Manual Transmission Technique (3-pedals)

[Eunos_Cosmo]

One day, when I had my license only for a couple of years, I wanted to try to use the gas pedal and clutch with my hands. I wanted to find out if it was possible to get the car moving that way.

Surprise, surprise! I succeeded. But I couldn't stop in time and crashed into the garage door. I have to say that my father was not happy with my experiment. He gave me the silent treatment for a long time. He was that mad at me.

Do they call that a Belgian Hand Job?

 

[kikie]

Do they call that a Belgian Hand Job?

I have no witty comment.

 

[Dave A]

Have you ever tried pressing the brake pedal with your left foot, to the manual drivers, after years of clutch pressing with the left, if you try and brake with that foot its crazy, you nearly go though the windscreen as not used to gently pressing with that foot...

Yes I have left foot braked, I first tried it in a car park and I was putting so much more pressure on the pedal than I was trying to, but I did get a lot smoother. The first time I tried, it was quite an experience, I'm glad I didn't have any passengers with me. I don't tend to left foot brake unless I'm driving an automatic, then I kind of have to make my left foot do something, so I use my left foot to brake most of the time.

 

[kikie]

It's all about muscle memory.

 

[alp]

Do you guys heel-toe on the street?

Yes I do but usually I do a simpler version where I don't actually brake and tap the gas at the same time. While cruising if I have to slow down I apply the brake first and as the rpms go down (and if a gear shift is necessary) I release my foot from the brake and apply clutch-in and tap the gas at the same time, shift down, release the clutch for a smooth shift and then apply more brake if still necessary. Of course this is not heel-toe but revs are matched none the less. This suits for a more genteel driving.

I've found out braking and rev matching while shifting down is easier on motorcycles. Perhaps we are just simply better at using our hands rather than our feet. I suggest every motorcycle rider with a manual gearbox to do so because it can be more dangerous if not exercised. Even a shifter moped can kick like a mule.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Does one even brake hard enough in regular traffic to ever have to heel-and-toe? I certainly don't see a lot of benefit in it in regular traffic, which is why I just rev-match. The only time I ever brake hard enough to be in a comfortable position to heel-and-toe is at the track. Clutch wear on modern passenger cars seems to be minimal either way these days, given that people can actually drive of course...

 

[Danoff]

Does one even brake hard enough in regular traffic to ever have to heel-and-toe? I certainly don't see a lot of benefit in it in regular traffic, which is why I just rev-match. The only time I ever brake hard enough to be in a comfortable position to heel-and-toe is at the track. Clutch wear on modern passenger cars seems to be minimal either way these days, given that people can actually drive of course...

It depends on the car as to whether your pedal placement is right. Some cars have more brake pedal travel than others, so braking hard moves the pedal deeper in those cars than others. For cars with a lot of brake pedal travel heel-toe on the street can be trickier, or at least less comfortable.

I heel-toe on the street for 3 reasons. 1) It's good practice. 2) Clutches are expensive. 3) I don't like to shift mid-turn, it feels sloppy and slow (because it is). Granted number 3 can be accomplished without heel-toe.

 

[homeforsummer]

Does one even brake hard enough in regular traffic to ever have to heel-and-toe? I certainly don't see a lot of benefit in it in regular traffic, which is why I just rev-match. The only time I ever brake hard enough to be in a comfortable position to heel-and-toe is at the track. Clutch wear on modern passenger cars seems to be minimal either way these days, given that people can actually drive of course...

In cars with the right pedal weighting and placement then there's no real requirement to be braking hard for heel-toe. That's not often the case with modern cars and over-servoed brake pedals unfortunately, but some are better than others. I certainly find it easier to heel-toe at all speeds in my two older cars, which have firmer brake pedals and require more pressure to actually slow down.

It's mainly a mechanical sympathy thing, and while you can accomplish that with regular rev-matching too, with heel/toe your foot is always on the brake, meaning a) you can quickly use more pressure if it's required for some reason and b) if you want to rev-match as you're slowing down, you don't need to keep hopping from brake to gas as you can do it all together.

As I mentioned earlier though, it baffles me why more modern manual cars don't have a line of code in their software that rev-matches for you when you change down. You could pitch it to most customers, even those not remotely interested in driving, just as something that makes driving smoother.

 

[Danoff]

I find that the thing which annoys me the most driving stick is how often I end up rolling about 2 mph, not wanting to stop for a shift into first and not wanting to grab 2nd gear. Anyone have advice for me?

 

[Greycap]

I find that the thing which annoys me the most driving stick is how often I end up rolling about 2 mph, not wanting to stop for a shift into first and not wanting to grab 2nd gear. Anyone have advice for me?

Just put it into first. That's what the synchros are there for... and if they can't take that the transmission isn't any good anyway.

 

[kikie]

I find that the thing which annoys me the most driving stick is how often I end up rolling about 2 mph, not wanting to stop for a shift into first and not wanting to grab 2nd gear. Anyone have advice for me?

I don't get it what you mean.

 

[Danoff]

I don't get it what you mean.

You're slowing down to a stoplight in 2nd gear. Light turns green, cars in front of you start rolling. You're doing some tiny speed (2mph etc.). If you hit the brakes and stop to grab first, you'll get honked at. If you grab 2nd, you're going to bog the engine.

 

[LM7325]

I feel like I am learning bad habits from my GTO lol. The LS1 is such a honey badger of an engine, idle off the clutch on a hill with just a dash of slip? 'Whatever' LS1 replies...

 

[AbsoluteBarstool]

You're slowing down to a stoplight in 2nd gear. Light turns green, cars in front of you start rolling. You're doing some tiny speed (2mph etc.). If you hit the brakes and stop to grab first, you'll get honked at. If you grab 2nd, you're going to bog the engine.

Why would you stop from 2mph to shift into first in a manual?

 

[Danoff]

Why would you stop from 2mph to shift into first in a manual?

No car I've ever been in likes to shift into 1st from anything but a complete stop. Also that's what I was taught to do. Also I think @Famine mentioned that at some point. Also 1st gear synchros are not very good because you're not supposed to be down-shifting into it while moving. I'm pretty sure some older cars don't even have synchros in first gear, and some cars have lockout rings.

I try not to downshift into 1st while moving. Though maybe I should be double-clutching to grab 1st while moving instead of strictly using it at a stop.

 

[AbsoluteBarstool]

No car I've ever been in likes to shift into 1st from anything but a complete stop. Also that's what I was taught to do. Also I think @Famine mentioned that at some point. Also 1st gear synchros are not very good because you're not supposed to be down-shifting into it while moving. I'm pretty sure some older cars don't even have synchros in first gear, and some cars have lockout rings.

I try not to downshift into 1st while moving. Though maybe I should be double-clutching to grab 1st while moving instead of strictly using it at a stop.

In a lot of cases, what's best for the road isn't necessarily the easiest to do. In my Peugeot 108, for example, you can get it to go into 1st whilst moving with a little more effort than from a standstill. It just needs a bit of a push to get it to take up, then you can just get it engaged again by slowly letting off the clutch until it gets to its 5mph idle speed.

In the cities, there is literally no other way to drive than to ease into a crawl without interruption. Then again, there's really not much of an excuse in this setting to be driving manual anyway. In addition to the reality of helping or hindering traffic flow, you just end up burning through clutch plates if you're driving in a way that forces you to stop and start every single time things slow down a bit.

 

[Danoff]

In a lot of cases, what's best for the road isn't necessarily the easiest to do. In my Peugeot 108, for example, you can get it to go into 1st whilst moving with a little more effort than from a standstill. It just needs a bit of a push to get it to take up, then you can just get it engaged again by slowly letting off the clutch until it gets to its 5mph idle speed.

Yea that "push" is you using up your synchros.

In the cities, there is literally no other way to drive than to ease into a crawl without interruption. Then again, there's really not much of an excuse in this setting to be driving manual anyway. In addition to the reality of helping or hindering traffic flow, you just end up burning through clutch plates if you're driving in a way that forces you to stop and start every single time things slow down a bit.

Yea once I'm in stop-and-go I stick to 1st gear. I'm talking about cruising through a stoplight infested area with say a 35 mph limit. You're cruising in 2nd and there's a stoplight in front of you. You're trying to avoid going into 1st so you're kinda taking it easy approaching the light. It turns green, but not until you get into that ugly zone of not-quite-sure whether to grab 2nd or stop and get 1st.

It hadn't occurred to me until I asked this question that I could try to double-clutch into 1st while moving. Classically this is a no-no (@daan posted that on page 1 of this thread), but I think it might be do-able - especially at speeds which would bog in 2nd.

 

[GTV0819]

You're slowing down to a stoplight in 2nd gear. Light turns green, cars in front of you start rolling. You're doing some tiny speed (2mph etc.). If you hit the brakes and stop to grab first, you'll get honked at. If you grab 2nd, you're going to bog the engine.

I'm not sure if this is a proper way but when you start to slow down to a complete stop from 2nd gear, if you don't like to downshift into 1st, well, shouldn't you try to shift into neutral instead when you're slow enough like somewhere below 5mph before your speed completely drops to zero? At least you won't worry about stopping completely and then immediately getting into 1st gear.

 

[Danoff]

I'm not sure if this is a proper way but when you start to slow down to a complete stop from 2nd gear, if you don't like to downshift into 1st, well, shouldn't you try to shift into neutral instead like somewhere below 5mph before your speed completely drops to zero? At least you won't worry about stopping completely and then immediately getting into 1st gear.

I think usually the situation I'm talking about is slowing in 2nd, getting to the point where the engine RPM is getting too low, dropping the clutch, and then wondering whether I'm going to slip 2nd or stop completely and grab first. I'm anticipating accelerating because I know that traffic in front of me is going to start moving, so the idea that I'll be sitting there for a while is not what I'm preparing for. It's just a question of how slow I'll be going as to whether I slip 2nd or stop and shift into 1st. And there's an in-between speed there where I don't really want to do either one.

I've never previously seen any point in going into neutral in this scenario (I know this almost contradicts my opening post in this thread, but it's a different case). Why not? Because I know I'm either stopping and grabbing first or staying in 2nd. But you're on-point in that I'm considering double-clutching and grabbing first while rolling, so neutral, clutch-out, would be the right move.

 

[1241Penguin]

I find that the thing which annoys me the most driving stick is how often I end up rolling about 2 mph, not wanting to stop for a shift into first and not wanting to grab 2nd gear. Anyone have advice for me?

I've been experimenting with two possible things to do in this situation. Either downshift to first, or slip the clutch until you get enough speed. I feel there are going to be proponents and criticism for both these techniques so I want to get some feedback myself. For me though, my car will not let me downshift to first unless I'm going really slowly or unless I rev-match, so if it does let me slide the gear lever into first while on the move, I assume that the car is ok with that. I also double-clutch downshift to first if I'm slow enough (under 10kph), or if I'm on an incline (for some reason it's easier to shift into first at speed if I'm on an incline, maybe my car just knows) as my car lets me do that as well, so again I'm assuming it's ok for the car. For the second technique, sometimes I do risk stalling the car if I simply leave it in second. I have managed to stall my car, an STI if that matters, while going around 7kph in second gear, so I slip the clutch a bit until it gets up to speed. Both these techniques will put probably wear on the drivetrain, just in different areas.

Edit: Apologies, I misread your post and assumed you were in second gear as you slowed down. In your situation I would double-clutch downshift to 1st if your car is ok with it doing it at 2mph or stick it in 2nd and slip the clutch a bit if necessary.
...

I want to ask too, what do you all do when you're on an uphill incline in stop and go traffic? The traffic is going slow enough that you cannot leave it in gear (and leave the clutch engaged) the whole time, but also fast enough that doing a full hill start will take too much time. If I know I'm going to be moving again within 1 or 2 seconds of stopping, I simply slip the clutch to keep the car steady, and so I can take off at a reasonable pace. I know some people don't like the idea of slipping the clutch at all, so please let me know your thoughts.

 

[kikie]

You're slowing down to a stoplight in 2nd gear. Light turns green, cars in front of you start rolling. You're doing some tiny speed (2mph etc.). If you hit the brakes and stop to grab first, you'll get honked at. If you grab 2nd, you're going to bog the engine.

If you bog the engine at that speed in 2nd and it is a modern car than something is wrong with your car.

I can start the car (moving from a standstill) while in 3rd gear without a problem. You have to be able to feel the clutch. Keep it at or a little over the grabbing point (of the clutch if you know what I mean) by playing with the clutch a little bit (don't constantly slip the clutch because that is not a good thing) to keep the RPM up.

I think, but I haven't tried it that I'm able to get the car moving in 4th gear without bogging or stalling the engine. Having a 3.0L V6 with 80% of the torque in the lower RPM is an advantage of course.

 

[Danoff]

I've been experimenting with two possible things to do in this situation. Either downshift to first, or slip the clutch until you get enough speed. I feel there are going to be proponents and criticism for both these techniques so I want to get some feedback myself. For me though, my car will not let me downshift to first unless I'm going really slowly or unless I rev-match, so if it does let me slide the gear lever into first while on the move, I assume that the car is ok with that. I also double-clutch downshift to first if I'm slow enough (under 10kph), or if I'm on an incline (for some reason it's easier to shift into first at speed if I'm on an incline, maybe my car just knows) as my car lets me do that as well, so again I'm assuming it's ok for the car. For the second technique, sometimes I do risk stalling the car if I simply leave it in second. I have managed to stall my car, an STI if that matters, while going around 7kph in second gear, so I slip the clutch a bit until it gets up to speed. Both these techniques will put probably wear on the drivetrain, just in different areas.

Edit: Apologies, I misread your post and assumed you were in second gear as you slowed down. In your situation I would double-clutch downshift to 1st if your car is ok with it doing it at 2mph or stick it in 2nd and slip the clutch a bit if necessary.

Thanks for the commiseration. I think I'm going to try double-clutching into first. It seems like the least wear solution. In theory there should be almost no wear double-clutching into first. Especially if you rev-match before engaging the clutch. I honestly don't know why I hadn't thought of doing this in first gear, and now I'm kinda mad at myself for not having considered it before.

I want to ask too, what do you all do when you're on an uphill incline in stop and go traffic? The traffic is going slow enough that you cannot leave it in gear (and leave the clutch engaged) the whole time, but also fast enough that doing a full hill start will take too much time. If I know I'm going to be moving again within 1 or 2 seconds of stopping, I simply slip the clutch to keep the car steady, and so I can take off at a reasonable pace. I know some people don't like the idea of slipping the clutch at all, so please let me know your thoughts.

I just leave lots and lots of space so that i can not come to a stop. I think if it was really bad I'd start using the handbrake to steady the car and minimize clutch wear. For people who are unfamiliar with using the handbrake, it's an interesting tool. I had one person explain to me that he uses it to slow down when speeding if a cop is behind him because the handbrake doesn't engage the brake lights. As long as you keep your thumb on the button and ease into it, it's basically just another brake.

If you bog the engine at that speed in 2nd and it is a modern car than something is wrong with your car.

I can start the car (moving from a standstill) while in 3rd gear without a problem. You have to be able to feel the clutch. Keep it at or a little over the grabbing point (of the clutch if you know what I mean) by playing with the clutch a little bit (don't constantly slip the clutch because that is not a good thing) to keep the RPM up.

I think, but I haven't tried it that I'm able to get the car moving in 4th gear without bogging or stalling the engine. Having a 3.0L V6 with 80% of the torque in the lower RPM is an advantage of course.

I'm probably using the term "bog" a little more generously than you are. I'd consider any start in any car in 2nd gear "bogging" the engine unless you slip the clutch all the way to some high speed like.... I dunno, 7mph or so. I'm guessing here. I try to minimize clutch wear in a big way, so I won't be slipping the clutch to 7mph in basically any circumstances.

 

[Tappajakoala]

I've driven since 1996 with manual transmission, occasionally driving automatic transmission.
With automatics I kept for awhile hit by accident "clutch" so brake pedal hit made car jerk unwanted way. Fortunately it was just few times and I can now smoothly switch from manual transmission to automatic one and vice versa.
Currently I have two cars and both have automatic transmission, daily car has even semiautomatic option from stick. It's nice addon for gearing way you want, not like car wants.

What comes on driving manual....

Do not stay on clutch and feather it when not necessary. Getting car to move smoothly from stand still requires gently feathering with clutch to feel touch of clutch when on first gear. When car moves, switch into 2nd gear. If you have powerful car or downhill when car is stand still, you can pretty safely start driving with second gear. Avoid getting revolutions of engine to red line. It's fun in games but in real life you just are asking for expensive faults for your car. Press clutch pedal full down and switch gear, release clutch pedal smoothly. It doesn't necessary need fully pressing clutch pedal, but better safe than sorry. Gearbox will inform you quite loudly if you fail to use clutch properly.

On daily driving along various roads it's ideal to keep proper gear on car's preferred torque range. When you reach speed limit velocity, it's better to switch one gear up to save fuel and not stress transmission too much. On freeways use overdrive if you have.

Prepare well for overtaking. Depending on your car's power, downshift to proper gear which is in torque area and has potential enough to revs speed up the car and get back to upper gear. In theory you will overtake car within speed limit maintaining max allowed speed. In real life you will accelerate a bit above speed limit and when returning back to own lane, you will decelerate back to speed limits.

Exiting from freeway or approaching crossroad doesn't require you to shift gear to neutral. Let car to coast (engine braking) and at closing range of stopping car or getting walking speed, press clutch and switch to second gear. Modern cars will halt fuel delivery while engine braking so you save also fuel. If you drive too slow with gear too big, car and especially steering wheel begins to shake due stress of now power with too big gear. Press clutch and it ends. In emergency situations hit left foot on clutch and right from accelerator to brake. ABS and clutch allows you to brake hard and maintain control of car. With car of no ABS, stay on clutch and brake strong enough till locking the tires, ease of with brake so they can roll again and get back on strong braking. Continue this till car is stopped.

Switch now to first gear and prepare continuing your journey. If you don't need to stop you may as well coast corner with 2nd or 3rd gear.
While not necessary but when I do stop to intersection, I will stay on clutch and pull handbrake on. That's because you will keep your hand brake in better condition when you occasionally use it. Unused handbrake may jam and fail your mot test.

1st gear and then reverse gear are car's strongest gears. Downside is their speed is also low. Therefore you need more gears to spread speed to weaker gears. Of course when reversing, you are not expected to use lot of speed and that's why you have only one speed of reverse.
When parking car, you can actually let it parked with 1st gear on. When car has no power it doesn't move forward nor reverse. I would say on level road it's better to park car with gear on than with handbrake. For uphill and downhill parking use both gear and handbrake. If you tend to park car illegal places for towtrucks, leave it with handbrake only so when they tow your car away they will not break your transmission by force.

 

[Danoff]

Just a few nits to pick...

In emergency situations hit left foot on clutch and right from accelerator to brake.

I don't agree with this. You should just hit the brake as quickly as possible while leaving the car in gear. Engine braking is good in this scenario, and you'll still be in gear in case you need to accelerate for some reason.

ABS and clutch allows you to brake hard and maintain control of car. With car of no ABS, stay on clutch and brake strong enough till locking the tires, ease of with brake so they can roll again and get back on strong braking. Continue this till car is stopped.

Threshold braking is preferable to pumping the brakes. If you're on ice or another slick surface pumping the brakes may be the best and only option. But the fastest way to slow the car while maintaining control is to not skid at all, but to approach a skid as close as possible.

While not necessary but when I do stop to intersection, I will stay on clutch and pull handbrake on.

Neutral when you're stopped is better for the throw-out bearing. Handbrake is not necessary, and actually is slightly bad at intersections in case of rear-end collision.

That's because you will keep your hand brake in better condition when you occasionally use it. Unused handbrake may jam and fail your mot test.

Use it when you park.

I would say on level road it's better to park car with gear on than with handbrake.

Both, always.

If you tend to park car illegal places for towtrucks, leave it with handbrake only so when they tow your car away they will not break your transmission by force.

This is not something I'm familiar with, but that's a bad tow truck.

 

[kikie]

I try to minimize clutch wear in a big way, so I won't be slipping the clutch to 7mph in basically any circumstances.

Good 👍

It is better to play with the clutch and keep the RPM high enough than slipping the clutch. Playing with the clutch involves a very little tiny bit of slipping the clutch.

 

[Tappajakoala]

Great! I have counter replies.

Just a few nits to pick...
I don't agree with this. You should just hit the brake as quickly as possible while leaving the car in gear. Engine braking is good in this scenario, and you'll still be in gear in case you need to accelerate for some reason.

Depends on situation. Pressing clutch will drop any drag from transmission and tires and car will coast. Coasting car especially on slipper conditions will allow driver to control the car. If there's any drag - accelerating or decelerating from tires, it may cause lose of controlling car.
Ages ago we did 60 kph swerve course on slippery surface at driving school and key was to keep car control with use of clutch.

Threshold braking is preferable to pumping the brakes. If you're on ice or another slick surface pumping the brakes may be the best and only option. But the fastest way to slow the car while maintaining control is to not skid at all, but to approach a skid as close as possible.

I actually meant same, you said it better though. 👍

Neutral when you're stopped is better for the throw-out bearing. Handbrake is not necessary, and actually is slightly bad at intersections in case of rear-end collision.

True, but I said I do this to keep handbrake used. There's lot of cars in Finland which fails mot test due rarely used handbrakes. Parking with it is not enough.

Use it when you park.

Depends on conditions, place where I live is winter most of the year (October -> May) temperature hitting as lowest to -30...-40 Celsius. Handbrake in use for few hours tend to freeze jam here.

Both, always.

See previous answer.

This is not something I'm familiar with, but that's a bad tow truck.

Good, me neither.

 

[Danoff]

One of the things that helped me really start to understand manual transmissions was to understand that there are actually 3 spinning things - the engine, the transmission, and the wheels. I mean sure, that's a simplification, in reality there are many more. But those are the big ones that you're controlling.

You have gauges for two of those things - the engine (tach) and the wheels (speedo). You do not get a gauge for the transmission, and it can be spinning very differently from the other two. Sliding the gear lever into gear creates a connection and synchronization between the transmission and the wheels. Releasing the clutch creates a connection between the engine and the transmission. When this is understood, seemingly innocuous driving habits, which your passenger and you might be unaware are causing problems, suddenly can be realized as creating significant stress. The example I gave in the opening was where the following happens:

Scenario 1
You're driving at 60 in 4th gear and approach a stoplight. You push the clutch, change into 1st gear at 60 mph, and brake to a stop.

Now, that might not even be possible to do, but let's analyze why it's bad. You're not going to destroy your engine, you've severed the connection between your engine and transmission. But what you're doing is connecting the wheels to the transmission at a gear ratio that is slightly insane for 60mph. So your transmission has to spin up to sync 1st gear to 60 mph. Which for 1st gear is probably well over 10,000 rpm.

I know that sounds crazy to some of you, but I've seen people do essentially that. Your passenger won't notice, and if your car lets you do it, you might not even be aware of it.

Scenario 2
Let's take a different example. You're driving at 60 in 4th gear and approach a stoplight. You push the clutch and change into neutral. With the clutch still in, at complete stop, you switch into 1st gear. The only thing we changed was shifting into neutral instead of first.

This seems much better. The car is stopped after all. The wheels are at zero rpm, the engine is near zero rpm. So what could be the problem with shifting into first? Well, the transmission is not at zero rpm or anywhere near, it's still spinning from when you disconnected it from the wheels (4th gear, 60mph). Now you have no way of knowing this of course. Because you have no gauge to tell you that it's spinning. You have to infer it from your actions. You shifted to neutral (severing transmission from the wheels) while it was spinning. And you never let the clutch out (synchronizing the transmission with the engine) while you were in neutral. So there is nothing but some internal friction (which is intentionally low) to slow the transmission down. So it's still spinning, whether you know it or not. You might think you're putting zero stress on it to slot it into first, but actually you're demanding that 1st gear synchros adjust the transmission spin down to zero.

Scenario 3
Let's take a different example. You're driving at 60 in 4th gear and approach a stoplight. You push the clutch but leave the car in 4th. With the clutch still in, at complete stop, you switch into 1st gear. The only thing we changed was leaving the lever in place until stop.

Now you've forced the transmission down to zero rpm because you left it connected to the wheels. So when you switch to first there is no synchro drag. From the outside, this looks entirely equivalent to the previous scenario. Internally, it's a ton less work for first gear synchronization.

Scenario 4
Let's take a different example. You're driving at 60 in 4th gear and approaching a stoplight. You push the clutch and change into neutral. You let the clutch out. At complete stop, you push the clutch back in and switch into 1st gear. The only thing changed between scenario 2 and this one is that you let the clutch out in neutral.

In this case, you've forced the transmission down to idle because you let the clutch out in neutral. You've used your clutch and engine to de-spin your transmission. Then when you're slotting it into first gear you're asking the synchros to adjust the speed of the transmission from idle to zero.

From the outside, these scenarios look the same. From the perspective of a passenger, and even a driver, they seem and feel the same. But in scenario 1, you're hammering 1st gear synchros. In scenario 2 you're asking them to do real work. In scenario 3, you're asking them to do no work, and in scenario 4 you're asking very minimal work of your clutch and synchros.

In short. This is why many people are terrible at driving manual transmissions. They don't understand them, and they just do what works, make a habit of it, and jog on. The repair bills come later, maybe even after they've dumped the car. Manual transmissions are just not for everyone. I know quite a few people who have driven or do currently drive stick who would not follow this explanation (I've tried to explain it to a few and lost them). They'll not see the difference between these scenarios. Because to lots of people, it's not about wheel speeds or engine speeds or synchronizing any of it, it's just memorization. Which gear should I be in now? I push this lever, move this thing, release lever, car goes. Asking them to think about what they're doing and why is like asking them to suddenly start writing with the other hand.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Nope. Although really the only way to learn a manual in the US is to know someone with one and who's OK with you beating up their clutch.

It shouldn't beat up the clutch really. It takes an hour-or-so to learn to physically start/stop the car, drive around, reverse etc. (I taught the 16 year old the other day in the car park of a closed supermarket). Unless they're revving the bollocks off it the clutch should be up to that.

The correct way (and as soon as I say that, someone will tell me a MORE correct way) to approach a stopsign in a manual is to approach it with a protracted double-clutch maneuver. Put the car in neutral and let the clutch out.

Definitely not. And you'd fail your driving test if the examiner spotted you doing it, at least in the UK.

When I'm approaching a slow-possible-stop-possible-not situation where I don't know what gear I want to be in but the gear I'm coming from is no good anymore, I clutch out in neutral to be ready to rev-match to whichever gear presents itself.

There's always a right gear, you shouldn't be coasting in neutral. If a gearchange is required then change gear.

 

[Danoff]

Definitely not. And you'd fail your driving test if the examiner spotted you doing it, at least in the UK.

There's always a right gear, you shouldn't be coasting in neutral. If a gearchange is required then change gear.

I could get behind that on a race track. On the road, there is not. It is not always apparent what gear you will need to select next, and it's significant extra wear on the transmission to select one that you will not use just to select something.

Why does the UK driving test require this?

It often puts in you a position where you are less capable of accelerating.

 

[TenEightyOne]

I could get behind that on a race track. On the road, there is not. It is not always apparent what gear you will need to select next, and it's significant extra wear on the transmission to select one that you will not use just to select something.

I don't quite understand what you're getting at, there's always a right gear to be in, you just need to be in it. It does seem like you're overthinking the complications of driving with a manual gearbox. I've had several cars that have done over 200,000 miles without requiring a gearbox change and with no obvious loss of gearbox quality. I've only ever had to change a clutch in one car (a geriatric Vauxhall that cost me £150, probably about £250 nowadays). Millions of other people have a similar experience, as far as I'm aware.

Here's a bit on brake/gear overlap from IAM, and a guide to how passin their Advanced test. You'll see that "coasting" is a fail condition. Not many drivers take the Advanced test but it nonetheless represents the peak of all taught driving knowledge in the UK test curriculum.