Celica Forums General Discussion General Hey guys, guess what?

Just wanted to let you all know about the great news that I have.

As of 6/29/04, I am now an owner of a 2000 Celica GTS!!!

Went to see the car today, checked out everything, and made the purchase. It will be finalized next week because of the smog check and etc. but the car is in my possession.

I will post some pics after I clean the car. I will be off from work this Thursday and Friday, so I will be spending those 2 days practicing driving a manual and will be washing the car also.

So now I have a few questions for GTS owners. The car sounds different than when I drove my old GT. It makes this sound that is hard to describe, I was just wondering if you guys know what I am talking about. Is it the butterfly Intake, what the hell is that anyway?

Also, people who are driving a stick shift, any hints or tips for a noob? I took the car out today, the first time ever driving a stick shift car, and I did pretty good IMO. Did it all by myself. Still not 100% comfortable, but still learning. So any tricks?

Thanks!!

chicken butt...lol

Sweet man.

Congrats

tips... i remember myself trying to drive the stick shift for the first time...I just put it into first w/e-brake and trying to figure out where friction point was... After 1 hour of this boring exercise... I never had any problem driving stick...

Heh... 2 days practicing?

You'll have it down in about an hour, at most. It'll take a few weeks to get good at downshifting smoothly and all the other little tricks, but actually getting good at the basics hardly takes any time at all.

nice

good luck and be careful since you ain used to stick, try listening to your engine as this will help you know when to shift

One more thing... don't be afraid to stall... Everybody stalls sometimes(^_^) If you stall while trying to start the car from rest, it's not much harm to the clutch anywayz good luck

very nice~ have fun with the car

Thanks for the kind inputs.

So does anyone want to post on how they go about performing a soft launch? The real legit way of doing so I mean, textbook material.

hey checlia hit me up bro.. ill help ya man mayne.. i got thursday off too ^__^ im pretty good at my stick now!

Congrats!

that sound you hear is some decent power being made!

Best tip: Never leave the clutch in unless you are changing gears. Your throw out bearing will thank you

Tips?? Just practice. You'll get the hang of it.

Congrats

hooray, i mean congrats

congrats.
now was the car certified and how much was it for and how many miles?

as for learning to drive stick, very easy, but dont expect to be a pro in 2 days, practice is wut gonna get you better at it. first thing, i would learn the clutch. slip the clutch without any gas until you feel the car is moving a little and the rpms drop, comes to a point that you feel the car will die if you let go a little more. at that point press gas, and do that over and over til you get used to it and quicker at it. DONT PRACTICE quick shifts and good launches on the first weeks, you might mess up especially with the tight shift gates. go on an uphill and practice driving from 0mph without rolling back alot. pull ebrake, do the clutch gas process, let go the ebrake if you afraid of rolling back. when you better at it, go to sunset or somewhere with a lot of traffic and see how good ur doing enjoy lift and rev matching

congradualations, post up pics and good luck on learning stick

congradualations, post up pics and good luck on learning stick

Thanks for the pointers. That was what I needed. Now since I just got off from work, it is time to install my S2K antenna and drive around some more hehe.

RookieGTS - I'll hit you up man. Black and Silver GTS, O yeah!

enjoy it bro -

[quote]Also, people who are driving a stick shift, any hints or tips for a noob? I took the car out today, the first time ever driving a stick shift car, and I did pretty good IMO. Did it all by myself. Still not 100% comfortable, but still learning. So any tricks? [quote]

I may be a noob but I have had my 2k GTS for over a year now and I still have to go into second and push up to 1st jsut to find first gear

R135
246

Put it down into 2nd then push straight up for first ig you have trouble finding it

nice ur gonna love lift

VVTL-I OWNS VTEC w/riceboy decal

tip: try not to over rev

enjoy the GTS

The clutch is not bad, I am just sucking at starting out from 1 smoothly. How do you GTS or GT owners start out the car?

You know when you start out from N to 1st to go, how are your feet suppose to be? Anyone with a breakdown on the correct textbook types of steps?

i did that too when i was learning stick except i noticed 15 min later.

But congrats man on the new car!

have fun man! just dont ride the clutch and learning a stick is easier then everyone thinks

exactly 2 yrs after i got my 00gts

That trick you guys are talking about, where I put the EBrake on and then shift into first and just try to find the friction point, will that be okay to do? Will I burn the clutch or anything like that?

Just to expand on that idea of e-brake/ first gear trick...
Ideally, you want a perfectly flat plane with a lot of space. What you are doing is trying to find the engagement point of the clutch. You don't need to press any gas pedal as well. You start to lift up your clutch foot slowly... Eventually, there will be a ticking noise (very small noise that you may have to pay attention to hear)... After that ticking noise, there will be a point where car wants to start moving (even without the gas pedal). That's your friction or clutch engagement point. Once that point is reached, you want to step on the clutch all the way and cut the clutch. You do this over and over again. Eventually, you will remember this clutch engagement point. It takes quite a while to know the clutch engagement without even thinking about it. This practice shouldnt be that much of a harm to your clutch since the slip on the clutch is pretty much minimal. Adding gas and trying to do this will damage your clutch. (you can rev up to around 5000 rpm and drop the clutch... guranteed nice peal out)

After you do that practice and are comfortable telling where the engagement point is, you put the car in neutral, release the clutch all the way. if it's a flat plane, you can release the e-brake as well. put the tranny in 1st gear and try bring up the clutch pedal until the clutch engagement. The car will start to move forward a little bit. What you want to do is, start adding gas while releasing the clutch slowly. you want to try to keep the rpm constant by adding more gas. If you can connect your clutch all the way, Stop again and repeat this practice for a while until you are completely comfortable with it.

After you got through these practice, you can probably connect the clutch nicely. Try changing the gears after 0 mph start. After these practice, you should be able to drive manual on regular street(^_^).

For hill start, It's similar to e-brake/first gear. You just hit the clutch engagement point and add more gas than flat plane.

Thanks Kenny.

So for the Hill Start. When do I release the EBrake? Is it when I hit the clutch engagement point? Or is it after I gas it?

congrats on the purchase!

I assume that you had driven automatic until you bought your 2nd celica. The concept is really similar to the automatic car's hill start. On automatic, you start to release the e-brake when the car has enough force to start moving forward.

I drove automatic cars for ... like 1 year.. and that's how I used to do it and that's how I was taught to do it.

For manual, It's just that w/ one more pedal. I will just tell you how I first used to do it.

On manual, as I remember, when I first started driving manual, I didnt start to release the e-brake until the car had enough force to start moving (overcome the downward force and ebrake). Plus I was afraid that my car would roll down too far before I could connect the clutch. So what I used to do was ...as soon as I know the signal light was about to change (given about 10 seconds) I would start releasing my clutch until the friction point and pull the e-brake to the 25% ~ 50% point. when you know the light is about to change, I would release the brake and step on the gas enough (around 1500 rpm i think...) and you will get that feeling that car wants to go forward... So I would start releasing the e-brake and I would start pressing on the gas more. practice on the slight incline. I know that at smallest incline, your car will roll back but you can connect the clutch just like the regular flat plane. Just practice with the e-brake at those incline. The point is, you should practice using ebrake and get the hang the e-brake and clutch pedal.Practice from Small incline-> mid incline. I cannot explain much about the mid-> large incline because you will be developing and will get the hang of the hill start when you practice the e-brake start. practicing at small to mid incline is the best. The large incline will come with time when you know enough about it.

The flat-plane practice is very important because if you know the place of the friction point without thinking, then starting on the hill will be easy because you can hit the friction point quickly and start pressing on the gas to overcome the rolling backward...

Practice makes perfect

about the ebrake on a downhill. wut happens when you stopped on a red light which is on a downhill? you let go the gas and press the brake. when the light turns green, you let go the brake as quick as you can and start stepping on the gas. while switching from brake to gas, ur car rolls down a bit. same thing happens when you have the clutch all the way in without trigger point and no acceleration. cars obviously gonna roll back. lets say you have the gear set to first, and the clutch in. the gear wont be engaged until you slip ur foot off the clutch a bit. when you step back to the clutch, it goes off gear. thats the best way to put it.
so this is how it feels comparing to auto and manual
1- when ur on neutral on manual, it feels just like N on auto. car rolls back from any movements.
2- when you shift to any gear, and have the clutch pressed down all the way, it feels like ur still on N(automatic)
3- when you let the clutch out a bit to the engagement point, it feels like ur on D, 1, 2, R without pressing brake or gas. doesnt the car roll a little when you put it on D and not press gas? same thing happens to manual if you slip the clutch a bit without any gas.

pretend ur on uphill driving auto, and let go the brake. without pressing gas, ur car might not move depending how steep the hill is. so when you have an auto and are on a steep hill and dont wanna roll back, you step on the brake with one foot while you gas it with the other until you rev high enough to move forward. since you cant use ur feet both on brake and gas on a manual, you use the e-brake. kenny_celi explained the rest perfectly

good luck and practice parking with it also. dont forget to use the e-brake when you park, and have it on a gear instead of leaving it on neutral. practice, and dont be afraid of stalling a few times. all of us do once in a while. remember, if you smell some weird bad smelling thing, ur clutch is burning and you doing something wrong. other then that, practice on ur launches to be smooth.

Kenny and Stefanoc - I really appreciate your guidance. When I get this thing down, I will be thanking both of you guys. As you can tell, I am basically learning how to drive one from you guys...the Celica community. So I want to thank you.

But I drove an Auto for about 4 years. So driving a car is pretty natural. I just need to surpass the hill thing and I am going to feel more comfortable.

In terms of starting out smoothly on a flat surface, I got that down already. I can even shift to 2nd without the feel of jerkyness...it would be smooth and etc. My luck ends when I start on a hill, or even at a slight incline.

When you guys are talking about the friction point, that is the point where the car is going to die out if you let the clutch out a bit more right? What is exactly the friction point? I have read a lot about it from here and other websites, but there is no exact explanation on what it is.

Kenny, you said this "So I would start releasing the e-brake and I would start pressing on the gas more" when you start pressing the gas more when you let out the clutch at the friction point and the ebrake is at about 50%, do you let the clutch out fast or slow?

when you start driving in first... try not to look at the tach and only listen to the engine

Chelica815 , I dont really know how fast Im letting the clutch out... I would say slow<x<<fast... where x-> undefined... It all depends on how you want to launch on the hill as well as how much incline... As it all depends on how 'lazy' I am sometimes...

Anywayz, just be patient and practice a little more, you will get the hang of it... After this post, I got class... but after the class, I will go drive around and let you know how fast Im letting out the clutch... But I think that 'x' is for you to find out(^_^)

like kenny said, when you hear a click noise from ur car while letting go the clutch, first moment when you see the rpms barely drop and you see the car slightly moving if ur on a straight. launching on a hill, just like kenny said, depends how you wanna launch. but just when ur stopping on a hill, pull the ebrake, shift to 1st, let go the clutch til friction, and do ur thing (ur thing=step on the gas as the same amount ur releasing ur foot from the clutch), just do that until you feel that the car will launch forward, or you feel the car being pushed forward if you doing it too much. and then let go the ebrake and you wont roll back. how much gas and clutch you have to do is something you have to find out. some clutches are worn out more than others, and hills differ from one another. its all about getting to know ur car, and its gonna take a while. i would suggest you go ride in a friends car. let him drive while you watch him. or have someone sit by you when you driving to tell you wut ur doing wrong or wut can you do to improve.

I would practice on the drive way first... if your driveway has a mini hill... Just pull the e-brake and try launching forward... move two feet forward if you got room... Let the car roll back... Do it again and again til you can do it without thinking... If you have trouble launching from the hill, I will just say that you do not have engagement off the top of your head...car's engagement is different for each car so you really gotta memorize it. If you can hit the engagement point fast.. that's great. Faster you can hit the engagement point, even better. I would do each exercise that I mentioned at least 30 min each. I know it sounds pretty stupid having your car in e-brake on the flat plane and trying to engage the clutch... It's boring, stupid, and it get's worse after 10 min of doing it. After 30 min, you're probably not even thinking and you can probably hit the engagement point within 1 second. That's when you know you should move on to the next step. As long as you dont have the basics of the basics down... you will have problem driving manual. I know that you can drive 1->2->3->4->5( and maybe 5->6 assuming celica gts) without trouble. Point of driving a manual is not all about shifting gears. The hardest part of manual is going from neutral to 1st gear. Rest are easy. Just let your body remember where the engagement point is.. If you can hit it in 0.5 second, that's great.. you can work on the gas afterward. In my point of view, engine talks to you... and clutch is the only thing that connects you and the engine. Engine will let you know how much gas you need and where clutch should be. I recommend not turning on any music while practicing your manual car. open your window and listen to the engine(^_^)

Like i said earlier, the faster you can hit the engagement point, better you are at the hill launch. The gas pedal will be determined according to what the engine has to say... If the car vibrates(side ways) then you are underpowered-> add more power or gas. If the car jurks really hard (front to back), step on the clutch all the way and rev so that you dont stall the engine.

Also, before going on the hill, if you can find the speed bump, that will also teach you a lot about hill start... Try launching from the bottom of the speed bump...That will teach you much gas + clutch you gotta work (i assume that it willbe a flat plane so no e-brake) to get the car to go over the speed bump. and you can pretty much turn around and do it again...

I took your advice and now I am able to launch from a standstill on a hill using the EBrake. Thanks!! In about an hour or so, I will go back out and practice a few more rounds.

O yeah, I also installed my clear corners today. The car looks much better now.