teaching g/f to drive a clutch??

my girlfriend doesn't drive a clutch. how can i change that? we've done some time in my 951 but its just too heavy to learn on. when we were in mexico last year we had some little box that had an EASY clutch, but we just didn't have enough time. you can't hardly rent a standard transmission car here in the states.....whats a girl to do?! (ps - she found a '99 996 that looks good on her but its a six speed and she was apprehensive about test driving it - i did and its a GREAT car - help me teach her so i can have a 996 in the garage, too!) thanks!!!

You have to rent a car with a manual transmission. Look harder. If you can't, maybe a friend with a manual clunker would sacrifice a little of whats left of the car for you to teach with. You also might look at a commercial driving school. Teach her to let the clutch out, without gas, until she can reliably get the car rolling without stalling it. (She will probably stall it several times in the process). Once she has that skill down, she will have a good feel for where the clutch engages. Then start teaching here to feed in power smoothly as the clutch engages. Then it is just practice, practice, practice.

Nothing to it but to take the plunge! The 996 is a very forgiving car, smooth cluth and hard to stall. I agree that its a bit pricey to learn on, but I also think it the easiest to learn on. If she can afford it, she should buy it, drive it daily, and she will be a pro at it in a couple of weeks.

That's odd. I'd completely disagree with that. I find the 996 particularly easy to stall. Even experienced P-Car drivers have stalled mine. </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by C4C_Leon: <strong>Nothing to it but to take the plunge! The 996 is a very forgiving car, smoth cluth and hard to stall. I agree that its a bit pricey to learn on, but I also think it the easiest to learn on. If she can afford it, she should buy it, drive it daily, and she will be a pro at it in a couple of weeks.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">

patrick - good tip on the method. i'm just going to HAVE to make this happen. the '99 996 that we found is in GREAT shape and the dealer even commented (BEFORE we mentioned our challenge...) that this one had a particularly light clutch for a 996, so i'm sure there is some variation from one 996 to another. but since i have limited 996 experience, i couldn't weigh on on this. i really DO think that the 996 would be a great car to learn on - and that in a couple of weeks she WOULD be a pro. nothing like HAVING to do something being a great motivator! (learn or don't go anywhere!!!) great tips - keep em coming!!! thanks!

rent a car to teach her on as the 996 clutch is easy to eat.

Patrick's advice is sound. I once taught a friend to drive a stick in an hour this way - before we left to drive cross-country. One addition - it's very important that she learn to immediately engage the clutch all the way if the engine lags or the car starts to hop. This combined with Patrick's lesson above will get you most of the way there. An advanced exercise can be getting the car moving in second with just the clutch. This takes pretty good feel for the clutch.

I semi-taught my wife the two ways that has been mentioned. Car moving with just the clutch and to press the clutch & break all the way at the first sign of trouble. In my 03 c4s she learnt it pretty quickly, she doesn't drive it, just wanted to see whether she could. It is very easy to learn, just go ahead and take the plunge, it's loads of fun. Also, if she is caught in an uphill in a traffic light and a car right behind her, initially she may want to pull the hand-breaks engage the clutch and let the break go, so it doesn't roll back.

I learned on a C5 vette and it took me about 1 hour before i could drive on the street and about 2 weeks to get it down so i could be really aggressive and kick ***. I think that practicing on high-quality sports cars is the best way to learn because of the very definite gates that guide you into the next gear. I have driven a Hyundai 5-speed and Dodge 5-speed and they are atrocious. You can't tell what gear you're getting into. I took my GF out to Edison Field (anaheim stadium) when the lot was empty. After 3 lessons of 30 minutes each, she still couldn't grasp the concept. After 3 lessons, we stalled 1 out of 4 takeoffs and ground gears nearly every shift. Perhaps some people aren't cut out to shift the old-fashioned way. <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />

Best way to learn clutch control... Massey Furgeson Turbo Diesel, or any other farm tractor! Heavy clutch to get your leg muscles into shape and no worries on stalling... if you let the clutch out to fast you will pop a wheelie. <img border="0" alt="[burnout]" title="" src="graemlins/burnout.gif" />

Best way to explain it is to rev the car to 1200 then let out the clutch a bit and add gas to keep the revs up then release more and add more gas. That is the proper technique. It kills me that more that 50% people who drive a stick like to let the clutch out bog the motor a little then add gas. Simply terrible.

Sean, you are right. But, for a beginner to feel the clutch engaging it is better to learn the otherway.

Sean, you are right. But, for a beginner to feel the clutch engaging it is better to learn the otherway.

I gave up after two days of trying to teach my wife. Her comment: I'd rather just put it in "D" and go!!

holy avitar batman! yeah I guess it would be easier but 996 clutches get eaten and the bog- torque on it eats it. The problem is that it is hydrolically assisted and therefore adjusted is that you can't tell too much other than the engagement height which gets eaten in such incrementally small steps that by the time you're there doh! That's where I am at!

thanks very much guys - i really appreciate the input - it's just hard to talk her into taking the financial plunge into something that she can't really even OPERATE yet!!! i have my summer project i guess!!! thanks!

Dodge Hemi or any V-12. If she can't get off the line in either one of those, get a Tip. To learn smooth, see if any friends have an older Jeep CJ.

ya know...thats what its boiling down to, unless she learns. she REALLY wants a 996 and there are 99s and 2000s out there that are very reasonable (some are silly-cheap), but we've tossed around the idea of a Tip. this reallllly narrows the selection and raises the cost from what i've found. also - it really just skirts the issue instead of solving it with her learning the manual!! i'm not against a Tip, tho...we'd keep the 951...

Well then get a tip. In some ways it is better if you live in a big city like me, so I pay for having a stick daily I have heard pretty good things about tips but then again those are only on turbos so....

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by washington951: <strong>my girlfriend doesn't drive a clutch. how can i change that? we've done some time in my 951 but its just too heavy to learn on...</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">What? Too heavy? hummmm... My wife finds the 951 easy to drive and says it has a nice soft clutch... She was so into driving the 951 that I had to tear it down and rebuild the engine to stop her for taking over the car You do not want her learning on a 911... to expensive and 911s are not good cars to launch hard at all from a stand still... that is one expensive clutch to abuse... 951 too hard... I still can't understand that statement... that is one of the easiest cars to drive. Do you have an aftermarket pressure plate or a racing clutch in it? That would explain the difference in clutch feel...

i would have though any 911 is not the ideal car to learn on as they stall far more easily than most bog standard cars - they need little more revs to get the going and are heavy. across the pond we all learn on stick first and one way to learn clutch control is to learn to move the car without using any revs ie just using the engines idle. ofc only really works on flat ground. it shows u just where the clutch bites and how to be delicate

good point for learning where the clutch engagement point is at first but after that.... I guess it has just been a long time since I have taught anyone the basics. I usually teach them things after they think they know... dah

jamie wrote: 951 too hard... I still can't understand that statement... that is one of the easiest cars to drive. Do you have an aftermarket pressure plate or a racing clutch in it? That would explain the difference in clutch feel... well - i guess its all relative. its the stock clutch, but i guess if you've never driven one and you're struggling to find the engagement point it can prove to be difficult. i really like the suggestion that was made here earlier - i need to teach her to get the car rolling without adding any gas. i thought about that yesterday and tried it myself - a great way to find where the clutch starts to hook up. she's in africa at the moment, but has a driving lesson when she gets back this wknd!!! thanks all!