|
You want to downshift before a turn. Don't shift in the middle of a turn in general bc you can upset the balance of the car. This is more noticeable at higher rpms. If you're going 45mph on a main road and take a turn on to a side road at say 20mph, you can shift from 4th to 2nd, but probably be in neutral or coasting in 4th at low rpm while on the brakes. So slow down using brakes before a turn, engage the lower gear (say 2nd), then turn the wheel. Foot should be off the clutch before you start turning the wheel.
Think of those as beginner instructions. As you learn the car and shifting better you can do whatever you want bc you know how the car will react. For now try keeping the shifting from interfering with car control.
In higher gears, I typically don't feather the clutch back in. That's how you burn it. To shift, just pedal in, move shifter, pedal out. Right foot and left foot moving in opposite directions. You don't need to feather it like engaging first gear. You might find rev matching upshifts helps smooth things out a LOT. In this case, the speed at which you move the shifter will control a lot. Shift too slowly and your rpms will drop too much. Say you're going from 3rd gear at 4k rpm to 4th gear which would be at about 3k rpm. You want to shift in the time it takes for the rpms to drop 1k rpm. Don't rush it but also don't take 3 seconds to change gears.
This car isn't easy to drive smoothly. 25 years of driving stick and I've just learned to live with 50% of my shifts in this car are not smooth. My previous cars I could shift near flawlessly rev matching up and downshifts - a passenger would not even feel the shifts. This car is like my first month of driving all over again.
|