I'll be 41 on Wednesday, I have 7 years till I need to teach my son.

 

Trifecta can set up a dual tune for different levels of boost but as soon as he finds out how to switch it, you're done.

 

didnt think about idling it up, not a bad idea. i dont think she will lose interest, she is bugging me every day. the tune is done, just gotta flash it to the car.

 

What's a tune have to do with learning to drive? Do you you think she will floor it? I learned in a 69 Chevelle SS w/396 and thought that the extra power made it easier. But I guess the Cobalt could be a whole different story. It's not like I can un-teach myself to see what it's like haha. I do remember how violent it was in the chevelle if you didn't do it right though. Now I'm curious, in the chevelle you could let the clutch out slowly without giving it gas and it would go, is the Cobalt that way?

 

 

will she floor it? probably not. she may push the pedal halfway down though. that is bad in 1st gear on this car. she seems to have a lead foot in the other cars. i think that teaching a kid to drive stick in a low 14 sec. FWD car may be a little tricky. if i have the option to detune the car to make it a little easier on her (and me), why not. it will only be temporary until she gets down the clutch and shifting etc. then i will put it back to stock.

 

I tried to teach my ex to drive my Ion. She stalled it once, freaked out. She had it in 1st, went to shift to 2nd and hit 4th instead. It obviously jumped and stalled. She had a breakdown. Cried for an hour. I couldn't help but laugh. She hated me for a week after that. Never ended up getting in the seat again. My sister blew up my dad's truck back in the 90s learning how. Blew up BOTH the motor and transmission. She refuses to learn as well and now drives an A/T Ion 2.2. Yuck.

I sort-of taught myself. Dad taught me some, but died when I was 15. Mom drove stick better than dad (the trucker) and ended up teaching me herself, as well as hiring a former getaway driver turned landscaper. he taught me a lot as well, but driving a 5-speed Ranger is nigh and day from a 5-speed Saturn Ion or Mazda6. That took a LOT of relearning. Short clutch, short shifts. It was great.

 

If you're on flat surface, it's very easy to teach stick. Just have them practice letting the clutch out slowly, and not even touching the gas pedal. Eventually, she'll want to start easing on the gas pedal, and that's when you teach her to press the go pedal, but have her watch the tach or listen for clutch slip.

Obviously this should be done in a big empty parking lot til she gets the hang of it. Good luck. IMO, this is a super easy clutch to use. It's really light, and the car does not stall easily thanks to drive-by-wire.

 

Good luck skip, shouldn't be to bad, the fiancé drives mine. I was thinking about letting her take it down the track sometime.

 

if she gets real good at it, i might let her take it down the strip.

 

that was the plan. just a few blocks away we have a high school that has a huge parking lot.

 

The clutch is easy to engage (unless you have aftermarket grabby clutch), but I found this car to be trickier than any other vehicle Ive owned. I still stall it every now and then, and Ive been driving stick since I first got behind the wheel (not as much now since owning this car for almost 3 years). Every single friend of mine that I have trusted to get behind the wheel have stalled it at least once, and all of them are also experienced stick drivers (its especially funny now with the hyper single in it).

 

Matt (my fiancee) tried to teach me... definitely didnt go so well.. threw the keys at him haha

 

Kiss your clutch bye bye.

 

Ya, I mentioned that to my wife...once.

I was going to let my Daughter drive the WS6 against me in the TC at the track. Wife started shouting stuff about us both killing ourselves...didn't go over too well.

 

I had the bright idea to teach my GF of the time to drive a stick
had a fairly new stage 2 clutch, this was one of the funniest things Ive ever gotten to watch, but unfortunately i paid the price for it. Clutch was slipping for a bit after that. but the good news is she was no longer mad at me l

 

i wouldnt try to teach someone how to drive stick in a SS/TC, i still get a retard moment from time to time and while slipping the clutch my foot twitches or something and its JUSSST enough to slip up another 500rpm and start spooling the turbo.... makes for a nice bog or tire domination when you try and compensate and not haul ass somewhere lol

 

nah.

 

man, sounds like your wife spoils all the fun.

 

*UPDATE* - the new "de-tune" i made up works perfectly. we went out to learn
stick, and everything went really well. she did better than i thought. she still has to be
coached a little and is still a little nervous. lol. BTW, my wife loves the way the car drives
now and wants me to keep it this way. (she says its alot smoother and doesnt pull at all
- read : torque steer) lol. it boosts about 10psi and has about 110hp in first and about
160hp in 2nd-5th. women...... oh well, my daughter is doing really well with it and thats
all that matters for now. maybe its her teacher. ha ha.

 

Thats awesome! Glad it's going so well for her..

 

Congrats. As long as she has patience, she will do fine. That's the hardest part. I tried to teach my fiance. Went ok. She was able to drive around in a parking lot, but freaked out when she got into the street. And hasn't touched it since. So I only buy manuals cause I know she can't drive it. Hahaha

 

Good good . I didn't have the luxury of my parents teaching me how to drive stick, I'm not preparing to teach them (why does this seem backwards ). With a little more practice she'll have it down to a science!

 

I was wondering yesterday how it was going, thanks for the update Glad there will be another female manual shift driver in the world soon.

 

we just got back from a big road trip. my daughter drove the cobalt 4 and a half hours
down there and over 2 hours back. (trip was 9 hours each way). we did have some
battle wounds though. at one of the turnpike exits she curbed the **** out of the driver side wheels. got both of them real good. i was really pissed at the time, but **** happens.
i have always wanted to powder coat my wheels black, and this could be my excuse. lol.
that was actually the worst part of the trip, so i guess we were pretty lucky all in all.