Questions about a MT

[virobloc]

In my opinion, you should think of the clutch as a consumable. It's meant to be slipped and it's better to slip it than to jerk the whole transmission. Then you only have to progressively focus on slipping as less as you can to make it last longer.
It's also more elegant

[Buddhalite]

The difference between this car and all other MT's I've owned is that anything over 3k sounds like 6k+ in other cars. It'll just take some time to get used to the sound through the rpm range to know what's what.

[sho220]

Originally Posted by jdcorbitt3

The key to speeding things up outside is slowing down on the inside. I learned this at Bob Bondurant's school in the 80s. Treat the shift knob like an egg. Don't force it into gear. By slowing the shift down the syncros can do their job. As for rev matching, have someone who has been trained show you how to do it, or better yet, take a course like Skip Barber Bondurant or a HPDE like NASA's. on top of really learning how to truly handle a car, it's an absolute blast and worth the money.

John

haha...when the SRT-4 first came out, noobs were literally yanking the knob off the shifter shaft...they could have really used that advise...

[cgrey]

Two other points.

It will take a lot of clutch slipping, and some effort, to burn your clutch out quickly. Even with your learning period, and giving it some extra slip for now, your clutch will last a long, long time.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjmDs8grD1c"]Clutch fail! - YouTube[/ame]

Also, as the car breaks in you'll get much better shifting. My car at 7k miles shifts better than it did at 5k, and 3k, and certainly when new.

[cgrey]

Originally Posted by official_george

I've owned a MT Civic before, but for some reason I can't seem to find the sweet spot of my FR-S's. I also want to clear some stuff up about driving a stick:

How's the driving going?