You’ve been driving “stick-shift” vehicles for a long time, and you’ve mastered the art of silky smooth shifting. You’re “one” with the engine and make your shifts based on how the engine “feels” rather than what the tachometer says. Recently your good friend bought a car with a manual transmission and he’s asked you to teach him how to drive it. Lucky you!
Teaching a friend how to drive a manual transmission can be a rewarding experience where you teach good shifting technique that guarantees many miles of trouble-free driving (ie., a long lasting clutch). Or, it can be a disaster where you end up with whiplash, the car needs a new clutch, your friendship suffers irreparable harm, and your friend is emotionally scarred for life.
Whether your teaching enhances or destroys your friendship depends on how well you prepare your lessons and how you convey the concepts necessary for smooth shifting. We’ll break the training process into 5 simple steps that create a positive learning environment.
Step 1: Teach clutch anatomy #101
You can talk all you want about “friction points,” pressure plates, clutch disks, and throw-out bearings. But those terms are totally foreign to a newbie. So start your lesson with a trip to the auto parts store. Ask the clerk to indulge you by bringing out a complete clutch kit. Explain to your friend how a clutch assembly is like a peanut butter sandwich, with the clutch disk being the peanut butter and the flywheel and pressure plate as the slices of bread on each side. Point out how thick the pressure plate and flywheel are, but how thin the clutch disk is. Then explain how riding or popping the clutch can prematurely burn off the friction material and break the dampening springs. Finish the show-and-tell by pointing out how small the throw-out bearing is in comparison to the other components. Ask the store clerk to give you the retail prices for all the parts and their best guesstimate of the labor charges for a complete clutch replacement. At this point, you should have your friend’s complete and undivided attention. Finish the lesson by explaining that a well cared-for clutch can last upwards of 150M miles, but that abuse can cause clutch failure in as little as 40M miles.
Step 2: Take your friend for a drive—and record it
Smooth shifting is a perfect blend of timing and technique. What better way to teach it, than to have your student watch you do it (in their new car)? Since skilled stick-shifters rely on engine sound rather than the tachometer, bring a long a tape (or digital) recorder and record the engine sounds throughout the demo drive. Narrate as you drive, calling out which gear you’re in, when you’re approaching a stop, and what gear you’re in as you make a turn.
After you complete the demo drive, find a level parking lot and switch drivers. With the engine OFF, playback the recording and have your friend practice clutching and shifting based on the engine sounds. That will help them get a feel for shift timing and the shifter pattern on their vehicle, not just on pretend straight-aways, but on make-believe stops and turns as well.