Driving a manual car

**Sazzy** · 04.08.11, 18:36

Originally Posted by sprite

In Cheatos defence; the section was about Hill Starts.

In many older cars or in extreme circumstances you would leave the vehicle in 1st gear to assist the handbrake. Otherwise you may return to where you left the vehicle only to find it at the bottom of a hill.

I know. I still put my car in 1st gear when I'm parked. We were talking about moving it to neutral and back when starting said car was not necessairy. This still stands.

Originally Posted by sprite

Cheatos, in what country are you learning to drive? Here in the UK we have rather strict driving tests (though some other countries have even more stringent rules). But what us rather interesting is that anyone who is not native to the UK is allowed to drive for 6 months without getting a UK driving licence - some of the things I've seen... wow.

I was allowed to drive a full year, by myself, with a learners permit. You get one of these after you pass the theoretical exam. There are some restrictions in both getting and using it, but it's good practice before doing the actual exam

Oh by the way, since we were talking about braking with your engine earlier, since no one actually said this, I thought I'd point it out:
Don't try to engine break moving from second to first gear! A lot of cars don't like this and will feel like you're kicking down your brakes! (unless you're super careful when releasing the clutch -> far more than usual)

**cheatos** · 06.09.11, 05:47

Today is my 2nd try, I failed once

, reasons:
1) 3 stalls in a row. (read below)
2) failed parking, even though I'm a "master" of this, I got blind and saw the wrong column, so I was about to hit the front when the examiner braked for me ..meh.
3) I turned at gear 3 when I must have used the 2nd.
4) failure to use the mirrors

.
5) wrong lane.

comment about the first fail reason:
the weather was hot , the examiner decided to turn on the air conditioner, because of that, the car stalls faster (must release the clutch slower than normal (normal = without ac)), anyway, after that, my grandma was around so she decided to pick me up, it told her about my fail, she said ok, and how she failed 1 time before getting the license....fast forward, we came to a complete stop on a hill, I decided to notice how she'll react to that..since i'm failure

, instead of reaching the friction point, she just removed her feet from the brake, and pressed the gas pedal, after that she immediately released the clutch a bit and tada no friction point necessary (I call it stall point

).

I asked more about this, and this is safe for every possible condition however, It's only advised by "professioanls who can control their both legs"..also the car may roll back a few (very few) centimeters which is OK. I also know It can wear the clutch more, but whatever, I just need to pass, and then I'll reach the stall point in real street when I have a calm mind with no grumpy examiner next to me.

Also, I only like the friction point (no-gas) on traffic lights and when parking, it's more controlable than pressing the gas..

---

Wish me luck, let's see

..and thank's again to whoever helped me i this thread...