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Learn how to drive a manual car perfectly! Yes, it’s time, don’t procrastinate anymore. It’s time to tackle this great goal.
Did you ever, when you were a kid, put yourself in the driver’s seat and pretend you were driving the car? Well, let me tell you: that little childhood fantasy wasn’t about moving, it was about control.
That’s right, the person who takes the wheel is a person who seeks control. And you will say: “Well, anyway, I’m in control with an automatic vehicle”, but no. The automatic vehicle does everything for you.
The automatic vehicle does everything for you, your control is limited only to “stopped” and “in motion”.
Would you like to take true control of your vehicle and fulfill your childhood dream? In this article we will teach you how to drive a manual car like a pro.
The impatience of every first-time driver drives him to want to take the wheel, before knowing how the machine in front of him works.
But knowing the set of materials that make up the engineering of the vehicle will undoubtedly make you a better driver.
So, when we talk about manual driving, we mean manual transmission driving. But what is it and what is the transmission in a car for?
The power generated by the engine flows through the transmission before it reaches the wheels. The basic function of the transmission is to control the speed and torque available to the wheels under different conditions.
You’re probably already getting overwhelmed by all this technical mumbo-jumbo, so we’ll make it even easier for you:
The numbers on the lever indicate the speed. The lower the number, the lower the speed, but the higher the vehicle’s power and the larger the gear.
For this reason, cars are started and driven on steep uphill slopes with the first few gears.
On the other hand, the higher the number, the higher the speed, but the lower the force it uses and the smaller the gearing.
It is very simple. At the same speed, a large circumference takes longer to rotate than a small one. This is why slower speeds have larger gears, and faster speeds have smaller gears.
If you’re going downhill, logic tells you to step on the brakes. But this does a lot of damage to the brakes.
Now that you know how gears work, what would be a better solution? Simple, go down the hill at a slower speed. The gearing will prevent the vehicle from going faster than it should.
Another interesting question: What is the smallest gear in the transmission?
If your answer was: the gear with the fastest speed, we have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you have grasped the logic of this mechanical process. The bad news is that your answer is incorrect.
The smallest gear is the reverse gear. This gear is placed in the middle of two larger gears, so by doing this it reverses the orientation of the motion and direction of the wheels.
Since this is a very small gear, and is placed in the middle of two larger gears, it is important to use it at low speed.
Although reverse is only used for parking, or getting out of a traffic jam, there are always those who want to imitate the crazy maneuvers of Fast and Furious. Don’t try these things with your vehicle! Always use reverse at low speed.
Whether you are learning to drive from scratch, or you already know how to drive an automatic, it is important to eliminate bad practices in order to properly master the manual transmission.
A very common practice, in people who drive in automatic mode, is to use one foot for the accelerator and the other for the brake.
This is a bad habit that must be eliminated, because there will never be a situation in which you have to accelerate and brake at the same time.
The right foot is for the accelerator and brake, and the left foot is for the clutch. In the case of automatics, the left foot should be kept idle at all times.
Have you heard the famous phrase that your hands should always be at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock on the steering wheel? Well, this phrase is correct, but only for prolonged, non-stop driving, such as on a highway.
In the case of manual vehicles, in traffic, it is best to keep your right hand on the lever for the entire journey. Since you will be constantly starting and braking.
Once a person has reached regulatory driving standards, he or she falls into the lie that he or she has learned to drive.
The truth is, most of the time when we learn to drive, what we learned to drive was our practice vehicle.
But there are many vehicle options on the market, and as obnoxious as it may seem, each one brings a different interface in the commands. Especially on the lever.
For example, some vehicles have the reverse after the last gear, others have it before the first gear, and others have a small ring that you have to lift with your fingers to put it in reverse.
Our recommendation is that, when you get into a vehicle, be sure to check how the lever works before starting.
As we mentioned at the beginning, even if you have a vehicle with automatic transmission, any user should learn to drive a car in manual mode.
This will allow you not to retrain yourself in manual transmission, to drive any type of car and to increase the operating resource of the transmission.
Now that you know the secrets of how to drive a manual car like a pro, visit our website to book your course and take a look at our blog, for more information.