Back when I was learning to drive, my family happened to have only manual transmission cars, so after I got through normal driver’s ed at school, I had to learn how to drive all over again. My one alternative was to take my driver’s test in the conversion van we’d used for a cross-country camping trip, which was like trying to dock a space shuttle every time I pulled into a parking lot. I chose to learn to drive stick. Anyway, I suffered for this knowledge and came out of the entire experience with entirely too many opinions about cars, so here is my gift to you:A Stick-Shift Car Primer for People Who Have Never Driven One In which I cover:
The clutch.
The gearshift and gears
Parking.
Some basic considerations for fic(tion) writers.
The clutch. The clutch is an extra pedal on the floor that you work with your left foot. It is in approximately the same place that the step-on parking brake is in many automatic cars. You need to depress the clutch pretty much any time you want the car to do something different: shift gears, come to a complete stop, etc. Working the clutch is basically the most different part about driving a manual vs. an automatic.
Stalling: This results from releasing the clutch too quickly before giving the car enough gas in first gear (ie, attempting to start again from a complete stop). The car cuts off and you must turn the key again to restart everything.
Revving the engine: This results from not letting the clutch out far enough before giving the car more gas than necessary. Can be done on purpose or by accident. Doesn’t really do anything to the car, although if you do it by accident and are continuing to let the clutch out, it can result in a jerky start.
The clutch point: The perfect point where you will neither stall nor rev and can change gears smoothly. This point can be identified in a controlled setting by very slowly letting the clutch out until you feel the car start to shake a little. A car with a “sport” transmission package will usually have a shorter clutch distance than a regular car. Knowing your clutch point is extremely important when having to start from a stop on an incline, because you risk rolling backward if you let the clutch out too far before you give the car enough gas. Learning to “feather the gas,” where you can basically hold the car right at the clutch point and then smoothly give it gas, is a rite of passage for the new manual driver.
The gearshift/stick. The thing that gives stick-shift cars their name. The most common manual transmission gear arrangement is five gears and reverse, though some have been adding a sixth gear (ex: Mazdas), in which case reverse takes an extra press and shift of the stick to get it to go a bit further over into the extra notch. (Note that there is no “drive” or “park” for a manual transmission car.) [Image: A standard 5-speed manual transmission gearshift knob.] The gears and their most common uses:
First gear: Used for starting from a complete stop.
Second gear: Used mostly for stop-and-go traffic. A seriously annoying gear.
Third gear: Slowish in-town driving. (~30-35mph)
Fourth gear: In-town driving on larger roads. (~40-50mph)
Fifth gear (and sixth gear, if available): Highway driving, road trips, etc. A cruising gear, not a racing gear.
Reverse: I assume this is self-explanatory.
Neutral: The null zone between the gears. You can have your foot off the clutch if the stick is in neutral, which can be useful when stuck in a traffic jam.
Parking and the parking brake. As I mentioned earlier, manual transmission cars do not have a parking gear or a step-on parking brake, so when parking, I was taught to put the car in either first or reverse (with your foot still on the clutch), then pull up the hand brake, at which point you can turn off the car, and then take your foot off the clutch. If you release the clutch before the car is off and actually have it in gear, the car will stall (which, I grant you, does mean the car is now off, so you may not care.) The point of putting the car in either first or reverse, rather than just leaving it in neutral, is so the car won’t spontaneously decide to roll. When parking on a flat surface, first or reverse is up to personal preference. I usually go with reverse, since I’ll usually be backing out of the parking space when I next get in the car, for example. But if parking on an incline, pick the gear that opposes the slope (first gear if facing uphill, reverse if facing downhill), again to combat the car deciding to roll. I’ve seen an argument that setting the hand brake isn’t necessary if you leave the car in gear like this, but I’ve always done it, as has every mechanic I’ve ever gotten the car back from after servicing, so it seems pretty universal to use it. Considerations for writers. Driving a manual is a more full-body experience than driving an automatic, thanks to the need to use both feet while managing the clutch and gas/brake. Additionally, both hands are required, as one must stay on the wheel while the other shifts. Therefore, if writing a character with a major injury to any of their limbs, you should really consider whether they can operate the vehicle in question. (The summer I had shoulder surgery and my left arm was out of commission for 6 weeks, my brother had to chauffeur me. He wasn’t thrilled.) Also, handholding over the stick isn’t going to be a thing that happens if they’re still in town/an area where a lot of turns, slowing, speeding up, or stopping is going to be happening, as the driver will actually need to be using that hand. Once on a highway, comfortably settled into top gear for a long stretch, the driver’s hand will be free for holding, though I’d still prefer it not actually be on the stick, for safety’s sake. It’s honestly positioned too far forward for that to likely be comfortable, anyway. Note: This all applies to people driving a stick shift normally. The fundamentals here remain the same for drag racing, but most of the details of when and how you would choose to shift gears are very different. (Originally posted on Tumblr, Sept 25, 2017)