MyE28.com

The book "Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving" talks about smoothness. Using the pedals carefully, not stomping on them and considering the gear shift an egg and trying not to crush it. Maybe you don't want a high performance driver, but the earlier they learn how to handle a car correctly the better. There may be more comments about the book being about smoothness and not outright speed or stop light Grands Prix as it has been a while since I have read it.

Your emotions, expressed here, I'm hoping did not make it into the cabin. First time driver's don't need the excess baggage of a parent-teen relationship to taint the learning process. Best to set everything aside and let the teaching be something completely independent of all the other aspects of that relationship.

Maybe he is flogging the ride because he is learning that for the honda to try to extract every last ounce of go from it. He needs to know about replacing the gearbox. My brother slammed the three-on-the-tree from first to second so much I never drove the car and I'm only a year younger. His 2-3 shift was slow, why, because it didn't do anything to help acceleration.

Just an update; I've had a couple more sessions in the car with him, and he's improving a lot, and making a conscious effort to make his shifts smoother. The two things that seem to have made the biggest difference was the bit from one of the earlier posts that he should try to make it seem to a passenger that he's driving an automatic and learning to start at "impulse power". Those are the things that stuck in his head.

His starts and shifts now have a lot less revving, and his clutch releases are much smoother. He's working on feathering the throttle between shifts so the engine speed matches the transmission speed. It's like there's a different kid behind the wheel this week, and dad is liking it! I think it's also helped that he hasn't touched the X-Box for two weeks now. I might make that permanent (reaches for the sledgehammer...)

Thanks to everyone for all the great replies!

My dad made me hold a VERY hot cup of coffee on the seat, between my legs and quite near the jewelry store, whilst learning to drive a Bugeye Sprite. Smmoooth is good!

davintosh wrote: He's working on feathering the throttle between shifts so the engine speed matches the transmission speed.

Thanks to everyone for all the great replies!

Sounds like he wants to improve, and that's half the battle.

On upshifts he shouldn't be feathering the throttle. If his shifts are timed correctly, the revs should drop to the exact right rpm at the same time that he engages the clutch. If the throttle was needed for rev-matching, it means that he was too slow shifting.