[DragonofBC]

What I've found helpful in both learning/teaching stick driving is this: Make sure you are on a flat terrain and hold down the clutch (to the floor) and the brake. Put the car in first but don't let up the pedals. Now slowly let up the clutch (and I mean SLOWLY without letting off the brake) and watch the tach. When the clutch starts to engage, the tach will start to drop. When you see the tach start to drop, push the clutch back in and repeat.

The takeaway is that the distance that the clutch travels before it starts to engage is completely meaningless. If you can practice quickly getting your foot to the position where the clutch starts to engage and stopping, you'll be in a much better position to get the car going.

After you feel comfortable with that exercise, take your foot off the brake and try it again. Make sure you have room in front of you. When you get to the grab point, the car will start to move forward a bit. This is the point where you want to gently (its a WS6 after all) give it some gas. I've never driven a TA but on my GSX it takes about 2" of clutch movement for the clutch to engage. You want to go real slow on the clutch through the engagement process while gently adding more gas. If the car starts to buck, you're letting off the clutch too quickly. If the car doesn't start to buck, you might be letting off too slowly and on your next start try going a LITTLE quicker on the clutch. Sorry to say but getting into gear is a "feeling it" sort of thing.

Reverse is the exact same as first.

I don't know the RPM ranges for a TA so its hard for me to tell you about when to shift. The process is, however, you let off of the gas and depress the clutch at about the same time. Move the shifter to second. Then quickly bring your clutch foot back to the "grabbing point" that you now know and should love. Then get on the throttle while bringing up the clutch. You don't have to let off the clutch as gently going to 2-6 gear. If you let off too fast though, you will probably feel the transmission "thunk."

Learn to drive. Then learn to drive well. Then ask about powershifting/launching.