[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Zoid

What do you mean by down shifting twice? If I'm in 6th and I want to accelerate quickly and I know downshifting to 5th won't be enough should I go down from 6th to 4th and give it the necessary throttle or should I go to 5th first and then downshift again to 4th?

Not trying to argue, genuinely curious. It's my third week with the car and my first manual so I'm still learning. I feel very comfortable downshifting and rev-matching at this point but I haven't skipped gears on the way down for accelerating purposes, only when coming to a stop or slowing down by a lot.

I agree that this car does not feel slow at all for city and highway driving, I don't have any problems passing others or zipping through traffic when needed.

Originally Posted by Zaku

Hey there,

Speaking from my knowledge... which is only about 12 years of Manual driving, I'm sure they are other that have driven longer and more that can jump in.

First and foremost, don't skip gears, look for videos or someone near you to teach you to downshift correctly if you already know how then good! and then do it twice 6-5-4. things you don't do is 3-2-1 never go to 1 unless you need to or you've come to a stop or you're under 10 mph and really need the power, you'll kill the transmission that way.

Now, the other way around I'm not sure if this is the case with our cars the 86/BRZ but on the new ND Miata, you can skip gears going Up this is because the transmission is brand new and made to save MPG. So the car will actually tell you to go from 2-4 and 4-6. In that, it's ok to skip shifts. ONLY going up.

There is an argument however In some newer cars you can also skip gears going down, but I wouldn't recommend it. this is because the 86 transmission is based off a proven old design. ND miata transmission are new and have been known to blow up, so stick with traditional driving for longevity.
and great that you've gotten into manual, I think alot of people make argument for more power because they've driven faster cars that might have the same amount of enjoyable value. This is great for diversity of thought, recently I drove the Alfa Giulia QF and now everything feels slow lol. Still love my BRZ tho. It's all I can really afford at this time really, different priorities. I think this car is good enough for everyday for sure.

anyways I'm sure others will jump in and tell you not to skip either. Hope it helps.

After 45 years of driving MT I will say that both methods are correct and I never use just one or the other. It all depends on the circumstances at the time I downshift. If revs are already low I will skip down two gears. If they are high I will go down each one separately but quickly. What the number of revs are for those two categories are I don't have a clue since I rarely look at the tach and don't know nor care what the numbers say.
There are no cut and dried rules as to when or how to shift really.