Getting Oriented to a Stick Shift Car

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  • wildwonder142 Flag


    She dosent talk about cars where you have to push in the gear shift to go into reverse. Like with Volkswagon cars.

Jumi Kim
Co-founder, President, CEO, Capital Dream Cars
www.capitaldreamcars.com  
703-785-9357

Jumi is a founding member, president and CEO of Capital Dream Cars— Washington, DC’s premier exotic car rental company as featured in The Washington Post, Goss’ Garage, and SpeedTV.com. The business was inspired by a hobby and a need. Apart from owning her own exotic cars, Jumi would travel to Formula One races with friends and family—to Montreal twice for the Canadian Grand Prix and to Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix—but when she looked to rent a Ferrari locally, her search came up dry. So, after much pioneering determination, she and two business partners launched Capital Dream Cars in March 2006 to fulfill the “dream car” dreams of Capital Area car enthusiasts like them. Growing up, Jumi always enjoyed driving, but it wasn’t until she learned to drive stick about 15 years ago and bought her first stick vehicle—a little green Acura Integra GS-R that still takes up a spot in her garage (and still runs great at nearly 200k miles!)—that she understood driving on a whole different level, not just as a way of getting from here to there. And perhaps it was her own small way of rebelling against the gender stereotype that girls can’t drive, let alone drive stick. Although she doesn’t presume to be a great technical driver, she enjoys driving fun cars and sharing her enthusiasm with others, which is, after all, what car enthusiasm is all about.

Getting Oriented to a Stick Shift Car

This video will discuss how to get oriented to a stick shift car.

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Transcripts

Hi, I am Jumi with Capital Dream Cars and today, I am teaching you how to drive a manual transmission car. I am going to now orient you to a stick shift car. The first way a stick shift car is different from an automatic car is you have a third pedal located to the left of the break pedal and it separates the engine from the transmission.

The second way a stick car is different from an automatic car is you have something called a gear box. It is located between the driver and passenger sides of the car and it is what you use to shift the gears. In an automatic car, the car automatically shifts the gears for you. But in a manual car, you have to shift the gears yourself. Gear boxes on stick shift vehicles vary depending on whether it is a five-speed or a six-speed vehicle. On our six-speed Ferrari for example, you have a standard double-H pattern where first gear is in the left, top corner and sixth gear is in the right, bottom corner. Reverse is actually down and to the left. Now, we are in a five-speed stick vehicle and the gear sequences vary a little bit from a six-speed car. This car is actually pretty standard for a five-speed manual. First gear is in the left, top position, just like in the six-speed car with fifth gear being in the right, top position. But instead of sixth gear being in the right, bottom position, it is reverse. So, reverse is right and down. Neutral is when the car is not in gear. You know you are in neutral because you will be able to move the gear stick to the left and right. Now, that I have oriented you to a stick shift car, let's move on to turning on the engine and preparing to drive.

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