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Stalling
Fed up with stalling the engine too often?
Either you brought the clutch up too quickly, or you didn’t set your gas (give it a few revs) before bringing the clutch up. That’s it. It’s that simple. Unless of course you forgot to put it into 1st gear.
Often a stalling problem can easily be resolved by lifting your whole foot with the clutch instead of trying to pivot your ankle on the mat. Go ahead, try it! Or, you may just be sitting too close to the controls. Get your instructor to check your seating position.
Think about this, you have a heavy box on the floor and you want to move it. Either you run up to it, arms outstretched and expect it to move straight away, ending up breaking your wrists; or, you walk up to it, take the weight, and then slowly ease your muscles into it. Well that’s what happens to the car, it’s a heavy weight and it has inertia. It needs a slow build up of power and easing up the clutch to make it move. So when you bring the clutch up too quickly you don’t allow the car to slowly build up some speed before fully releasing the clutch. And if you don’t get some revs up you’re not giving the engine any power to work with to get the car moving.
In your first driving lesson ever, you will have been told to set the revs to around 1500 rpm, listening for a gentle hum from the engine, bring the clutch up to the bite, make your observations, take the handbrake off, bring the clutch up a little as the car starts to move, keep your feet still, then when the car is moving, gently release the clutch. Too many people forget that piece of instruction.
The phrase we instructors use is, hang on to the last bit of clutch. Remember, the clutch takes a second to bite, give it time.
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