Turning on the Engine of a Stick Shift Car

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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.

Turning on the Engine of a Stick Shift Car

This video will show how to turn on the engine of a stick shift car.

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Transcripts

Hi, I am Jumi of Capital Dream Cars and I have been showing you how to drive a manual transmission car. Now, I am going to show you how to turn on the engine and prepare to drive. You put your right foot on the break pedal, your left foot on the clutch and turn on the engine. Now, if the car is in gear, when you turn the engine on, make sure you pop it into neutral before taking your foot off the clutch. Now, there are three situations when you must press the clutch. The first is when you turn on the engine. The second is when you are in gear and not moving. The third is between gear shifts. Now, it is helpful to remember that when the car is in neutral or the clutch is engaged, you should always press the break pedal to prevent the car from rolling. Now, I have shown you how to turn on the engine and prepare to drive. Now, let us go over the basic principles of gear shifting in a manual transmission car.

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