Picking up my 06 STI Today, never owned a manual - any tips?

Don't fool yourself. :) The only way I've ever seen someone who's driven other manuals shift my car smoothly is by slipping the clutch wayyyy too much.** If you smell burning after more than about four months when starting on a hill, you're slipping it too much.

** (Well, except for an M3 driver friend of mine. He shifted perfectly and his timing was impeccable.)
Reply to
k. ote
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That's fine. It's not hard on the car when you're moving so slowly.. not really. The STi is beastly strong. In a previous note I suggested you slam your clutch down faster when shifting from 1 to 2. Do that.. really slam it down fast, and you'll find the shift to 2nd will be much easier.

Also, you *can* engage it while the engine is slightly too fast for the gear and the speed you're going. You'll feel a slight surge, but it's the only way to keep the RPMs down.

I find the lowest RPM I can shift to 2nd in is right about 2400 RPM.. and that's on level pavement. On a downhill it's down around 1800, and on an uphill I have to get it up to about 3000. The trick is to shift as soon as the engine will let you, which is right about 1000-1200rpm less than when you disengage from 1st.

You *must* rev-match for the downshift. Do this, and get used to it:

. Clutch down HARD AND FAST, foot OFF the accelerator at the same time. . Pull it out of gear, and leave the shifter in neutral. Leave your foot down on the clutch. . Rev the engine up by exactly 1300RPM (the faster you get, the closer you'll get this number to about 900-1000 RPM.) . Gently push the shifter into the next-lower gear. You'll find it'll slip in by itself when you rev up just enough. . Ease up on the clutch.

The trick to doing this successfully is to disengage the clutch REALLY QUICKLY, and to make sure the RPMs are up enough to shift down.

My car refuses to downshift without a rev-match unless the driver really rams it in there, and then I cringe and ask them to pull over. :)

Reply to
k. ote

Some people's feet are too big to do this without driving booties or foot-hugging footwear. I wouldn't overwhelm the guy with attempts at advanced technique yet. He's still having trouble downshifting. :)

Reply to
k. ote

Yikes. Doing it with an STi is wayyy harder than this post makes it sound. I strongly recommend nobody try this with their STi unless they've had race practice. Getting it right on the STi will take too much tranny-damaging practice to be worth the trouble just so you can show off a clutchless shift. :)

Reply to
k. ote

A friend of my friend's dad took his first STi to a track with the salesperson present (with dealership's full sanction apparently) and downshifted 5->2 and blew the tranny on the spot. Like JD says: take it easy until you're used to the taller gears. There's six of them, so there's lots to choose from going around corners and obstacles.

What he said: be gentle on the shifter. The car will be very angry at you if you force things too often.

Reply to
k. ote

YEARS of practice. You can force yourself to learn it faster, but it's hard on the car. You can only really practice when you're "in the zone". Otherwise you're going to be grinding and gnashing. It requires an intimate knowledge of what the engine sounds and feels like both at the time you slip out of gear and at the time you slip into gear. In general, when you're in the zone it will slip in within a second. If it takes you longer than that, you're not in the zone, and watch out. You'll be grinding things. Best leave it for another day when you are better in tune with the car.

Reply to
Cam Penner

Seriously? This is the part where you tell us what happened. :)

Reply to
k. ote

It is not a troll post. I really really wish it was a troll post.

What happened was, I became too confident in my abilities and the all wheel drive that I tried to make a really tight curve (one where the sign said

10mph) at 40mph. I was in 4th gear and did not apply the brakes. The car understeered a bit, went off the road (which was on a 30 degree incline) and hit possibly one of the biggest trees in existence.

I feel that I have learned my lesson (the hard way - but it could have been much worse) and can move on with my life and my driving.

Should I be hoping: a) that the car is totalled, take a $2k or so loss (on the sales tax and depreciation of the value of the car) and get a brand new STI

b) that the car is not totalled, wait a month and a half for $15,000 worth of repairs, and continue driving this STI (the mechanic who is a friend of mine insists it will be like new)

c) that the car is totalled, get a different car because the STI is something I probably cannot handle

Thanks.

PS to prove that this is not a troll post I will post a few links showing the car (and me) a day before the accident.

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Reply to
Adam Frankel

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I'm glad you weren't killed. I think you should really do some hard self-examination, then get what you want. many people learn quite well from an incident such as your's - others have a life filled with stupid behaviors. Unless you plan to visit the track, you find a WRX is just as much fun, after 2-3 small mods to the suspension, as the STI, ON THE PUBLIC ROADS.

'A smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.'

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

I have been a good driver my entire life, clean record with no tickets or no accidents for 8 years up until this point. I feel I can move on from this and not make the same mistake again.

My thoughts are this:

1) It is not the car's fault that I had this accident

2) In fact - if any car could've handled that turn, it just as likely could've been the STI

3) The car possibly saved my life

So I feel that since the fault is mine and not the car's that switching cars would be admitting that I cannot learn from my mistake, and I do not believe I am that type of person.

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Reply to
Adam Frankel

AWD makes no difference to handling when you're not accelerating (or using the power to maintain your current speed). You would have hit that tree in either a FWD or RWD car anyways.

Unless there is a change to your approach to driving in general, I'd decline another STi. Get an RS or if you must

- a WRX, and put the difference into performance driving school. You'll end up with a "less capable" car, but be faster AND safer anyways.

Reply to
Cam Penner

It's okay dude, I believed you, and I think "M.J."'s post was more a "Aw man, it can't be true" attempt at humour.

Holy crap dude..!

Hope fot it to be totalled. After an accident, the car will feel tainted. Things won't sound the same, strange extra things will happen months after the fact (like your 6-cd changer burrowing scratches in your prized CD collection) and after a certain time period, the insurance people will start thinking you're pushing normal maintenance of the car into insurance claims.

ANY accident that isn't cosmetic will never be repaired back to 100%; on a performance vehicle like an STi, unless you have a pit crew to fix the issues as they arise like the rally racers do, problems that seem slight could turn into problems which could turn into new accidents. Do your best to get a new car out of this. Especially with a moved engine, you now have to worry about your transmission, your drive shaft, your axles, your wheel bearings, your differentials, your control arms.. god the list goes on.

It won't be. It'll *ALWAYS* feel different. Nobody I've ever talked to has felt their performance car is back up to snuff once it's been in an accident. Normal cars that don't need precision alignment and pin-point accuracies in the body--oh sure, those can be fixed so you don't notice anything. But on a car that's supposed to be capable of 155mph? Or more, if you're in a Canadian model? Yikes..

Don't give up. The fact that you're posting here is proof you're not completely lost. :)

Reply to
k. ote

^^^^^^^^^^^ I don't think that is true. Most jap cars are fragile. Perfformance or not. Detrua 6 packs are a bit better, but are also far from indestructible. What you get after repairs are done is not exactly what you had before.

Reply to
Body Roll

You should, first of all, go take some lessons. The STI is a high-performance car that is not really the best thing to learn on. If you made a mistake like taking a turn in 4th, you are not ready for this. There are a myriad of other things that can get you into trouble if you don't know better, even if you do learn from this one.

Reply to
JD

Glad you're doing ok. Liberty Subaru--I grew up a town over from there, my sister had a 70's Suby from them. I wonder if I'd know the curve, heh.

K.ote speaketh the truth. ;-)

Reply to
CompUser

Doubt you would know the curve. I don't live close to Liberty Subaru - they just happened to be the best deal on an STI within a 1 hour radius of me.

Reply to
Adam Frankel

If your insurance does cut a check for the new STI be sure to pull crapenza RE-070 right off and invest $1000 in a set of Advans. I don't know what kind of deal Subaru struck with Bridgestone and what kind of ass they pulled RE-070 out of, but it's probably the same pile of stationwagonware that RE 960 pole positions come from. Good enough for RS maybe (if you are nearing a retirement), but completely unsuitable for the STI. evo that comes for $2-3k less wears advan neovas out of the door. Needless to say my goodwill towards FHI took a good beating in the last 1.5 years. Crapenza 92 OBS came shoed with being a small part of it.

Reply to
Body Roll

That's interesting. I've found them really good indeed on dry tarmac. They're noisy, not so good in the wet, and obviously quite useless for ice and snow, but for summer driving I've found that they grip the road excellently. In what situations did you find them performing poorly?

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark T.B. Carroll

Not quite true. A RWD would've had a tendency to oversteer and he might've hit it sideways. If there is power being applied to the wheels, all wheels' traction is being applied to controlling the velocity and direction of the vehicle. There's a reason why AWD cars are used in rally sports. Still, what the original poster probably meant was that the insane summer tires and the 'feel' of the STi gave him an unfortunate dose of overconfidence.

He'll be fine with another STi.

Reply to
k. ote

Incorrect. The RE-070 offer excellent dry, sunny weather traction. They just suck in the rain, mud, snow.. well pretty much everywhere but dry, warm pavement. There are very few tires that will match the RE-070 in normal summer driving. You know the treadwear is 140 right? They're practically slicks..!

Reply to
k. ote

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