Cool. I read your post and it had some good points in it. And yes, that is some super post whoring Falkore24.

 

what a ***** lol

 

i'm still learning the double clutching...fun stuff

 

Youll get the hang of it really quick! I learned how to drive a manual in about 5 minutes! It was an older Miata though. Then my friends dad said alight, take us home, which ended up missing the turn and me driving through down and turning around on this huge hill. To make it even better..I was visiting him in Utah for the first time and it was at night! lol Plus I only killed it once! Thats the only time ive driven a manual and I am begging to drive another one!

 

so how do you double clutch? and what are its perks? also my cousin who is hardcore in the racing scene, does thing called power shifting, where he doesn't let go of the gas when he shifts, but then he said, one mis shift..kaboom, lol

 

hey ..... the majority of my posts have had some kind of relavance!!! I've only had 2 or 3 days that I just fealt like whoring.

Jon's just upset that he can't get the paint out of his crack! j/k

Holy crap?!? I just noticed that I'm up to #9 ....... hmmmm .... maybe I am a ***** ........ nahhhh

 

When downshifting:
1) press the clutch in and pop it out of gear into neutral
2) "blip" the gas pedal to rev the RPM's to where they should be if you were in the lower gear you want to shift into
3) Clutch in again
4) Slide it into the lower gear
If you do it properly, you should not feel a jerk at all when you downshift. Anyone else riding in the car shouldn't even be able to tell you did it (besides from hearing the engine roar and seeing you move the stick.)
Also if you got the RPM's to the right level, the gear lever should basically fall into the lower gear with no effort at all.

"power shifting" like you said your cousin does is a good way to ruin a clutch. Plus it will shorten the life of the transmission.

There are also other techniques such as:
"rev matching" -Keeping the clutch pressed in, but blip the gas pedal to match RPMs for the lower gear. But IMO that would also lessen the life of your clutch.
"heel-toe shifting" - same as double clutch but you do it while your foot is also on the brake. Your toe is on the brake and you use your heel to blip the gas pedal in step #2. heel toe is usually used if you are downshifting into a turn you have to brake for.
I don't rev-match or heel toe. My feet/legs are too big to do heel toe with my steering wheel down where I like it.

P.S. - falkore you are a dirty, dirty *****

 

I hear that sirnasty has a tube of Preparation H if you need it for those 5 layers of paint!

btw .... good explanations of advanced shifting ...... I think it was Chio (maybe not) that said that he rev matches cars all the time and barely needs the clutch.

 

Well....if you are good at rev matching I could see you not messing up your clutch. I am just so used to double clutching that I screw up when I try to rev match (Even though rev matching is less complex - therefore it should be easier)

 

Heh, i remember learning manual on my parents' '89 Mazda MVP Van.. That thing was a huge ****...
It took me about 2-3 days to feel comfortable with it...

I also taught my sister manual on my '82 VW Rabbit... that thing HAD a bad tranny on it, and she couldn't manage to fudge it up.
I think she learned in about 4 or 5 days to feel good enough about getting on the highway (she already owned an auto and knew how to drive... so I was just teaching the clutch/shifting).

Unless you are completely uncoordinated, and/or the tranny is already jacked up, you shouldn't have any fear of screwing anything up.. I mean you do have a lot of miles, but stalling out shouldn't really do too much damage, and a burnout here or there while learning shouldn't kill anything either... Anyone else that can speak to that?

Just don't drop it into reverse while going 10+mph in a forward moving gear (actually, iirc, all cars since like 1990 have a failsafe to actually prevent you from doing that).

Around here, engine braking is illegal, so I've gotten used to breaking with the breaks and not down shifting all the way to first gear-by-gear like it's usually taught. Also, I just have a personal feeling that engine braking just can't be good. There was something else I was going to comment on, but I can't remember what it was.

Anyway, take the car out to an empty parking lot, like an empty church parking lot (cuz the world is full of sinners) without any hills and give 'er a go. First and/or Second Gear will have a different slip-zone than most other gears, so get those down real well.. particularly first gear as you don't wanna look a fool from a stop.
My immediate suggestion is to find this "slip-zone"; just slowly let off the clutch till you feel it start to engage... memorize the feeling, and then give her some gas...

Also, as you learn to drive your car better, monitoring the RPMs will be useless; you'll know when to shift based on the sound... Unelss you're racing of course.. then some skill and strategy comes into play.


What year/color?