Slow moving off

Rainbow Kitty

I passed my test last March but I'm still slow moving off in traffic. Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong. It's usually moving on from traffic lights, the car in front has sped off and I'm a mile behind, I can't understand what I'm doing wrong. Once I move off from 1st gear I change to second as soon as I get moving and move up through the gears and once I get to 3rd or 4th gear I'm fine, it seems to be only moving off from 1st to 2nd. When I was doing lessons my instructor said I was fine but it's starting to bug me that I can't keep up with traffic until I'm in a higher gear. Any Ideas?

Alanstrainor

Rainbow Kitty wrote: »

I passed my test last March but I'm still slow moving off in traffic. Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong. It's usually moving on from traffic lights, the car in front has sped off and I'm a mile behind, I can't understand what I'm doing wrong. Once I move off from 1st gear I change to second as soon as I get moving and move up through the gears and once I get to 3rd or 4th gear I'm fine, it seems to be only moving off from 1st to 2nd. When I was doing lessons my instructor said I was fine but it's starting to bug me that I can't keep up with traffic until I'm in a higher gear. Any Ideas?

Dont change from 1st to 2nd so fast, and accelerate harder if you feel like you are not moving off quickly enough! Don't be afraid of the accelerator pedal, the car should be well able to move in first with a few more revs.

mfceiling

Also what car are you driving and whereabouts are you driving?

I'm in Dublin and when i'm at any lights i'm off like a bat out of hell. I'll have the cruise control set at 48 kmh and most people will still be dithering behind me on the handbrake!!

Don't stress it OP...take your time and forget about the speed of the guy in front of you. Driving will be second nature to you in no time.

jimgoose

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Dont change from 1st to 2nd so fast, and accelerate harder if you feel like you are not moving off quickly enough! Don't be afraid of the accelerator pedal, the car should be well able to move in first with a few more revs.

This. A lot of folk are being taught to drive in such a way that minimises fuel usage, such as getting up through the gears a quickly as possible, including staying in first only as long as it takes to get rolling. That's perfectly fine, but there are times when you'll want to use the engine and gearbox to boot it on a little and use some actual performance.

Rainbow Kitty

mfceiling wrote: »

Also what car are you driving and whereabouts are you driving?

I'm in Dublin and when i'm at any lights i'm off like a bat out of hell. I'll have the cruise control set at 48 kmh and most people will still be dithering behind me on the handbrake!!

Don't stress it OP...take your time and forget about the speed of the guy in front of you. Driving will be second nature to you in no time.

I'm in Dublin also, it's an 07 Opel Corsa and I was always under the impression that first was only for moving off and to get into second as soon as you start moving. I'm driving 5 years and passed the test last March, I thought I would have mastered it by now

Alanstrainor

Rainbow Kitty wrote: »

I'm in Dublin also, it's an 07 Opel Corsa and I was always under the impression that first was only for moving off and to get into second as soon as you start moving. I'm driving 5 years and passed the test last March, I thought I would have mastered it by now

That's something that is told to learners to prevent them from lingering in 1st as it can be quite jumpy when you're not used to the accelerator. But at your level, you should be able to ignore this advice. You should be more than comfortable at driving in 1st at high revs. This will mean you accelerate quicker, and will solve your issue of feeling slow moving off.

I presume its a petrol corsa?

Rainbow Kitty

Alanstrainor wrote: »

That's something that is told to learners to prevent them from lingering in 1st as it can be quite jumpy when you're not used to the accelerator. But at your level, you should be able to ignore this advice. You should be more than comfortable at driving in 1st at high revs. This will mean you accelerate quicker, and will solve your issue of feeling slow moving off.

I presume its a petrol corsa?

Thanks Alan, yes it's petrol. Thanks for the advice, i'll give it a go.

Craftylee

Best advice would be to make sure you leave the car in first when in the first few cars at lights etc - that way as soon as it goes green you can move off quicker. Going from neutral will take noticeably longer. Also, like the guys said use some more revs between gears, but not so much that you red line the car and it's making a racket.

You'll get used to it

Pov06

Also, don't try to move out slowly like you would if you were moving off when you were being parked at the side of the road.

Press the accelerator down a bit and you will be able to release the clutch pedal more quickly than usual. This will let you move off quicker.

The problem is most learners start looking for the bite point, then they give the accelerator a press and it just takes too much time.