ls1121

Yup....that's my Duke's of Hazzard start.

ls1121

and your reward for that burnout in a Vette.

windyC6

SHOES ????.....wear the right shoes ???.....

TraceZ

I teach people to drive stick with great success. My method:

In an empty parking lot:

You are not allowed to even touch the gas pedal.
Clutch and brake only.

1. Clutch in, Put it in 1st.
   
2. Let the clutch out to its sweet spot and hold it there until the car reaches 1st gear speed at idle.
   
3. Release the clutch fully.
   
4. Clutch in, Stop.
5. Repeat.

Remember you are not allowed to even touch the gas pedal.

Don't worry about hurting the clutch doing this. RPMs and load forces are too low to cause any heat / issues in this practice.

Once you are PERFECT at doing it from muscle memory without touching the gas pedal you can move on from there and you will be surprised and how much smoother your starts are.

Texan79423

Lots of good info there. Now quit over thinking this. Find a paring lot and just do it. Once you do it right or well enough you will know it.

TorchRedFred

This thread is over 8 years old. So I would think the OP has figured it by now. If not, he's probably given up.

windyC6

Actually.....the easiest way to learn how to drive a manual (esp. the take off) is to start ones learning on a slight downhill incline. Not such an incline that the car starts rolling fast immediately, but enough of an incline to make the start off easy. then just continue to move onto less and less of an incline until you have mastered level starts. You'd be surprised how much easier this makes learning to start on hills.

C3w4sp

10 bux and 10 minutes, replace the oversized clutch pedal assist spring with the smaller one from a C5.

The OP musta gave up after 6 yrs of trying, not active since 2015.

RagTop69

You say you are lugging or slipping the clutch on take off. If you're lugging you are getting off the clutch too soon and if you're slipping the clutch you are not getting off the clutch soon enough. My '69 C3 was an M21 4 speed without any sort of hydraulic assist and I found it plain old simple to get off the line. We had a couple of hydraulically assisted clutches on other cars and some of them managed to obscure the feel part of clutch engagement to the point that they were a pain in the ****. My immediate recollection was an '88 Acura Legend that we bought new with the 5 speed manual. Maybe it was the transverse engine or front wheel drive, but it was always a challenge to get off a stoplight. I also remember being at a red light at the top of a San Francisco hill with my '64 Falcon Sprint 4 speed and praying that I wouldn't kill the engine on take off.

RagTop69

As they say in the UK, cheeky.

Corvette_Ed

Considering the OP started this thread 8 years ago, he's probably gotten the hang of it by now...

Dragon Tamer

ls1121

zzjakect

It may be the clutch fluid that is a mess. Use ranger method and replace it. It might change how clutch reacts to your foot and shifting. I was surprised by the change I experienced when I did this. In any case it cannot hurt.

Raulito800's

Hi C4Lou,
I just has my assist spring on my clutch pedal and I was having dificulty describing it, however you just did so perfectly. With the new assist spring my pedal no longer feels linear and consistent.

I was driving with a broken assist spring and I was enjoying that more than the abrubt push the clutch pedal gives with the assist spring.

Do you have any more info/tips about this assist spring??

Dano523

Problem is the delay between the throttle pedal, and the motor gaining RPM's that will take some time getting used to.
Throttle remapping does help, but really just a mater of getting used to that delay so you can control the motor a little better via the delay.
Also to point out, you don't need to give the motor any gas to let the clutch out, so would advice that you first learn how to do this without touching the gas pedal to get used the clutch engagement to begin with.

As for the last part of the math, the clutch pedal uses a assist spring, which helps you hold the gas pedal to the floor at a stop light, but does have a cross over point that the assist will kick in the other way, making the clutch pedal pop up from about half way down. So here to give better pedal feel (and a touch less assist all the way down), you want to change out the stronger C6 clutch pedal assist spring, to the slightly weaker C5 clutch assist pedal spring instead.



C5 spring on the right,

pewter99

learned on a manual transmission car...been driving them for 40 years, I found nothing different or difficult about the C5 or C6/C6Z06, these cars are so simple its ridiculous...not as easy as the BMWs I have driven but these cars are nothing to drive....my first Corvette was a 78 4 speed...NOW that car you had to freaking drive, heavy clutch and the Borg Warner 4 speed..... that was a fun car