How do you drive a manual transmission automobile?

How does one effectively and responsibly (for engine & transmission) drive a manual transmission car?

Background: i don't currently drive offline, and am only familiar with mundane automatic transmission driving within large city environments in common, non-sporty pedestrian automobiles. On the other hand i've been a long time flight-sim-realism fan as of Falcon 4.0 in '98 & the current-day BMS fork/patch/mod for it. Thus my acute appreciation for Assetto Corsa.

So far I've been running with all of the arcade settings 'off' aside from automatic transmission which i've left active in all automobiles. Even the F40. Yes. Yes, i know i should feel bad for that too! (Hey at least i just about never leave cockpit view! ^_^)

I get the general gist however, - Engine on, apply gas & shift from Neutral to 1st, and on through the gears while shifting near red line but not within, at least ideally. Up-to now I've been up-shifting and down-shifting of my own choice a bit like my 360 controller is one of those flappy-paddle gear shifters. Unfortunately with some vehicles the speed changes so rapidly it's hard to catch the completely-automated shift that's triggered at the end of red line on the rev counter.

In terms of where to start about the only things that come to mind are: Practice with a 500 esse esse or something equally slow for a change of pace on a relatively basic track.

Yet beyond that? I'm a bit lost. Technically i have driven manual a good few years ago, yet near the end of the session i had one too many stalls and realized I'd best hand back the keys.

Suggestions? Links? Things to know? Somewhere in the back of my mind there's a quote to the effect of - when driving a performance car, never shift or accelerate in corners.

 

You can turn on basic app or gear app and then when you will be close to the redline, gear number will turn from white to red, so you will know it's time to shift. After a while you will get the idea from the engine sound when to shift.
Other than that, practice and practice.

 

Going fast also doesn't always mean slamming down the gas pedal. The f40 is a wild car, it may require a bit more finesse with the accelerator, especially once that turbo kicks in.

The automated shift, I think you are refering to the delay on the shift for controllers? That was implemented to prevent people with less "realistic" hardware from gaining an advantage.

 

Well, yeah, the F40 sure is a wild creature and demands a good bit of slow driving to get the hang of no matter the transmission settings.

As for the automated shift, i just mean leaving transmission set to automatic for all cars. - In cars like the 458 the time it spends in 1st and 2nd when accelerating from a stand still is so short, it's really hard to override and shift it up with a gear up request (on joystick) before the automatic transmission does it for you (at the end of redline / 9k+). In general I'm essentially trying to shift up (& down) where i think it should be done before the automatic transmission does it for me.

 

Until you've had a good bit of practice at throttle control in manual with TC off a good tip is to take the slow corners a gear up from you normally would driving with automatic ie 2nd gear conrners in 3rd etc . Gives your right foot a bit more leeway until you get used to it . Worked for me . Depends on the car of course how evil it is

 

Oh, I think you should implement the maunal transmission if you want to override things. I'm not sure if you can properly do what you ask for.

 

Being 1 gear up than optimal, slows the car a bit if i recall. Is this why you'd want to be a gear up? Is doing this regularly good for the motor & transmission as a regular habit?

 

Yeah. It's what i seem to be noticing. In cars with rapid RPM changes in low gears, it's very hard to manually catch the right time to shift up before the automatic shifts it right through the red into the next gear (a la 1st through 2nd...). I usually manage to catch the shift from 3rd to 4th and on upward in the 458.

 

you're still faster on the track using manual shifting than automatic, even with a gamepad. If you find the car too unstable when you downshift, slightly (and quickly) press the gas pedal on the moment you down shift, then you won't lose control. But gear shifting in games has the same principle as in real life.

 

Stay in the optimal RPM range at all times and always be in a gear that will let you most effectively accelerate out at the apex. That's all there is to it in the end.

 

Why and how? I'd fully agree if one was looking to the Shelby Cobra, or similar historical vehicles (if they even had automatic transmissions), not to forget automatic cars from the 80's and 90's but the very current day stuff? I admit to some curiosity...Particularly as most new cars today are very fly-by-wire, their transmissions so startlingly fuel efficient or absurdly performance oriented via dual clutches / and computers which can trigger gear changes at fractions of a second that the human potency of gear shifting at home in the 80's and before has kinda faded from performance relevancy. Now, visceral happiness of gear shifting is a wholly different matter i can certainly recognize.

But otherwise, are you referring to something about manual shifting in AC > automatic shifing in AC, & it being able to permit increased lap performance?

 

Sounds good to me. It will take some time and you will get better as you get used to it.

I just learned how to drive a manual car about 2 weeks ago! Fun stuff.

"When driving a performance car, never shift or accelerate in corners" Forget that. It's not quite right.

~Bailey

The auto transmission in AC in quite bad compared to the real counterparts. That's why its slower. (And if you drive a car with a H-gate, but use a different way to shift gears there is a penalty that AC implements.)
~Bailey

 

Is it safe to presume this optimal RPM range can vary greatly depending on engine/automobile? Equally, that being in the Red part of the rev meter is not good?

 

No damage in AC yet to prove it either way . It's only a temporary solution for MT beginners as once you get more confident at throttle control using the MT you can take the slower corners in the optimal gear .

 

Generally it's similar, but some engines have better curves than others.

If it feels like your engine is running far too slow, or power pickup is terribly slow, you're out of the range.
Usually below 5500RPM is where you start losing power and torque.

 

I have noticed recently that I am getting slightly improved lap times by sticking with 3rd gear in relatively slow corners rather than dropping down to 2nd. This is even true at times in cars like the Lotus Elise. Maybe a large number of the road cars (the only ones that I drive in AC) have a decent amount of torque at relatively low RPM? As for the F40, I agree that it is one wild beast.....and that's only the standard version!

 

Also depends on the gear ratios and car/track combo.
And a little bit of a personal preference.
For example in KTM at Nordschleife I don't use 1st and 2nd gear at all. Maybe you can be faster using 2nd, but for me the first two gears are too short and I'm more comfortable with 3rd even in the slow corners.

 

When youre racing.. you dont always want to shift at the most efficient time 'for the transmission' or be as fuel efficient as possible. These matter.. but going fast matters more.
You might not want to upshift when the transmission does.. As advanced as they are you as a driver still know things that it doesnt. You know the track, your turn in points, where you need torque etc.

Manual transmission gives you infinitely more control. When you get the feel for how much power you get in each gear, in different RPM ranges.. you have way more options going into a corner.
In automatic its only gas and brake.. with manual I could downshift early to help myself slow down and then downshift again to power up a steep hill. Upshift early or stay in a higher gear for more traction in slower corners.

 

yes. although I always upshift in the red area of the gear app. Some cars cause damage, others don't seem to. Just don't downshift too quickly.

The automatic transmission makes assumptions, where as the driver know when and where they need to be in each gear. Your smarter than the car.

 

In automatic, i have been using up shift, down shift (when i want to) as well as gas & break. Yet when I don't, I'll let the automatic transmission handle gearing. To be fair, I certainly do see what you're saying, and recognize that at some moments the car is capable of making shifts I in theory, may not want. Up to now, I've had no complaints aside from any attempt to control the rapid shifts from 1st to 2nd gears in a car like the 458 from 0-60 for example. The Elise on the other hand? I've full control to shift the gears when i desire before the automatic kicks in completely.

If anything up to the current moment (or until Baily's post above) i've been trying to figure out if the automatic transmissions in AC are really accurate or just stand-ins & less than ideal vs. reality. So far it seems based on feedback here, that they're not accurate and AC's manual, once learned is better than its automatic method of providing transmission modeling.