How To Guides

How to Drive a Stick Shift in 5 Easy Steps!

What’s up, everyone. All right. So in this episode of Tire Kickers, I’m going to teach you guys how to drive a stick shift. And this is going to be really fun for me because I love driving stick shift.

As you guys probably know, I’m a full-time day trader. I’m also a teacher over at Warrior Trading. So teaching is in my blood. So this how-to video is a lot of fun for me to make. And I also have a pretty big collection of cars. I’m a big car enthusiast.

So one of the things that has always been important for me is being able to drive a stick shift because so many of these rare cars like this 1969 Ford Mustang, they only made it in a stick shift. And when you’re talking about a lot of older cars, old automatic transmissions, they’re just not as fun to drive as the manual transmission counterpart. And so learning how to drive a stick shift is something that’s really fun. It’s more engaging. And it’s a great skill to have.

There was a story about like, I don’t know, a police chase, where the police were chasing this guy who stole a vehicle, but he didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. So he couldn’t get out of first gear. So it was a chase at like 18 miles an hour. Now had he known how to drive stick shift, that could have been a high speed chase.

So in his case, and the police’s case, I guess it was good that he didn’t. But for you, I want to make sure you’re comfortable driving a stick shift. So that’s what I’m going to teach you today. I’m going to teach you in five steps. From step one, getting oriented all the way to step five, which is a heel-toe rev match downshift. All right. So we’re going to run through it in five steps. Let’s jump in.

So I’m actually going to jump in the driver’s seat here of this Porsche. And I want to just run you through step one. Step one is just about getting comfortable. Just like riding a bike, learning to drive a stick shift isn’t that much different because once you know it, you know it forever.

And for the most part, once you can drive one car that’s a stick shift, you can pretty much drive any car that’s a stick shift. Same with the bike. Some bikes are for whatever reason, a little bit more difficult to ride than others. Some cars are a little bit more difficult to drive than others, but the basic concept remains the same.

So the first thing you want to do, get in the driver’s seat, get yourself oriented. This is step one, getting oriented. So put your foot on the clutch and push it all the way down. And you want to make sure from your driving position that you can touch the floor. So if you’re a shorter person, you may need to move the seat up a little bit. You may not have needed to do that in driving with just an automatic, but for driving a stick shift you want to make sure you’re positioned upright and you want to make sure you can push your foot all the way down on the clutch and push it down to the floor. All right.

Once you’ve adjusted your seat, just like riding a bicycle for the first time, get your seat adjusted. Now we’re going to get oriented with the gear shift pattern. So as you can see, this is a six speed and it doesn’t really matter whether your car is a four speed, a five speed, a six speed, or even a seven speed. The gear pattern generally is going to be pretty similar. And in any case, it’s almost always sort of printed and sitting right here on the top of the gear shift. So this car, the gear shift actually, when it’s just sort of sitting all by itself, this is neutral. So the middle is N, neutral and it actually sits kind of right in the middle between third and fourth gear.

So if I went straight up, I’d be in third. If I went straight down, it’d be in fourth. So we’re going to start the car in first gear. And so, one of the things you want to do as part of step one is just run through the gears and get the feel of what it feels like to be in the gear. Now, sometimes you can push and only be like half in gear. And if you do that, when you start, it’s going to pop you back out and it’s going to kind of make a grinding sound. So you want to make sure you’re all the way in. So you can feel as you shift in, usually you’ll sort of feel it kind of like roll into that little pocket. So third, fourth, fifth, sixth.

And learning to drive a stick shift, kind of like learning to ride a bike and certainly like learning day trade. There’s a certain component that is simply muscle memory. Learning those hot keys on the keyboard, the buy button, the sell button. And so here, we’ve got first and second. So while initially when you’re getting started driving, you may need to look down just to sort of orient yourself with, “Okay, what position I’m in? Okay. I’m in third, come back down to fourth and so on.” But as you get better at it, you won’t need to do that anymore. And as we go through this video, you’ll hear me talking about, of course, neutral. And then back to first. Neutral, back to first, and then we go from first up to second, up to third, up to fourth, up to fifth, up to sixth, that’s going to be shifting up. That’ll be step three. Step four, will be teaching you how to shift down. So shifting back down the gears and then step five will be the rev match downshift. All right.

So as part of step one, just get yourself comfortable sitting here in the driver’s seat, running through the gears with your foot on the clutch. And remember that when you’re in neutral, the car, if you’re on a hill will roll away, if you don’t have your foot either on the brake or you have the emergency brake on. So this car doesn’t have park. So park is essentially leaving it in one gear and then putting the emergency brake on here as a backup. So just make sure if you’re practicing this, that you’re mindful that you either have the emergency brake on or your foot on the brake, but you can do all this with the car off just to practice that muscle memory.

And as far as learning to day trade goes, many of you guys know the story of how to get comfortable with the hot keys. I was actually learning with the keyboard off. So sitting on basically my couch at night, just practicing those keys. So if you need to go back and rewatch, step one. Go back and rewatch it and get yourself comfortable, but let’s continue on now with step two.

So for step two, we’re going to walk over this way and I’m going to get into the driver’s seat of a 1961 Volkswagen bus. So we’re going to get in the driver’s seat of this bus. And the reason that I’m going to teach you in this bus isn’t because this is the most common car. Remember just like riding a bicycle, whether I teach you on a mountain bike or road bike, it’s about choosing a bike that’s easy. Now this is a really good vehicle for teaching on because the pedals are so accessible. You can see them right down there. Now, this is a little unusual that the steering column goes between the brake pedal, the gas and brake and the clutch, most cars, of course, with an engine further up and the seats, further back. The steering column is going to go through this way. So this is a little different, but what’s great about this car is that I can get lots of different camera views.

So I think this is going to be a great vehicle for learning on, and it’s okay that you’re going to probably be learning on a more traditional car. It just may be a little bit harder to try to teach you on a car like that because it’s dark down there by your feet. And so it’d be hard to get cameras down there. So let’s jump in the driver’s seat.

So for step two, now that I’m in the driver’s seat, I’ve pulled the car out. And what you want to do is go into, if you can, an empty parking lot or maybe a back road that has basically no traffic on it. And it’s good too, of course, if you can do this with someone sitting next to you that has driven a stick shift before, but I’m going to be your coach on this. So it’s okay if you don’t have that. So as I’m sitting here, I’ve of course gotten oriented with my three pedals, I’m oriented with the pattern of the gear shift, which this one doesn’t actually have the pattern on top, but it’s an H. So first is up, second is down in this position. Third is here and then fourth is here. And then reverse is push down and back.

So what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be going back and forth between first and second, sorry, first, second, but also reverse. Just getting comfortable with going forward and backward. And so I’m going to push my foot on the clutch. I’m going to push it all the way down to the floor. And then what we’re going to do with the engine running is start slowly lifting it up and feeling where that actually takes the vehicle out of neutral, starts to engage that first gear and then pull the car forward and then I’ll push it back down. So basically what I’m going to get good at is kind of feathering the clutch, lifting it up and then pushing it back down, lifting it up and pushing it back down. And feeling where on the pedal spectrum from my foot all the way off to my foot all the way down, where is it that the clutch actually starts to engage?

So that’s step two, getting really comfortable with this pedal and in step two, we’re really not going to use the gas or the brake pedal too much at all, except just to slow down the car as needed, if we start going a little too fast, but we’re not going to use the gas pedal. A lot of people will tell you when first learning to drive a stick shift to be doing the gas and the clutch at the same time. But I honestly found for me that that was too difficult. Just for instance, you tried to drive the car, the gas and the brake, like just an automatic transmission car with your left foot instead of your right foot. Imagine how jerky you’d be on the brakes. The first time you’re putting your left foot on the brake, because your left foot doesn’t have that fine motor skill to use the brake, to be very subtle and to feel and to know where it starts to take effect and not to just jam on it.

So the whole thing with driving a stick shift is that we have to teach our left foot, that muscle memory. We have to teach it that fine motor skill. And in combination, we have to teach our right hand about using the gear shift and shifting through the gears. And to a certain extent, we have to teach our right foot some different tricks about taking our foot off the gas at certain points. And the things like that. So that’s where learning a stick shift can be a little bit difficult getting started, but I want to encourage you not to get frustrated because it can be learned. I really think by probably anyone in the world.

So let’s turn the car on and let’s just practice in first gear going forward and then taking the foot off the clutch and then back on. So I’m going to tap the gas pedal here just to get the engine running a little bit better. So we’re in first gear. So I know that’s all the way up and I’m going to take the emergency brake off. Now, we’re not rolling, which is fine, which is good. We’re not on a hill. And now I’m just going to take my foot off the clutch gently and you’ll see, we’re starting to roll, push it back on. Off gently, back on. Off gently, back on. Now I can go in reverse and do the same thing. I just want to make sure that if I go in reverse, I don’t want to get going too quick. So light off, back on, lightly off the clutch, back on. And notice that I’m not using the brake or the gas at all. I’m just practicing getting comfortable with my left foot on that clutch pedal. That’s all it is in step two, here. Get comfortable with that.

Now you’ll get to a point where you pull it off slowly enough, that you can actually take your foot off of it. And wow, the clutch is out. We’re doing it. We’re really doing it. We’re driving right now in first gear. At this point, you’re free, if you’d like to use the gas and start driving or to put your foot on the brake. Now, as we slow down, we’ve got to push our foot on the clutch to put the car back in neutral because when we come to a slow stop, if we don’t put our foot on the clutch, we’re going to stall the car out.

So we’re back at the top of the driveway. So once again, pulling that clutch out, feeling the car gently start to roll forward and pushing it back in. This is all step two is all about. And the fact is you may need to pause this and rewatch this section as you’re sitting in the car doing this. And I want to be your vote of confidence that you can do it. If at first you pop the clutch out too far and oh, oh, oh. Well, in this case, the car took off. But if you pop it out too quick and you stall, see this car won’t even stall out, it just keeps going forward. Now that would tell us that this is going to be a more forgiving car to try to learn stick shift on, since it doesn’t even want to stall out.

Now, if you heard that little grinding, that meant that I wasn’t … So I’m not all the way in reverse. Okay, now I’m in reverse. So you got to make sure you’re all the way down, and I’m not using the gas pedal. I’m just using the brake or the clutch, just gently off. And we’re just kind of rolling back up the driveway here. So that’s all you want to do. Just go forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards, getting comfortable with using your foot on the clutch. That’s all it is here in step two. Just get really comfortable with that. And now let’s continue on to step three, which is going to be shifting up. So that’s going to be going from first up to second, and then we’ll go up to third. We’ll go up to fourth and we’re going to do that out on the road.

So for step three, we’re out here on a country road, not going to be too much traffic, and this is a great place to practice shifting up and continue to practice getting comfortable with coming out of first gear. So that gentle start. Now, one of the biggest challenges with driving a stick shift that I faced. I remember when I was a teenager and I just gotten my license and I had an older Audi stick shift, which Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, they all are fairly forgiving and easy to drive, as far as stick shifts go. Some vehicles are much more difficult just because of the sensitivity of the clutch pedal. But in any case, I remember driving around a part of Boston that was really hilly and I was in kind of stop and go traffic, but I was on a hill.

And so every time I would take my foot off the clutch, the car … Every time I’d take my foot off the brake, the car would start to roll back. And so as I’m slowly lifting off the clutch, the car’s rolling back faster and faster and faster. And I’m like, “Uh-oh.” So I got slam on the brakes and then start again. Or I pull the clutch out too fast and stall out. And that’s a high pressure situation when you’ve got people honking behind you. And you’ve got traffic where you start to feel anxious and stressed out. And so what I ended up doing was strategically driving to avoid hills, hill stops, to avoid traffic lights as much as I could. To avoid situations where I might have an event that would hurt my self-confidence learning. Learning to drive a stick shift. Again, not different from learning how to day trade or learning how to do anything else. You don’t want to hurt your confidence as you’re getting started.

And so when it comes to doing a hill stop, my recommendation is to start to pull your foot off the clutch. And when you feel the vehicle start to shutter a little bit, because it’s wanting you to put the foot on the gas. Then at that moment, you take your foot off the brake and onto the gas while continuing to slowly lift your foot off the clutch. But then again, this is where you’re doing two different things with different feet and it starts to be difficult to learn, but you will learn it and you will get good at it.

Another alternative, which is a great one in this car, because it has a hand brake is to pull the brake like this. So I can take my foot off of the foot brake entirely and start lifting my foot off the clutch. And then I can even start putting my foot on the gas and then pop the brake off. And even if the car lurches forward a little bit, that’s not a big deal. So we’ll talk a little bit more about hill stops when we’re driving and I’ll give you an example of it. But why don’t right now, we just start the car back up and we’re going to go through step three, which is shifting up. So going from first up to second.

So let’s get the car started, I’m going to put my foot on the gas just a little bit. It’s the way this car is, it’s okay. All right. So up to first gear. Technically that was down to first, but I was in neutral. First gear, okay. Oh, and we’ve got a truck behind us, so let’s … Why don’t we go ahead and get going here. So foot off the clutch slowly. We’ll just pull over. I’m going to let the truck go around and then I can give you guys a kind of good breakdown here. Okay. All right. So I’m going to take my foot off the clutch. The car starts rolling forward, and now I can actually put my foot on the gas a little bit. Now I’m at a stop here and it’s traditional of many people driving a stick shift for the first time. We’re not going to stop. We’re just going to roll through it. Now, actually that wasn’t a stop sign. So that was fine, but you’ll probably do a lot of rolling stops when you’re first driving a stick shift.

So now, hear how the engine is revving up because first gear only works between like 0 and 10, 15 miles an hour. And then second gear picks up and then third gear. So we need to shift. This is why that police chase was stalling out at 18 miles an hour. So what I’m going to do is, I’m going to lift my foot off the gas. I’m going to push on the clutch pedal, and I’m going to bring my self down to second gear. And I’m going to take my foot off the clutch pedal. The nice thing about second gear is that you can usually start in second gear from a dead stop. If you need to, it’s not as easy as doing it from first, but what it means is that if going between first and second, because you take your foot off the gas, the car slows down. It’s okay. It’s not the end of the world. So now we’re going up the hill. So we’ve shifted up from first to second. And when I get to the top of the Hill, I could shift up again to third, or what I could do is I could just come to a stop, which is what I’ll actually do.

And I’ll show you again, the process of shifting from first to second. So we’ve got someone coming up behind us also, so this is a good opportunity to pull over, let them go around and then we’ll do another stop. So I’m going to pull over here. I put my foot on the brake but as the engine starts to shutter, which it’s really not. But again, this is a forgiving car to learn. I’m going to push my foot on the clutch. People like to wave in this car. So foot is on the clutch here. We’re going to go back into first gear. So back to first right there, and it doesn’t look like we’ve got any traffic. You know what? I don’t have my seatbelt on. We technically are driving so I should put it on. So let’s pop that puppy on there.

So seatbelt on, it’s a lap belt. Just like an airplane. Okay. I’m going to lift my foot off the clutch slowly. Now we’re driving. Better start using the gas pedal and off we go. Now I need to go to second, foot off the gas, push on the clutch, go down to second, pull off the clutch, back on the gas. Now that motion will eventually become so fast and so fluid that you’re just lifting your foot gently off the gas pedal. So watch this. I’m going to lift gently off. So it’s hovering right above, pushing my foot in the clutch, going to third, off the clutch, back on the gas. And now let’s watch it really quickly here for fourth. Just like that. It’s a gentle lift.

So now let’s come to a stop here. I use my blinker, come to a stop. So this is a hill. Hills are great for learning to drive a stick shift because you put your foot off the brake, you’re already rolling. Take your foot off the clutch, you’re good. You can even basically pop the clutch, which is just pop your foot right off it and you’re good to go. All right, so lifting my foot off the gas. Now again, I could pull my foot back. I can just hover it. Probably just hovering is fine. For demonstration, it might be easier that I move it, but you wouldn’t probably do that when you’re actually driving around.

So we’re in second gear and we’re doing it. The hardest part is getting started. That’s the hardest part. And the hardest part of getting started is when you’re doing it on a hill. So foot off the gas, on the clutch and shifting up to third gear. Now I’m just coasting here. Now at any time I can bring the car into neutral and just coast. And a lot of folks will do that going down a hill. They’ll just bring the car down to neutral and just coast down the hill. So foot on the brake because I’m in neutral, I don’t need my foot on the clutch as well. But if I was in second gear, I would need to put my foot on the clutch., if I’m coming to a stop, otherwise the car is going to stall out.

Even though this car feels like it might be impossible to stall it, it will. So we’re going to put on our directional, we’re going to take a left and we’re going to try this step three, one more time. And now we’re going to go to step four, which is downshifting. So step three, one more time together, foot off the clutch. We’re rolling forward, foot on the gas. And here we go. We’re off in first gear. Foot off the gas, foot on the clutch down to second or sorry, up to second gear. It’s down in direction, but up from first to second. Now we’re going in second, now let’s jump up to third gear. I’m going to do this simultaneously. I’m going to push on the clutch and lift off the brake at almost the same time. Go to third. And now back on the gas and off the clutch. It becomes smooth like butter. And just like watching someone ride a bicycle, it looks easy as can be, but when you’re in there learning, it can be frustrating. So try not to get frustrated, give yourself some time to learn. This can be a lot of fun. And if you’re learning something already, hit please the thumbs up and help make this the most popular video on learning to drive a stick shift.

So we’ve completed step three, step one was getting oriented, getting comfortable, understanding the gear shift pattern. Remembering that the more you practice, the more that muscle memory will become ingrained in your hand and your foot. Step two, just gently lifting your foot off the clutch, whether it’s in first gear or reverse, that’s the hardest part to master. And you can practice that for weeks just to get practice at it. Step three is shifting up. So we’re going to come to a stop here and we’re going to jump in here with step four.

So step four, and it actually seems like we’re on a slight hill because as I take my foot off the brake, we’re rolling backwards. So I’m in first gear rolling backwards. Now, if I start to lift my foot off the clutch, you feel that it pulls me forward without even using gas. But of course, if I had someone that came up right close behind me in traffic, I might not have that freedom to roll too far back. And so what I’m going to do here for the hill stop, is I’m going to hold the brake. So now we’re not rolling back. I’m going to ease off the clutch, when I feel it starting to shutter the vehicle at that moment, I can start to put my foot on the gas.

Now in some vehicles, you may need to use more gas or less, but let’s just try it again. Okay. Feeling the vehicles start to shutter and it’s going without gas, but I’m going to put just a little bit on there. So step four, downshifting. So you’re comfortable with shifting up from first to second, from second up to third, from third up to fourth. Now, if you want to come to a stop, you can just shift the car into neutral, put your foot on the brake and come to a stop, just like this. You don’t have to downshift. However, one of the awesome things about driving a stick shift is the fact that you can brake the vehicle with the gears.

I have had multiple occasions where I’ve been in a vehicle, put my foot on the brake and it went straight to the floor. I had no brakes. It’s a scary moment. But rest assured with this transmission here, I can start shifting down. And so what truckers will do is they’ll engine brake. And you’ve probably seen those signs, no engine braking because it’s loud, but you can do it with a stick shift as well. A regular car or a Volkswagen bus like this. Now one of the things with downshifting is that you are going to wear a little bit more on the clutch by doing it, but of course you’re avoiding braking. So you’re saving on the brakes. So you’re going to wear on something. So this at least gives you a practice driving a stick shift.

So let’s take off here again. So just pulling my foot off the clutch gently and putting my foot on the gas. If I’m trying to do a quick start, then I sort of do them at the same time. That gives me an ability to get a faster start. Down, sorry up to second and up to third. And we’re going to go up to fourth. So now let’s say I want to come to a stop up here by this telephone pole. I’m going to shift down to third, pull the clutch out slowly and the car is slowing down, shift down to second, pull the clutch out slowly and you feel how it’s actually braking the car. Most cars won’t let you shift all the way to first until you’re going really slow. So just like that, I slowed down the car basically to a stop. Now it can use the hand brake for the rest without using that brake.

And that’s a pretty cool sense of security. The fact that you’ve got two brakes like this. So we’re in first gear coming out of first, up to second, up to third and now I’ve got a stop sign up here. So I’m going to shift down to second, clutch out. It’s engine braking. Now it’s not slowing down as much as I need it to. So I’m going to use a little bit of brake, engine brake down to first, roll in first and now up to second. And then we’re going to go up to third. Now it’s going to be a little harder to truly come to a full stop, but right now, if I want to slow down, I could shift down to second and ease off the clutch. Hear how it revs up. So clutch is in, I’m going to ease off the clutch and that’s engine braking. With second gear, I’m actually braking the vehicle coming down this hill. In the winter that prevents me from having to use my brakes. That might help me prevent locking up the brakes and spinning out. I’m using engine braking to slowly come down the hill.

So we’re just going to keep going down to second gear. I’m not using my actual brake pedal at all. So I’ve got my camera here. There we go. So now we’re at the bottom of the hill. I’m going to go ahead and go up to third, up to fourth, foot on the gas and uh-oh, I’m coming to a big hill. I’ve got my foot all the way down and I’m not really accelerating fast enough. That means I need to shift down. So what do I do? Into third and oh, I got to go more, in down to second. Oops, I jumped gears and I’m going to pull over for this person to go around me. So I’m actually, I’m in fourth gear. So I’ll wave him on him. Go ahead, go around, go around, go around. You got it. You got it. This is your moment. Yep. You’re a speed demon. You got it. You got it.

Back in first gear. So it’s not uncommon when you’re going up a hill that you’re going to need to downshift maybe from fifth down to fourth or down to third, or if you want to pass someone like that Subaru wanted to pass me. They might think, Oh, I need a little more gas. I need a little more power. I’m going to have to downshift. All right. So what are we in now? It feels like we’re probably in second. So we’re going to go up to third, down to fourth or up to fourth. And then back here, third, engine brake, second. Slowly off the clutch. And now if I want to get on the gas, whew. Now we’re feeling some power. Clutch in, up to third. And let’s say for whatever reason, I know I want to engine brake. So engine brake here, and this is going to be a good example. I’m going to do a heel-toe downshift foot on the brake, revving the gas and around the corner.

So we’re going to do an engine brake down to second. All right, there we go. Down to second and we’re going to engine brake to first, which usually you don’t really want to do too much. Again, like I said, most cars won’t let you do that. And now we’ve got a hill stop. Now, if I pull the clutch out, this is called riding the clutch. If you just hold the clutch like that, you’re riding the clutch. You don’t want to do that. So I’m going to pull the clutch out, a little bit of gas, just kind of tap that pedal as I’m pulling the clutch out. And now I’ve got my blinker on and I can do the hill stop with the emergency brake here. And that’s what I’m going to do. Just like that. And we’re off. So you got to see a little heel-toe downshift.

So step five, and this is a little bit more advanced is doing that heel-toe downshift. So a heel-toe downshift, what you’re doing is, you’re rev matching. So I’m going to be up to fourth right now. And as I go down to third, if I tap the pedal and pull it out, then I don’t have a tachometer on this. But what you would see is when you shift down the tachometer goes up. So if you’re in neutral, because you took your foot off the gas, then obviously the tachometer is down here. So to rev match, you want to get your tachometer up to about the spot where you expect it will be. And then when you pull the clutch out, you’re perfectly there. So we’re going to do this here, I’m going to put my foot on the brake, roll it over here. See I’m rolling. Rolling harder than I need to and around the corner just to show you. So now we’re in second, third. Up the hill here in third, not getting enough power, going down to second. There we go. That’s enough power to get up the top of the hill, back up to third. Brake, rev match. I just slowed down all the way. Actually, I’m going to keep going straight. We’ll keep going straight. I kind of missed it because that car was coming.

So we’ll keep going straight here. Second, up to third. So we’ll do a little heel-toe on this one up here. So we’re just going to do a loop. We’re going in a circle here. So foot on the brake, rolling over like this. So I’m going to go down to second. Usually, I’ll be braking hard into a corner. I roll my foot over onto the gas pedal. So right here, we’re going to roll. And then that brought the tachometer up. So by the time I took the turn I was at about the same RPM that I would be when the clutch was popped out. It allows you essentially to be very aggressive in the way you’re driving through corners and to keep the vehicle more weighted because as you go through that corner, you’re keeping the RPMs at the right spot. So you’re not jerking the vehicle when you pop the clutch.

So down to second, clutch out, engine brake. Up to first, clutch out, engine brake. Rolling. Rolling. Rolling stop. Not really. So second, first, up to second. We’re going to do that loop one more time. Why not? We’re going to go up to third, up to third, up to fourth. And now I’m going to do a rev match downshift, just a tap. That’s a rev match downshift, just a tap. Just get the RPMs up. So sometimes you’ll hear people downshift rah, rah, as they kind of rev match. So just like that, a little tap, a little blip. Newer cars will actually do it for you, but older cars like this, you got to do it yourself. Foot on the brake, so hard on the brake, roll over onto … So again, roll over there, clutch out. There we go.

We took that turn a little faster, but that’s fine. All right, so we’re coming out here. We’re going to go up. Let’s see, We’re going to go to third. So we’re in third right now and we’ll do one more. Now, the nice thing with this car … So we’ll go up to fourth here and then I’ll pull it down to third, so forth and then rev match to third. So this is more aggressive stuff. You’re going a little faster. You’re not going to be at step five for probably a long time and you can drive without ever going to step five.

So let’s go down, so we’re going a little faster here. We’ll pick up a little more speed and then I’m going to try to actually get it into second gear, there we go. So I think that’s in second gear, foots on the clutch, on the brake. And then just like that. Man, I’m having a hard time getting it down to second. It keeps tricking me and going to fourth, but it’s not the end of the world.

So did you learn something? Step one through five, how to drive a stick shift. I hope you guys learned. I hope this really helped you. I hope for some of you, this was the moment where you definitively learned how to drive a stick shift with confidence. Give me some comments below, throw out some questions, if you have any questions. And I look forward to seeing you guys for the next episode of TireKickers and if you want to see an episode of me driving one of the other cars, like the Porsche, my street legal race car. The 1969 Boss 429, make sure you’re subscribed to the channel and check out some of those videos.

So we’re going to let her have it, up to third and then we’re going to come down to fourth. Here we go, down to fourth. That’s not a race car, but you can have a lot more fun with a stick shift. All right, rev match down to third, maybe we put a little on the gas, like we’re going to come up a hill. Up to fourth, there’s a leaf rev match down to third, around the leaf. There we go. Up to fourth, speed limit is 35. Down to third, engine brake. We’re coming up to a hill, can we make it? Up to second, on the gas. There we go. Up to third. Sorry, down to second. Now, up to third. Up to fourth, coming up to a hill. Another leaf in the road down to third, avoid the leaf, around the leaf. There we go.

And this is spirited driving at 35, 42 miles an hour. It’s fun. This is the joy of driving a stick shift, I hope you guys have really enjoyed this episode. And again, stay tuned for the next one right here at TireKickers.

What’s up, everyone? Well, if you made it to the end of this video, you must also be a TireKicker just like me. So hit that subscribe button and come over to Tirekickers.com to check out some articles that I’ve written about. Some of my favorite cars, including that 23 window, 1961 VW bus.

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