Original subtitles

Today is the day you learn how to drive

a manual transmission vehicle. Get

inside your car and acquaint yourself

with the two main differences that

you're going to notice. The first is

there's an extra pedal. So, we have the

brake, we have the throttle, and now

this is the clutch pedal. And here,

rather than putting a car from park to

drive to reverse and so on, you actually

choose the individual gear. So, there

are multiple gears that will help you go

forward. And here we can see the H

pattern is demonstrated here. first,

second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.

Most cars are like this. Although there

are some vehicles with a dog like

transmission where the first gear is

actually down here, but most cars are

going to be just like this. Those are

all your forward moving gears. And we

have R for reverse. Now, different

vehicles are going to have a different

way of getting to reverse. In this Mazda

Miata, we push down, left, and up, and

that's how we get to reverse. Now,

there's most vehicles are going to have

a lockout like this is what it's called.

And sometimes they have a collar here

that you lift up to get into reverse.

Sometimes you go to the right and down

or right and up. In BMWs, you just push

really hard. Every vehicle is a little

bit different. But when it comes to the

pedal box, they're all the same. That

pedal on the left is going to be your

clutch. Now, there is sometimes a fourth

pedal out here, which is actually your

parking brake. But my car here has a

hand operated parking brake there. So,

back to the clutch. What does this third

pedal do? Your engine is spinning and

it's spinning a flywheel. This flywheel

is spinning in place and it's taking

your potential and chemical energy from

the fuel, combusting it, fire, boom,

explosions, and it's creating this

kinetic energy. Right? This flywheel is

spinning. You then have a clutch and

that's what this pedal is is working on.

That clutch connects with the flywheel

and that clutch is attached to the

transmission. The transmission then goes

back to the wheels through a

differential and that's what actually

gives us the forward motion. So, when

we're pushing in this clutch pedal, all

you need to know is that we're

disconnecting the engine from the

transmission. Now, normally in an

automatic vehicle, you would just put

your foot on the brake and press start.

But you'll notice that the car doesn't

actually start. That's because manual

transmission vehicles have a clutch

interlock. And what that means is that

you need to actually depress the clutch

pedal and then you can start the car.

The reason being that if you're actually

in gear when you start the car and your

clutch is your clutch pedal is not fully

depressed, then the car can lurch

forward and it's not an ideal situation.

So, I'm actually going to turn the car

off and show you how to start the car

properly. Cuz normally when you get on

the car, it's going to look something

like this. The car is usually placed

into a gear and the parking brake is

enabled. The reason being that the

parking brake is mainly what's holding

your car in place, but you put it in

first gear just in case this fails,

which is rare, but it does happen. So

that the transmission, you know, the

engine off and the transmission being in

gear, it's going to try to roll forward,

but since the engine doesn't want to

spin, the car will generally stay in

place unless you're on a very steep

incline or decline. In an automatic

transmission vehicle, you put it into P

and there's a parking prawl. It's a

different system here. So, the first

thing you want to do when starting your

manual transmission vehicle, foot on the

brake, foot all the way down on the

clutch. And keep in mind, the clutch is

different than the throttle in that the

throttle and the brake, we kind of press

it a little bit here and there if we

want to slow down a little bit or speed

up a little bit. The clutch, you go all

the way in and all the way out. So, it's

going to go all the way in and then

we're going to take our gear selector

and put it into neutral. Now, if it's in

the middle, that's how you know you're

in neutral. You can actually wiggle it

left and right. If you're in first or in

any gear really, you won't be able to

really wiggle it because it's going to

be in that gate. So, we go into neutral,

make sure it's in neutral by doing a

little wiggle, and turn the car on. Now,

I can let go of the clutch.

And even though the engine is spinning,

the rear wheels are not moving. Why is

that? Simply because we're in neutral.

We're not in any gear. So, even though

my foot is not on the clutch pedal,

we're not going anywhere because we're

in neutral. The engine is just spinning

freely and it's not connected to the

wheels directly.

Then we're going to turn off the parking

brake, which may be an electronic button

for you placed in different positions. A

little P button. And now the hardest

part of driving stick, but the part that

you're going to tackle today is just

getting moving without stalling. So, let

me show you what a stall looks like.

We're going to go into gear.

The car tries to lurch forward. I have

my foot on the brake and the engine

stalled. Not a big deal. I'm going to go

back into neutral, foot on the clutch,

start the car again. So, we're going to

want to avoid that. The way that happens

is number one, you depress the clutch

while you're in gear and your foot is on

the brake. But number two, and more

commonly is when you're trying to start

from a stop. You have to, it's almost

like a musical instrument. You have to

play play this balancing game with the

engine, with the machine, such that you

have a little bit of give and take, and

the car slowly starts to move. So, what

I want you to do is lift your foot off

the brake. And by the way, you should be

doing this in a parking lot if that

isn't already obvious. Don't do this on

a moving road, right? And you're going

to slowly let go of the clutch until

you see the car start to move

and then you can fully remove it and now

you're rolling. That is literally the

hardest part of driving stick. Now, if

you want to stop, foot on the brake and

clutch in. Whenever you're panicking,

whenever you need to stop, remember,

foot on the brake is the more important

thing because worst case scenario,

if I'm moving and I just put my foot on

the brake and I don't clutch in, I just

stall the engine. Not a big deal. But

what you should do is put your foot on

the brake and clutch in at the same time

if you're coming to a complete stop. So,

I'm going to start the car again,

put into neutral, and I want you to just

repeat this multiple times in your

parking lot. You're going to clutch in,

go to first, foot off the brake, and

slowly let off until you find that

engagement point where the car starts

moving forward, and then you can fully

lift off. Our right foot is not yet

touching the throttle. Do this multiple

times. Find that engagement point, get

comfortable with it. Then, what we're

going to do is add a little bit of

throttle. Now, keep in mind there's a

bit of a balancing act here. So, what I

don't want you to do as we get started

is rev your engine really high and then

let go of your clutch because that is

going to damage and wear out your clutch

at a much more accelerated rate. So,

what you want to do is clutch in

first, find the engagement point, and

give a little bit of gas.

The game is actually to give the least

amount of gas possible that you don't

lug or stall the engine. So stalling,

I've already showed you. Lugging is

something like this where the engine

starts kind of lurching forward and back

because you're pushing the engine at too

low of an RPM or you're asking for too

much load from the engine at too low of

an RPM. Now, this is the one and only

time when you are driving a manual

transmission vehicle where you want to

have some slip in the clutch because

this is the only time where the car is

stopped, right? Starting in first, the

engine is spinning, the wheels are

stopped, and to get the wheels to spin,

we need to have a little bit of slip so

that the flywheel and clutch can get to

the same speed. So, there needs to be a

little bit of this give and take, this

little bit of slip until you fully let

go of the clutch. And now everything is

connected fully with no slip, no um no

loss of energy there.

So keep doing that multiple times

until it feels more natural. We're only

doing first gear right now.

Remember to stop, brake, and clutch at

the same time. Push it into neutral.

Clutch in first.

Just like that. Nice and easy.

Now, once you're feeling comfortable

with that, let's shift into second.

Here's the good news. If you have

already been able to move in first,

that's literally the hardest part. After

this, it is way easier. And you're not

going to stall while you're moving. As

you go faster, you need to go into

higher gears. So, just like when you're

riding a bicycle, when you're going up a

steep hill or you're going very slow,

you have a low gear like one in this

instance. And when you're going very

fast, you're going downhill or going as

quickly as you can, you go into a higher

gear, like six on the highway, as an

example. So, when we're shifting between

gears, we're going to clutch in and then

pull the gear shift to the next gear and

then clutch out with the key the key

distinction that we're going to let go

of the throttle. When you're shifting up

between gears from first to second,

second to third, third to fourth, and so

on, you should never have your right

foot on the throttle. You should always

let go of the throttle and then push in

the clutch all the way. So, we're going

to get back into first.

Build a little bit of speed. And now we

get into second. Clutch in. Let go of

the throttle. Pull down. Clutch out. And

there we go. You're now in second.

And every other gear follows the same

mechanism. I'm approaching a speed bump.

Brake. I'm going to clutch in. Go into

first.

And we're going to do that again. Going

to first. Clutch in. Pull back. Go into

second. Now, third is a little bit

trickier because now we're having to go

horizontal with the gear shift. But

there's a centering spring here that's

going to pull the gear shift towards the

middle. So, as I just push this upward,

look what happens. It goes to the center

and straight forward is now third.

You want to be careful here. Don't be

forcing it too much in one direction.

Because if you're in second,

let's say you're in second and pretend

we're moving and you want to shift into

third. If you're like, "Oh, third is a

little bit that way. Let me go all the

way there." You're going to go into

fifth. And when you go into fifth, now

your revs are going to be way too low.

You're going to lug the engine, possibly

stall. And if you go too much to the

left and you're not letting the the

actual gear shift recenter itself,

then you're going to go into first. And

if you are pushing the car hard going to

red line and you shift from second to

first, that's a very bad thing called a

money shift. The reason it's called a

money shift is that it costs a lot of

money because you're going to need to

replace your entire engine. So keep in

mind the centering spring on cars,

sometimes it can be a little worn down,

not doing its thing. So you want to be

patient with the car and don't rush or

force anything. You need to have

mechanical sympathy

and you need to listen to the rhythm of

the car cuz it'll tell you how fast it

wants to shift. When you drive an Audi

R8, as an example,

it has a light flywheel and the revs

drop very rapidly. In this Miata, it

doesn't drop so rapidly. I can take it

nice and easy between gears. So, we're

going to shift up into third one more

time. Clutch into first. There we go.

Clutch in. Let go of the throttle. Pull

back into second. Clutch out. Now we're

in second. Build the speed. Same thing

again. Clutch in. Let it fall to the

center. Go into third and out. When

you're first doing this, do it nice and

slow. And

your actual revs may not always be as

smooth. That will come with time. Do not

rush things because when there's a lot

of stuff going on as you get more

comfortable driving stick, you will be

much smoother. And what you want to do

is actually have your tachometer, which

tells you the engine revs, how fast it's

spinning, to always be smooth. Never

never any jerky action. So, as an

example, if I go from first, I'm going

to do a jerky right now. First to

second, I'm gonna wait too long.

See that jerk? Not good. What you want

to do is actually be smooth. So here,

second,

it just slowly falls right to place. And

that's about getting into a rhythm with

the car and understanding

what the car is telling you and giving

it that mechanical sympathy, that

understanding, again, like a musical

instrument.

So, that's upshifting. Let's also

briefly cover reverse. It's the same

thing as going into first. So, clutch

in. And the lockout, remember, is

pushing down. So, I'm going to push

down, left, and up. My reverse camera is

on. And then, same thing. You're going

to start with just letting go of the

clutch. Get used to that a few times,

come to a stop, go back to neutral.

Practice that multiple times. And then

eventually, you're going to start adding

gas like so.

Now, a few bad habits I want you to

avoid. Number one, do not touch the gear

selector unless you're actually shifting

gears. A lot of people will ride drive

like this. They think it's cool. No,

you're actually wearing out the shift

forks. Don't do that. And you want to be

at 9 and three with your hands anyways

on the steering wheel. The other bad

habit is called riding the clutch. So,

you you let it slip and you keep

slipping even though you're moving.

That's not good. That's going to wear

out your clutch faster. Another one is

being fully depressed on the clutch when

you're stopping at a light or at a stop

sign. That's not good either because

this is bad for your throwout bearing.

You want to go into neutral, let your

foot off the clutch. That's a better

habit for your car and for your car's

longevity. So,

the hardest part, I promise, was just

getting started from a stop. Now, the

last thing I want to talk about is how

to downshift from a higher gear to a

lower gear. When we upshift, going from

a lower gear to a higher gear, you'll

notice that the revs naturally drop,

right? So, I I rev up and then I go to

second, I let clutch out and it's

naturally lower, and I rev up,

clutch in, and so on. But if I

downshift, look, the revs go up

and up again. So, ignore the footwork

there. Those we're going to get to what

those techniques are. But what I want

you to first start doing when you are

downshifting is just slowly let off the

clutch. Because if I go here into second

into third and I slowly let off the

clutch, there's going to be a little bit

of slip. It's going to bring that speed

up and it's smooth.

But then what happens if I let's get up

to third. If I quickly let off the

clutch,

it's going to be jerky and cause more

wear and tear on my clutch.

Get that buck. Not good. want to avoid

that. You always want to be smooth. So,

what you do is remember how I was saying

earlier when you upshift, you never

actually want your uh right foot on the

throttle. When you downshift, you're

going to do a little blip, little jab of

the throttle to get the revs up. And

that way, when your clutch is in, when

you're in gear, you can rev this, right?

Even though I'm in gear, my clutch is

depressed. The engine and the wheels are

not connected. But this is going to let

the engine get to the right speed and

I'm going to match that the flywheel and

the clutch when they come together it's

nice and smooth. So the way you do that

is just a brief jab with the throttle

and each car is going to be a little bit

different. It's going to,

you know, there's a bit of a learning

curve, but that's okay. You're not going

to be smooth initially. So here I'm

going to clutch in

down into second. Now let's do that

again.

Going to go into third

and I'm going to clutch in. go into

second and blip at the same time. Just

like that.

We can do that from fourth, going into

third,

and then again going into second.

Now, the question that naturally arises,

what do you do if you want to slow down

and downshift? Let's say you're

approaching a corner

and you're going too fast. ask you to

slow down a little bit. And as you slow

down, you want to get into the right

gear because your engine operates

between certain RPMs. It's not an

electric vehicle that has a one-speed

transmission. There are six speeds in

this transmission if you're not counting

reverse.

[Music]

Then we introduce heel toe. And all that

is, it sounds so complicated. It's a

very simple thing. It's just pressing

the brakes. And just like we did the rev

match before, same exact movement, but

you're just using the right side of your

foot or kind of the heel, not really.

Just jabbing it like that. Now, some

people prefer actually rolling like

this. I personally don't like that

because what happens if your foot slips

off the brake? That's a totally valid uh

technique, and many people do it without

issue. I've always felt a little bit

uncomfortable. I just like to do this.

So, we're going to break and then jab

the throttle just like that. to rep

match at the same time. And to show you

this, we're going to get out on the

street so we can be at speed, which is

when you're actually going to be doing

your heel toe downs.

[Music]

That's just a regular match. Now a heel

toe.

[Music]

Upshift into third.

Upshift into fourth.

Upshift into fifth.

And now the downshift rev match. I'm not

going to slow down. I'm not going to be

on the brakes. Just going to do a

regular rev match. That's fourth. That's

third.

Now, there are a couple advanced

techniques that we're going to cover for

those that want to know how to be the

top 1% of manual transmission drivers,

which is double clutching. Double

clutching is not necessary in modern

vehicles. In fact, just about every

modern vehicle except for semi-truckss

is going to have synchronizers or

synchros in your transmission. So,

there's an input shaft that needs to get

spun up to match this the speed of all

the other components in the

transmission.

And synchros, their job is to actually

synchronize the input shaft.

However,

if you're driving an older vehicle that

doesn't have synchros or synchros are

failing, like when I was driving my

buddy Fenton from the ZY Green YouTube

channel, his 1991 Acura NSX, the

Synchros were failing. So, I had to

double clutch when I was driving it.

Now, double clutching is used when you

are downshifting. So, let's say, let's

say I was in fourth and I want to go

into third. I would clutch in, go into

neutral, clutch out, flip the throttle,

clutch in again, and then go into third.

So, there's an extra step. Normally,

normally you would just go from fourth

to third and let go of the clutch. I'm

not going to do that right now because

I'll stall. And, um, that would be a

normal downshift. a double clutch is you

stop in neutral very briefly, very

quickly and then you go into the next

lower gear and that allows you yourself

to get that input shaft up to speed and

it reduces the load on the synchros.

This is an optional thing, not

necessary.

So, we're going to go up

into fourth and out to double clutch.

Just like that and into second

just like that. That wasn't the cleanest

one. I under revved it ever so slightly.

I will show you a double clutch heel

toe. But I first want to show you how do

you start a car

when you're on an incline like this.

This is one thing that a lot of manual

drivers really fear, right?

Because if you're slow and new to

driving a manual, you go into first, you

let go of this. And there we go.

Normally you start rolling back and

that's scary. I guess my Mazda Miata has

automatic uh hill stop which many cars

like my Scion FRS that I learned how to

drive stick on did not. So what you do

is you actually engage your parking

brake. And now if you let go of the

brake, your car is not going to roll

back. You clutch in, get into first. You

take your time and then get to your

engagement point nice and slow. Give it

a little bit of gas. You'll feel the car

want to pull. And at that moment, you're

gonna let go of the parking brake and

the car is going to roll forward without

rolling back at all. Simple as that.

Practice that. And especially on these

steeper inclines, it's going to be a

very helpful technique. However, over

time, as you get used to your car,

you're going to be able to just clutch

in and very quickly get going, and

you'll roll back maybe half an inch or

an inch. It's going to be a very quick

process. Just remember that each car has

a different engagement point with the

clutch.

All right. So, a double clutch heel toe

is the single most advanced technique in

driving a manual transmission. And

that's where you do

that. It is a heel toe and a double

clutch at the same time. It is optional.

It is not necessary. If your synchros

are failing or you don't have synchros

and you want a heel toe at the same

time, that is the only time you need to

do it. But if you enjoy just perfecting

a craft like I do, then maybe you'll

want to do it anyway.

Because I think what you'll find is the

game of trying to be smoother and better

as a manual transmission driver is a lot

of the fun.

With automatic vehicles, there's no fun

in accelerating or braking. But when you

drive a manual transmission vehicle,

it's all up to you.

And you'll find this joy as you become a

better driver. You become smoother.

You'll even start playing an internal

game where you want to, let's say you're

driving at night and people aren't able

to see down here. You want the person to

be surprised that the car is even a

manual transmission. You want to be so

smooth that they think it's an automatic

vehicle. So remember, at a stoplight,

I'm going to clutch in, go into neutral,

and my foot is not on the clutch pedal.

And then when it's my turn to go, clutch

in first, and just like that.

As you slow down to a red light, you

want to downshift

so that if you you can use engine

braking to slow you down. As the engine

goes to higher revs, there's more

resistance and it's going to slowly

bring me down to speed without me having

to use the brake pedal.

I don't want to be driving at a high

speed. Like, I don't want to go around

driving at 4,000 RPM. It's wasting extra

fuel. It's pushing the engine harder

than I need to.

So, each car is going to have a

different operating range, and you just

again need to listen to the car.

So, fourth, we're going to do double

clutch, gel toe.

Third,

second,

first.

You should only go into first if you're

at a stop or a near stop and you're just

doing a regular clutch in or if you have

done a double clutch. You should never

be pushing a car past, I don't know, 5

10 m an hour and trying to force it into

first. It's very hard on the

transmission. Yes, the synchros are

working, but they're working overtime

because the gear ratios are so

aggressive in first gear. Do not do

that. I see a lot of people do that on

YouTube. Big no.

And there you have it, my friends.

That's how to drive stick shift. Let me

know if you have any questions with a

comment down below.