not paying attention I could easly stall it on a hill. I have never driven another car with the same feel as that one.

[240_Keyy]

I learned on a 1979 GMC Sierra with a "3 on the tree" shifter Boy was that ever fun. And the clutch was unassisted so you really had to push on that mofo to get it to move

Then I blew the motor

[[Zero-S]]

GOD HKC IS HOT!!But it took my a whole 10 minutes to learn stick (took the car out at about 6:30 in the morning, when mom would ***** at me cuz I didn't know how to drive it).

[BadMojo]

Do you guys think I can become pretty good at shifting within 1 day of driving? I'm saying like 8 hours of driving straight.

It's not rocket science. I'm sure you could become competent with 8 hours of practice. Don't expect to win Le Mans or anything, but you'll be able to get around.

It took me 3-4 days of about 1 hour practice a day to really get everything right. After that, it became easier the more I drove.

[SkillaSX]

Ok then, It'll probably be pretty easy for me to learn, cause I picked up on driving very quickly. I'm guessing that within a week or so I'll be a pro shifter.

[vintec]

um....for me, i dun do "power shifts" or practice it as soon i drive the car....i'll drive her as smooth as possible, trying to communicate wif her, feel the car....as soon as i got the "feel", i can do watever i want: power shifts, handbrake drift, heel & toe etc...there was once i drove a proton wira (malaysian made lancer), the she was so ez to communicate that i can do all those stuff after about 1km driving

so SkillaSX, feel the car first, talk to her

[darkeagle]

I had to learn a stick less than a week back when I was in highschool. Had to learn b/c I had to get my license when my sophmore year was starting. You keep practice with it you get better on shifting. Its not that hard to pick up on.

[Queamore]

I learned really fast in about 5 minutes. There was an emergency and I had to drive my friends Datona. It was a five speed. It died on me alot but by the time I got to the hospital I was a pro. I later bought it from him for 250 bucks and turned it into my first project car.

[Tino]

taught me myself, and I'm great at it, and I can't wait to get a got damn automatic!

[TurboKA37]

i learned by just moving cars around in my drive way when i wanted space to play basketball. the hardest part is starting off in first gear and the first time i took it for a real drive i could start the car on hills from a stop and all.

[Rockenreno]

Took my about 2 hours to really get the hang of it at first, then about 2 days of driving around to get used to the clutch in my new car. I haven't stalled since about a week afterwards, and I am learning to drive it better every day. Gotta work on shifting while the engine's cold so its less rough.

[pcbootleger]

I actually learned on a crappy 82 z28. the guy I bought it from told me what to do. I didnt even stall out on it until about 2 hours later. I was very impressed with myself. it was a little shaky but overall not too bad for a newbie. My father always drove manual cars and I always watched his hands and feet when he drove. I kinda caught on from there I guess. Now I drive a 5 speed 300zx and my passengers are very impressed with my shifting skills. they said they cant even feel it shifting. took like at least 4 months before it became PERFECTLY smooth. like everyone keeps saying, just keep practicing. Its not even that hard to start learning.

[TurboKA37]

i shift very smooth and i dont even have my liscense yet. its just when im with my parents that i dont shift as fast cause i dont want them to freek out but when i shift fast u cant even feel the shifts

[BB Turbo]

I learned on my bros old riced ford probe gt (POS, he knows better than to rice now, eagle talon now, and i convinced him to get a 91-94 240 hatch for his second daly driver) Back when was about 11. Since he was taught by my uncle (dad wasnt there at that time to teach him) he didnt learn all that well, luckily i got to learn from his mistakes.He got me to rev it up to 1 1/2 grand and hold it there, then down to 0 ten back up, til i got the hang of it, then he told me to put it in gear, slowly ease off the clutch while equally pushing in the accelerator. Learned how to drive normally within 45 mins. We were on a deserted straight road so i ot it into fifth, i was kinda scared but at least we didnt die. Im 15 now and my friends still dont know how to drive a stick. Oh yeah, also told me how downshift and everything to slow down, but then later realized it was putting n wear and tear on the clutch, so now he just suffer having to clean off the break dust off of his racing harts. When i was about 13 he taught me how to powershift, so luckily, i have a huge headstart on all my friends.

[spec-v5150]

I had a crash course in stick. My wife used to wake up and drive me to work everyday cuzz I coulnd't driv stick. She was pregnant at the time and one day she said I aint taking you to work. So I HAD to drive to work. It took me awhile to get there and quite a few stalls, but after that I was a pro. Then I didn tdrive stick for liek 2 years and had to re-learn when I got ym 240