How best to teach my daughter to drive a Miata

nosfatsug wrote:

> Well, the time has come and I am now teaching my daughter to drive my Miata.
> She quickly picked up the whole concept of a manual transmission and was out
> on the open roads after a short practice session in a parking lot. As with
> all new drivers to a manual transmission, the most challenging thing for her
> is the balance between accelerator and clutch when taking off from a stop
> (e.g., somewhere between stalling the engine and spinning the rear tires).
> Any advice to help her get the feel of the clutch and engine?

99% of people in the UK learn to drive on a manual car, mainly because
if you pass the test on an auto, you're only ever allowed to drive an
auto. In fact, automatic gearboxes - except on large executive cars -
have never been very popular over here, even when sold for no price
premium. It's a perceived "control" thing.

The main thing to remember is that you don't have to let the clutch all
the way out, all at once. I used to stall the car constantly before the
instructor explained this to me. The second thing, most important for
hill starts, is to allow the car to "sit up" on its suspension before
you release the handbrake.

In terms of good practice, NEVER use the clutch and throttle to hold the
car on hills, put the gearbox into neutral and take your foot off the
clutch when waiting for more than a couple of seconds at lights, and
learn to use the "dead pedal" (footrest) when not changing gear, rather
than riding the clutch. You know all this but she doesn't.

As for double-declutching when changing down...well, it's just for show
on a modern car, although the weak synchro on an NA gearbox means it
occasionally helps you go from 2nd to 1st when the gear oil is cold.

Lanny Chambers wrote:

> In article >,
> "nosfatsug" > wrote:
>
>
>>Any advice to help her get the feel of the clutch and engine?
>
>
> Take her to an empty parking lot with a moderate slope. Her mission is
> to hold the car on the slope by slipping the clutch, eventually making
> it creep forward and back a couple of feet at a time, without using the
> brakes, under complete control...while staying under 1500 rpm. Don't
> worry about the clutch--you can tell her to take a break if it starts
> smelling funny. You might let her know that most drivers NEVER learn how
> to do this, even though it's not particularly difficult. It just takes a
> little practice.

That might be a valid learning technique, but it's a very bad driving
technique; even if you don't mind buying a new clutch occasionally,
there's a big risk of rolling into the car behind if the engine stalls.

In article <45b23cbf.0@entanet>,
Zog The Undeniable > wrote:

> The main thing to remember is that you don't have to let the clutch all
> the way out, all at once.

When I teach someone to use a clutch, I tell him to let the pedal out
until he can feel the drivetrain load up, then hold the pedal there
until he hears the gears start to whine. At that point, the clutch is
fully engaged, and can be released. Modern clutches manage the
transition on their own, if the engine rpm isn't excessive.

> In terms of good practice, NEVER use the clutch and throttle to hold the
> car on hills

Of course. I was only suggesting it as a learning technique to build
confidence, and only on a slope just steep enough to make the car roll
backward. Still, a few thousand miles' worth of extra clutch wear is a
cheap price for a lifetime of confidence.

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 05:35:55 GMT, "tooloud" >
wrote:

>L Bader wrote:
>> Lanny hits another homerun...
>>
>> When Dad taught me to drive those (too) many moons ago, it was in a
>> '76 Honda Civic on a driveway with about a 10-15 degree slope. We
>> spent about half an hour doing nothing more than, "edge it forward,
>> let it back" using only clutch and accelerator.
>>
>> After the half hour he asked, "have you adjusted your mirrors?" When
>> I responded to the affirmative, he said, "Let's go shopping, you're
>> driving." And off we went to buy a Holley 750 for the truck...
>
>After doing that to that poor Honda for 30 minutes, I'd have driven it to
>get a new clutch kit.
>
><snip>

Actually, the clutch lasted another couple of years. It was the
headgasket that went courtesy a faulty thermostat.

- L



'97 STO, "Chouki"

// Change TEJAS to TX to reply via eMail //

Tell her its best to drive topless.

The only real shock I had was that if you put your foot down ina low gear
something funny happens to the back (especially in the rain :-) )

I was used to bigger boring cars and forgot real driving