Festivas are great first 5-speed cars. There's like nothing to them. Honestly going from my 88 grand prix 5-speed to the festiva 5-speed; the festiva feels like a toy in comparison. I find myself shifting way too 'hard' before I get used to it again lol. All you need is a pinky finger and toe in a festy
Yesterday I began teaching a couple friends on how to drive a manual in it.
So my clutch took quite a beating yesterday. :p
Especially when one of my buddies was trying a hill start, and he gunned it nearly to 6k RPMs and and didn't fully engage the clutch.
Needless to say you could smell burning clutch after that, and told him sternly not to do that again. lol
One friend still needs quite a bit of work (the burning up my clutch, guy), and still bunnyhops quite a bit on level ground when starting off, and lets the engine rev too high before shifting out of first.
But the other seems to have got down all the basics, starting off, stopping, knowing when to upshift without revving the engine too much, downshifting for slower speeds and turns, just needs to practice on some steeper hills than what we had in the parking lot.
What allot of people don't realize when learning to drive a manual, is that there is an in-between with a clutch, it just isn't always on or off. Trying to explain how a clutch works helps people learn a bit faster.
I say the Festiva would be the easiest car to learn in with their small cable clutches, I had to learn in my parent's Fusion which has a heavy hydraulic clutch.
Last edited by TorqueEffect; 03-03-2013, 01:35 PM.
Today (Thursday), I had my 90 serviced. Oil change etc. Did some work inside the house on small parts for my project car. Shops too cold and my heater just aint up to the cold we have at the moment.
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