In my 17 years of driving, I have always owned cars with automatic transmissions (including my current 05 MCS), but when I ordered my new Countryman S All4, I decided to take the plunge and get a manual. It's been built and is on its way to me now.

I am pretty much a beginner with a manual transmission, though a dealer gave me a loaner Cooper once, and I was able to get by with it. I am pretty confident that I will be able to get home from the dealer, but I will have a lot of work ahead of me to get good at driving it.

Anyway, while enduring the weeks of waiting and obsessing about my new car, I found a cool stick-shift badge at GoBadges, and I had an idea that once I am competent driving a stick shift, I can be awarded the badge.

So I need some help. What criteria should I use to earn a badge showing that I'm competent driving a manual transmission?

 

When you no longer experience anxiety at a red light on a steep incline

Congrats on taking the plunge and getting the stick shift. I am not one of the rabid ANTI-AUTO nuts on here, but I do think driving a stick is more fun. Enjoy your new car!

 

I think that driving up Lombard Street in San Francisco (stop signs at the top of each steep block) to the top of the twisty bit and then winding your way down, you should get the Manual Badge at the bottom - automatically.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...y.php/cat/3847

 

Congrats!

 

ditto.

and when you just 'know' when to shift when going from 0-60+ without having to look at RPM's on the dash. ;-)

 

Right there with you. I haven't driven a manual since 1990 and even then it was less than maybe 3 times that year. My exit home is THE red light sharp incline experience at it's best.

I plan on spending early mornings in an empty parking garage to help myself re-learn. When I can get through it full of cars and releasing the parking brake without giving two hoots about anyone (too close) behind me I'm getting that badge.

It'll be my second one. Those guys make some pretty cool stuff.

 

When you jump back into an auto-transmission equipped car and try downshifting as you come to a stop

..or.. When you jump back into an auto-transmission equipped car and try to push the clutch to the floor to start the car

 

+1

 

Do the manual MINIs still come with the "hill holder" feature? If so, the starting-on-an-uphill-incline thing is a piece of cake in my experience.

I did the exact same thing. I'd driven manuals briefly decades back - was really an automatic guy at heart when I plunged in and went with a manual MINI.

Just be patient, it takes some time to build the muscle-memory for the clutch feel. I suggest finding a nice flat empty parking lot and doing a stupid number of stops and starts. It feels silly and tedious but will really pay off in increasing your confidence on the street.

 

they still have that feature. it makes driving a manual mini so much easier.

ill add to the list, once u heel toe for the first time and not jerk out of control....such a great feeling

 

yup, my '11 has that. i actually had no idea it had that feature until i was on a killer hill and noticed it. color me spoiled now.

 

When you learn how to rev match downshifts, bc its really useful for braking assistance or when you need to downshift quick to accelerate (i.e. passing someone on a highway) with more power as well as it sounds awesome

And when you can start in first gear with a combination of releasing the clutch while giving it a little throttle without being to jerky. I find that getting the mini rolling takes a slower clutch release using just clutch due to its small displacement engine, Bleeding in a small tap of the throttle at the right time while releasing the clutch will allow you to get rolling quicker ansd stall less, i recommend trying to master this once you are profficient at getting the car rolling first. This also help with finer control on an incline, hill hold assist only lasts about 3 seconds (in my r56 at least) which is a tad to short on really steep hills

Good luck

 

It's a Zen thing. When you no longer think about driving a manual, you are one with the machine. Do you think about every breath you take? Every blink of your eyelid? When you get in the car and go on any road, at any speed and never THINK about shifting, then you are qualified for the badge. Otherwise, just pay the $29.50 and it's yours.

 

Driving a manual is easy, it just has to be something you want to do everyday. Wish you the best of luck with your new motor.

 

I've heard of the heel toe thing but I can not master it. Then again I'm trying it on my husbands Toyota Tacoma which is a snot for me to shift in the first place. Still waiting on my Mini.

 

 

+1

When you have forgotten that "I have to earn the badge", you earn the badge.

 

Thanks, everyone! A lot of good ideas here. I like the zen approach, and ultimately, the ability to just get on with the driving, while controlling your car to the max and having fun, is itself the reward.

There are some good challenges on the way, though, and I appreciate the ideas. I'm going to try to nail them all. Except for Lombard Street, but just because I can't get there easily in my own car. Next time I am in San Francisco for work, I'll see what I can do about getting a stick shift rental. I think successfully navigating a busy, multi-level parking garage from bottom to top to bottom with no problems is the closest challenge I can hope for in Nashville.

Here's what I've got:

Lack of anxiety starting on a hill
Lombard Street up the back and down the bends
Busy parking garage all the way up and back down
Smooth heel-toe execution
Rev match downshifts
Start smoothly in first gear
Feel out of place in an automatic without a clutch and gearshift
Parallel park
No stalls in a week

There are a couple of things I've heard you can do with a manual that seem out of the ordinary, but I don't know if they are actually a good idea. In the Mini, can you pop-start the car by coasting downhill and putting it into gear? Should I be learning how to do that?

And I know some people talk about shifting gears without using the clutch. Is that mostly about rev matching? Is it just a bad idea?

 

i taught my wife manual in about a hour...The biggest part that helped her was to just find the sweet spot. get a flat road/lot put the car in 1st, and ease off the clutch till you start rolling with out pressing the throttle. remember this spot through multi times doing it(muscle memory).

 

I don't think that our cars pop-start very well. In an older car, that required turning the key to "on" so that the engine would run when you had got it spinning fast enough. Our MINIs don't have an absolute switch for "on", they have the combination of the key-fob being plugged in, the clutch pedal being pressed, and the "start" button being pressed. I'm not sure the car goes to "on" mode without all three of those things being true.

If you really want to practice bump-starting, you can turn the car off while it's moving. (NOT RECOMMENDED PRACTICE!!) Take the car out of gear, then hold down the "start" button until the speedo and tach drop to zero. Then let go of the start button and press it again. The speedo will come back to the correct reading, but the engine will be off. Then you can put the clutch in, put the transmission in the appropriate gear (usually 5th or 6th, even for speeds that aren't that high!) and let the clutch partway out and push it in again. If you do it right, the engine will spin up fast enough and will start running.

I'm not sure how useful that is, frankly, and you are liable to put a lot more wear on your clutch while learning how to do it. So I wouldn't bother with learning how to bump-start your MINI.



...Oh, and don't shift without the clutch. When you do it wrong, you will put a lot of wear on your transmission or possibly damage it outright. Even if you do it correctly, there is still extra wear on the transmission internals. It's not worth it, especially in a car where you have free roadside assistance to tow you if the clutch hydraulics ever give up on you.

 

Lots of good advice but some good advice still missing.
Keep you foot the #*!! away from the clutch unless you are starting the engine or shifting. Any other time as in stopped for any length of time is just useless wear and tear on the clutch and TO bearing.
Don't worry about heel/toe shifting until you are ready for the track, Snell and HANS equipped.

 

This is great advice. It's how I learned to drive stick (and motorcycles.)

As for clutchless shifting, there's no benefit and even if you rev match properly you may still grinding the sh** out of your gears. On a racetrack it might gain you hundredths of a second, but I see no use for it on the street.

 

Wait............ what is this "automatic" you speak of. All i know is 7 Gears 1 being reverse.

 

...when you drive a stick better than I do. So even though I do it everyday, you can pretty much go ahead and put that badge on now!

Val

 

..or.. When you jump back into an auto and when coming to a stop you go to hit the clutch and hit the BRAKE instead!