[spcmafia]

6 years ago when I got my Mazda 3, I bought it manual transmission. Believe it or not, I learned how to listen for the engine playing Need for Speed. I always played with manual transmission controls so I sort of knew what to listen for. I had my godmother test drive the car for me and drive it home. She then took me to an empty parking lot, gave me a quick 15 minute lesson on the basics and surprisingly the only thing I lacked was the take off. Later I came to realize that for a week, I was launching the car on 3rd, rather than 1st. This was of course because those gears were so close to each other. The beautiful thing about the twins is that you can see what gear you're on.

Keep a mental picture of the gears on your head, makes it easy to remember what shift is next.

The transmission on the BRZ is very forgiving, just very notchy. This can be fixed By replacing the oils and some bushings. But other than that, like any other manual transmission, takes time to get used to. Just listen to your engine, feel the pedals because a car does let you know when it needs a shift up or down.

When you first sit down, get your left foot used to the feeling of the clutch, right foot on brakes and gas.

I would even recommend driving on Forza Horizon with a pedal setup.

Is going to feel like driving for the first time, but the key is to go out as much as you can and practice. Once you're comfortable you can get into rev-matching.