Best Manual transmission driving techniques?
 

I know there's one of these threads on every car forum but I spend all my time surfing ft86club so I figured I would create one here.

For myself (and many others) the BRZ/FR-S will be the first manual car we will own. I do have some experience driving stick but I wouldn't say I'm a pro.

A few questions for the more experienced that I could never find definitive answers to:

1) Is it bad to skip gears? i.e. shift from 4th gear straight to 6th gear or more importantly from 5th/6th gear straight down to 3rd gear?
- Some tell me its better to run through the gears or double clutch when down shifting but I don't know why?

2) Does double clutching really preserve any components a significant amount? I was able to figure out you're preserving synchromesh but is it really worth my time and the slower shifts? Does this part need to get replaced fairly frequently and it would extend its life? :iono:

I learned to do it and it feels a lot more smooth on my downshifts but started to wonder if its worth the effort.

1. it is not bad to skip gears as long as you don't over mechanical over rev the motor.

2. I never really double clutch any of the gears, but sometimes I do for 1st when rapidly down shifting from multiple gears, or going to reverse I might double clutch for that.

Double clutching is antiquated; synchromesh transmissions essentially dispensed with the need to double clutch. Rev matching on the other hand is still a good idea, but you do not need to strictly double clutch.

EDIT: Reverse can be straight-cut and difficult to get into which is likely why the above poster prefers to double clutch reverse.

On my s2k it was not advised to skip shift (from 1st to 3rd) etc. Because it would ruin the synchros.

You could go through the 1,2,3 motion but it was advised not to skip directly 1-3 2-4 etc.

1. Upshift at full throttle, slipping your foot sideways off the clutch pedal when re-engaging the driveline.

2. Savor the odor of your burning clutch plates.

Never heard of that in my life, sounds totally whack and can't see how skip-shifting would hurt synchros. IIRC the tranny in the s2k is a variant of an Aisin model used in several other vehicles.

1. No problem with skipping gears. Believe it or not, in the 4th generation f-body, GM put a solenoid in the manual transmission that made you shift from 1st to 4th if you were just puttering around town.

2. Double clutching and rev-matching are not neccesarily needed in today's transmissions. However, doing it right when downshifting will reduce wear and tear on the transmission's internals and clutch while making for smoother shifting and power delivery. It also can be done very quickly when you have the rhythm down, and pairs nicely with heel-toe. Double-clutching a downshift is second nature to me now, and using the synchros to spin up the input shaft just feels wrong now. I recommend learning to heel-toe, double clutch, and rev match.

Well, if you skip gears, the synchros need to slow the input shaft more in order to mesh properly. So that can put more wear on them if you shift quickly.

I didn't explain it right because I was a bit inebriated last night but there are tons of threads like this one:

http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/9149...aking-it-easy/

Re: Reverse - Ive found that going into a forward gear before engaging reverse is best. Usually I slip it into third then into reverse. Never a crunch, grind, or pop out doing it that way.

Thanks for the responses guys!

So when I'm in 4th and I clutch in, shift into 5th (still with clutch down), then move into 6th and let the clutch out, did anything actually connect or carry a load when I was in the 5th gear?

If the clutch is down the whole time, I figured there's no difference?

You're still meshing the synchros and accelerating or decelerating the input shaft and clutch disk to match the output shaft.

Realistically with modern transmissions, if it feels wrong while you are doing it dont! You should be able to slide into gear if you are doing it right and there shouldnt be any sudden jerks or rev dropping. You wont hurt anything if it feels like butter going in.

because someone had to...

http://i.qkme.me/353ikm.jpg