Teaching someone to drive a manual

[dewolf]

I'm teaching my 16 year old learner son at the moment in the Boxster. He is mastering it well. I have taking him hills driving where upshifting and downshifting while braking etc are the norm. He loves it. Plus, when your son is older he can say "I learnt to drive a manual in a Porsche".

[KevinH1990]

I taught my daughter on our 94 Camry - the same car we used to bring her home from the hospital. The car had over 250k on it and the clutch had been replaced at 180k. She definitely put some wear and tear on the clutch, and I'm glad it wasn't on the Boxster.

Unfortunately, there just aren't that many manual transmission cars around anymore that you could beg or borrow and use as a substitute for the Box. When the Camry became uneconomical to fix, I bought her a Civic with a manual, but it seemed like there were 5 or 6 automatics for every manual I could find on Craigslist. The Honda clutch is much lighter than the Boxster's and to be honest, the shifter is more precise.

[recycledsixtie]

Way back in the 60's I was teaching my girlfriend to drive a standard shift (we were in our teens) and we were out in the country. It was a Morris Minor.She started doing this lurching thing with the gas and the clutch while we were both getting whiplash. Next we hit a pothole at the same time. After that was over I took over and drove back to school and the right front wheel collapsed. Apparently the stub axle broke.
We held up traffic for a long time till the Morris was towed away. Teaching somebody to drive is tough. Stickshift is tougher

[Overdrive]

The Boxster was my sister's first Porsche and first manual car, ever. I had to drive it home for her from the dealer (with her in the passenger seat, of course). I taught her how to drive it in 3 days, and yes, she stalled it several times, but she picked it up fast. I was certainly concerned about her ruining the clutch if she didn't pick it up quickly, but it was the only available manual car at the time.

You could always go and pick yourself up a $500 Neon with a stick that no one could care less about before or after the learning process.

[Gforrest2]

Timely thread. I too am in the process of teaching my 18 year old son how to drive a stick. After one lesson he's said, "No way, I'm only going to be driving automatics". Luckily, I have an F-150 and other than the long throw, it's very easy to drive. Easy clutch, broad engagement point, and torquey engine. My Boxster on the other hand is somewhat hard to drive. I learned on a manual and have driven them for 35 years, but stopped on a hill, I'm nervous in the Boxster, especially if someone is right on my ass. So my kid will not be driving my Boxster, even if he masters the Ford.

[dewolf]

Taught my oldest son to drive a manual in my 930. Now he can get in any manual car and drive it..

[Overdrive]

Originally Posted by dewolf

Taught my oldest son to drive a manual in my 930. Now he can get in any manual car and drive it..

That's the way I see it. If they can learn to drive a stick on a car like a Porsche they can really drive anything.

When my sister drove my mother's Alfa Romeo Graduate, now being a seasoned manual driver, she had no trouble at all, and was singing all sorts of praises to the ease of the Alfa's clutch compared to hers.

I dunno, I kind of appreciate the slightly unforgiving nature of the Boxster's clutch...I get rather sloppy and lazy driving the more domesticated sticks in many other cars.

[thstone]

I would use my Boxster to teach someone to drive stick in a minute. Its a modern car so its not that hard to learn on and its not that hard on the clutch.

Here is how to teach them: make the new driver get the car going using just the idle. When they can do that they have learned how to slip the clutch so they "feel" the engagement point. Then just have them do it faster with a little throttle and off they go!

[Overdrive]

Usually the first thing I have them do is just lift right up off the clutch and stall the car so they know what that feels like, and understand that if they start to feel that sensation that they need to depress the clutch to keep from stalling.

I happened to find a parking lot of a place that had recently closed down at the time that the car was bought, and part of the lot had a very gentle slope to it, so I started her off pointed down the slope so the clutch would very easily engage, then turned her around so she could practice a (very) gentle hill start.