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It depends. I've answered this before, but whatever.

If I'm approaching a light at a regular speed, slowing down normally (and not a panic stop), there are two things that I do personally...

1. I can leave it in whichever gear it's already in until the car naturally slows down, then I'll brake and only throw it into neutral when I've slowed down a lot or right before the moment where the car begins to stall (based on rpms). I will do this if the light is yellow and about to turn red, or if I'm approaching a red light and are also behind cars, because I know I will have to come to a complete stop.

2. I can slowly rev-match/heel-toe (depending on how quickly I want to slow down) into lower gears, one at a time, if I am approaching a red light but anticipate it turning green before I come to a complete stop, or if I am far behind and I see the light turn green but with stopped cars in front of it, as by slowing down naturally and staying in gear, I don't have to lose much momentum or use much gas to pick up speed, all while staying in gear.

I will never just throw the car into neutral if the car is in motion, unless I'm almost going to come to a complete stop. There's nothing "bad" about it, though I prefer not to do it because in neutral the car has less control, and slowing a car down that is in neutral and coasting uses slightly more braking effort than to slow down a car already slowing down from coasting in gear, as staying in gear without any throttle input naturally slows the car down.

Compared to just throwing it into neutral, methods #1 and #2 use less fuel, since you have no throttle input and the engine slows down without stalling. (Staying in neutral still injects fuel since the car is not in gear but the engine rpms needs to spin at idle to not stall, even without throttle input.) Method #1 uses less fuel than #2 since you're not blipping the throttle (though the difference is probably very minimal) and causes less wear-and-tear since you're staying in gear (though again the wear-and-tear is minimal), but method #2 gives you the most control.

I completely agree with you.

However, I have found that the classic driving game "Hard Drivin'" (also "Race Drivin'") works wonders for teaching my friends, who had absolutely no idea what I was even doing with the third pedal in my car, the basics of driving a manual transmission car. Sure, it doesn't give the feedback of driving a real car, but it still taught them how to feather the clutch and shift smoothly. When it came time for them to drive a real manual car, they were much more confident and they were driving much more smoothly than others I have taught without the game. Also, they stalled out much less than the others.

Yeah pretty much what Deeznuts says

Although as opposed to what your mate says, I prefer to have constant braking rather than shift, brake, shift, brake.... this is where heel and toeing can be applied in daily driving. If you are not heel and toeing, it will wear the clutch a little more, but probably not enough to notice for a normal driver (unless you are racing...)

If youre going slow enough, like 40km/h or less, I see no problem in just popping it into neutral and braking until you stop. Or just rev match without any braking if you feel it might change to green, then you will be in a lower gear to be able to continue smoothly

Anyone got tips for a friend of mine who is trying to drive a Stickshift in an AW11 MR2? (He does great in other vehicles, this is causing to be quite a nuisance for him.)

I wouldn't think the MR-2 is any special, if it's not broken in any way, it should not be a problem if he drives manual without any problems in other cars?

Could it be that the AW11 is a cable clutch? I'd think it would be hydraulic, but just asking, since I don't know for sure.

i believe aw11s use a hydraulic clutch system.

is the clutch oem?

could also be the throttle sensitivity. because the ae86 is sensitive. my friends whove been driving stick for years try to drive it either burn out, or stall. they say its because i have a 6 puck unrpung clutch making the clutch foot heavy, and the gas is very responsive at the lightest touch.

that may be the case. or he might just not be comfortable with the car yet.

This post has been edited by xsleepydrifterx on Aug 8 2009, 03:07 PM

Having driven at least a dozen or so rollas over the years, I can easily say they are one of the easiest cars to drive when it comes to manual. I would easily say that a vast majority of the "issues" with your car are absolutely from your clutch. That kind of clutch is either off, or on with very little slip point.

Do you have a lightened flywheel?

I still say that it would take just a couple minutes to get used to it, unless it was a really extreme setup ( race clutch, lightened flywheel, etc. ).

So...

When I first came to Japan, I'd never had any experience driving stick on a RHS (Right Hand Steering) vehicle. But I must say, I've adapted to it quite quickly.

It's pretty much become second nature again, as if I'm back in my Impreza, but only on the right hand side.

I'm also proud to say that I learned exactly and how to do (intentionally) heel and toe last month after my meet up with DJmisio. Funny thing is, there was no demonstration. He just told me how to do it briefly. On the way home i tried it and it worked. Downshifts were smoother. Thing is, I've always been doing a sort of heel and toe when downshifting, but at slower speeds. I just never did it the proper way at higher speeds.

The RX-R also sounds cooler when shifting down and going into a corner too. Still, I gotta work on it to get it bang on.

My friend with the Evo 3 told me it takes about 15 minutes to get used to RHD.

Skyline guys locally were saying a couple hours at most.

Yes, took me like 5 minutes when i actually tried stick with my friend's GTR (my first RHS+manual trans driving experience) on Myogi.

But to actually go quickly, it took me a few drives up and down the mountains (which is like a couple of hours).

If he can drive one manual car, he should be able to drive any manual car....

Obviously you need to get used to each cars biting point, but that takes a matter of seconds.....

If he really cant drive it, as most people have said, there is probably a technical issue with the car...

As for LHD/RHD, coming from the British Isles, I had never driven a LHD before, my first LHD experience was a test drive in the E92 BMW M3 (the 400bhp V8 one )
The first shift was the weirdest, just felt unnatural, my left hand wanted to move but after that it was ok. Although I couldnt coordinate my feet for small rev matching or heel and toe downshifts, with the shifter being on the otherside....

I learned to drive stick on a Jeep. I still drive auto though because I'm afraid of stalling in traffic and getting honked at plus I'm bad at stopping on sloped surfaces with stick shift

This post has been edited by ZeetherKID77 on Sep 5 2009, 05:59 AM

Practice makes perfect

Not having driven a manual tranny vehicle for 6 months (except for occasionally - like once or twice driving my friend's R34 GTR), I have a slight, slight, slight, almost microscopic fear of uphill slope stops in heavy traffic (especially when the guy behind is a moron who likes kissing my bumper) with my KK4 RX-R, even though I have over 4 years of experience driving manual trans with my GM6 2.5RS (which I basically had no problems with manual trans). I guess I just needs to get used to the correct biting point of the clutch on the KK4 (which I am still not confident with, cuz it's much lower than the GM6), but I'm getting better slowly.

Just takes practice.

From the Gen 2 MR2/5SFE/5 Speed -

Make it a point to dump the clutch and kill the engine - get a feel for how hard this car lunges. This will happen on occasion in stop and go traffic. The MR2 WILL lunge faster than you can hit the brakes, even with a weak engine.
The backend gets tail happy with loose gravel on the road
Lengthy slow to hard braking, and hardbraking in general will make the car tail happy
Puppy dog in the rain (front and back are tail happy)
Oil change gets smoother shifting (?!)
Steering/Shifting become better on hotter days (?!)
Handling is better with windows up/t-bars on/front lights down/tire in frunk/weight in the back
Be weary of shifting in sharp turns or taking sharp turns in third gear or higher
Always brake and release brake before turning
1st gear has a lock, can't shift into it unless I'm under 10 mph
Reverse has the same lock - sometimes kicks in even when in a standstill
Wiggling the shifter removes the lock, sometimes.
1st gear and 2nd gear hate each other
2nd gear hates me
3rd and 4th gear can be interchanged in city/town driving.
4/5th gear can be interchanged on the highway
Shift around 2500 RPM for better gas mileage
Engine doesn't accelerate as swiftly after 4000 RPM
Engine will start to bork at anything under 1100.
87 octane and the car's engine borks more often, 89 octane for easier shifting without the bork
This car is insane in reverse, slip that clutch or the car will slip you!
Let off the gas, clutch in, shift, gas in lightly, slip the clutch until it starts to vibrate (hard to explain), gas in firmly, let off the clutch, gas in hard - Whole process is easier at higher gears
It takes one full minute to deaccelerate from either 65/80 MPH (I forget which) to under 5 mph.
Engine is in the wrong spot, extremely tight handling, car spins out easy, avoid any sharp movements. This car performs the death dance in gravel and rain.
Car will oversteer into corners, understeer at the apex and oversteer again - steering correction is a must if it understeers with all momentum towards the engine at the end of a corner
Brakes are not very effective, nor can they be felt at higher speeds. Use 'em on anything below 30 mph. Anything higher, use engine braking, moment slowing and downshifting.

Gen 1 MR2 I hear has tighter handling and moves around like a go-kart. These people are far braver (and often younger!) than I.

And lastly, clutch in, "Our father, who art in heaven, I'll be there in a minute."

This post has been edited by Yozuki on Sep 7 2009, 06:49 AM

I'm pretty sure what he means is with the clutch in and braking, to match the gear to your speed. That way if you're approaching a light that suddenly turns green, you can be on your way instantly instead of having to glance at the speedo and figure out what gear you should be in.

I also just want to put out there that whether you're in an MR2 or any other car, you really shouldn't leave high speed braking to your engine alone. Not just because it's harder to replace a clutch than it is to replace brake pads, but if your instinct is to fumble around downshifting when traffic suddenly stops ahead, or if something fell off a truck onto the highway, you're probably not going to stop in time.

Question: What is engine braking?

At the moment, in most cases, I hold down the clutch and apply the brakes. When I can anticipate braking (ie see traffic light turning red or stopped car in front of me), I put the car into neutral, coast, then apply the brakes. Is this a good practice?

I'm currently learning on my AW11 MR2. First gear is really sensitive: need to apply a lot of gas when letting off the clutch before the RPM dips below 600 (idles at 1000) or the engine will stall. However, my dad had no problems driving the car so it's probably just my inexperience. Going reverse is the opposite: I don't have to give it any gas and it'll go into reverse with no problems (most of the time), though it'll vibrate like hell and stall if I don't give it some (after already in reverse).

It's a really fun car. I think I'll enjoy it even more after I get more comfortable driving it.

Engine braking is just that, braking (Slowing down) with the engine. If youre in gear, and you let off the throttle- the engine will slow the car down. If youre braking to a stop its fine to coast/brake in neutral (a good wya to save some gas is to coast further to a red light for example, most people tend to accelerate to the red light and then slow down) but if you dont plan on stopping, i like to keep it in gear. I'd taught myself/practiced to heel-toe from day one of my driving.

This post has been edited by sideways on Nov 30 2009, 08:50 PM

You mean that on the same day/first day that you learned how to use the clutch/change gears/ever drove a manual car etc, you were already practicing how to heel-and-toe???

I really can't coast while in gear: the car rumbles and feels like it'll stall if I don't give it gas. I thought it was a quirk for manual cars since I do brake like that on my automatic. Could be a problem with the car itself, though.

I figured it would be better to learn how to drive before trying to figure out heel-toe.

Quoted because it's the smartest line I've seen in this thread so far.

Learn to drive before figuring out how to heel-toe.

Edit:

Now that I think back to my experience, driving - as soon as driving became more and more fluent and routine for me, I started naturally blipping the gas and shifting. I didn't even realize I was doing rev-matching until someone told me exactly what I was doing.

So yeah, learn to drive first, everything else will follow.

This post has been edited by WRX DEMON Type R on Dec 1 2009, 05:51 AM

I just can't wait to get some kinda stick, RWD goodness. Few more years...