Covering Cheltenham
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The Clutch
The clutch is one of the most important pedals you'll learn to use, it controls the connection between the engine and the wheels.
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You press the clutch when you don't want the engine to turn the wheels.
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You always use your left foot to control the clutch. This is as sometimes you'll need to use you clutch alongside your brake or accelerator.
When to use the Clutch
Stopping
When you want to stop the car you use the brake pedal, to stop the wheels turning.
Stopping the wheels won't automatically stop the engine from trying to turn them.
Imagine you held the top of an electric whisk, whilst the motor was still trying to turn it. Eventually the motor would overheat and your whisk would no longer work. The same logic applies to you car.
All cars have an automatic safety feature built into them, that allows the engine to shut down, when it is in danger of becoming compromised. This is known as stalling.
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In order to prevent this from being triggered you need to manually remove the engine connection. You do this by pressing the clutch.
When you press the clutch down, you can do this rapidly and push it all the way to the floor, unlike when you use the accelerator or brake.
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You need to press your clutch fully down around 1 to 2 car lengths away from where you plan on stopping.
When moving off
When we turn the car on, the engine starts rotating in preparation to turn the wheels. As manual car drivers we need to connect our engine, to our wheels, to allow it to drive our car forward.
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Firstly press the clutch down to the floor and select 1st gear. You can read more about the moving off process HERE and gears HERE
You are now ready to connect the engine to the wheels. To do this allow the clutch pedal to travel upwards. This movement is controlled by a spring, your job is to stop the cutch coming up too quickly, this could cause the car to stall.
This is simply as you're connecting an already moving engine, to stationary wheels. If you connect them too quickly, the wheels won't have a chance to gain momentum and the engine will stall.
A great way to manage this when your starting out is to pause the movement of the clutch pedal, as your car begins to travel forward. This allows your wheels to begin to turn and gain momentum before you fully release your clutch pedal.
When changing gear
When we change gear we don't want our engine connected to our wheels. This is as the engine is already doing it's job of turning the wheels. Changing gear, when it's connected, would prevent it from doing this job.
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You need to push your clutch down, as far as it will go. You can then change your gear, you can read more about gears HERE
Once you've completed your gear change you need to reconnect your engine to your wheels by slowly releasing the clutch. Remember anytime you reconnect your engine you need to let your clutch slowly travel upwards, to prevent overwhelming the engine and causing it to stall.