vanberge

i have tips:

1. if you are cruising in parking lot, even at 5mph, use second gear. In my experience, first is your takeoff gear and thats really it. i never cruise in first. either neutral or second.

2. its not necessarily good to 'feather' the clutch (for example, on a slight incline to keep your car from rolling). I would recommend using the hand brake.

Lastly, the video i believe is showing what is known as "Double clutching". You clutch out of gear, then hit the gas quickly to get the rpms up.. now you clutch back into gear.. ala double clutched. (this is what vin deisel mentions in the fast/furious during the first race)

SpdLmtNA

Just to clarify, Im not flaming anyone... but double clutching is ONLY used when downshifting on older cars... this is done because the syncro's in the gears are practically non-existent... cars today have excellent syncros... and there is abs no need to double clutch... vin diesel used the term completely wrong
Back to the original question at hand: Practice cruising at low speeds in 2nd, then when you get the whole feel thing goin... you can do it in first... but the more torque you have, the more sensitive the "light touch on the gas" is... if it begins to jerk, then push the clutch pedal all the way down to neutralize... PS: Dropping clutch is when the clutch plate is quickly engaged with the flywheel (which rotates based on your engine RPMs)... so when you "drop clutch" youre actually letting OFF the clutch PEDAL really quick

woodstock

so how do you downshift without having your engine rev up high when it goes into a lower gear? just wait til the mph falls into the optimum range of the next gear down?

hmm.. just as a thought, i don't think anyone should follow what they see on the Fast and the Ridiculous

vanberge

i was quite sure that race drivers use double clutch teqnique.

i could be wrong though, who knows. If that driver is not double clutching, then what was he doing? having a seizure?


About downshifting.. If you're not racing, theres not really a need to. Just throw it in neutral and coast to a stop. Downshifting will just decrease your mgp in normal driving.

SpdLmtNA

Very simple... lets say youre in 5th gear, and you wanna shift to 3rd...
(Try it this way, do it verrrry slowly, step by step, then when you get used to it, you can do it really quickly without the RPMs dropping all the way down to idle...

1) Clutch Pedal Down: RPMs drop

2) With the Clutch Pedal All the way down, tap the gas once or twice so the RPMs are raised to the RPM range of the mph you are traveling at, that you *think* 3rd gear will allow... like lets say youre going 45mph in 5th, then you want to maintain 45 mph, but in 3rd instead... then try to "rev match" the RPMs to coincide with the speed and gear youre at. Im not sure what your car car revs at in 3rd going 45 mph, but you could easily figure it out

3) anyway, AS SOON as youre RPMs are up there... LET all the way off the clutch pedal... it doesn have to be done smoothly, you can just quickly let off... and it'll grab... if you rev too low, get ready for a hard jerk... if you let off with the revs too high, it'll be a light jerk... and a lot better

so keep in mind its always better to over rev, than it is to under rev... when you use this rev matching technique

also, make sure when your revs are up there NOT to hold the gas pedal... because you'll end up riding your clutch

goodluck... and, once you got that down... you'll be really good with manual

mikochu

I'm no shift monkey virtuoso...but I was told to go into neutral before rev-matching. Whether it's a safety precaution or what... I go into neutral, rev-match, then go into gear...

2JZ

not necessarily... alothough i don't know yet about the tC since i'm picking it up this week, my 92 Ford Taurus SHO has enough torque to just keep moving by itself, even when there's slight incline... my IS300 was a little choke-y though.


but it really does come down to practice. one day, it will just all click... trust me.

408tc

I agree. Don't know if it's helped but my '92 Honda Acc. LX is about 8 miles away from 257,000 miles - I have not had to change the clutch once! Woohoo!!!! BTW, I hope I'm not jinxing myself. Should I be concerned that I haven't had to replace the clutch to this point? Anyway, I plan to drive in the same fashion when my new tC gets here in a couple weeks!!

Ibiza

I usually just let the clutch out just a little, and give it gas, and the rpms will go to their current speed/ per gear and then i just pop the clutch.. No wear, no jump..

SpdLmtNA

When you push the clutch pedal all the way down... youre disengaging the clutch plate from the flywheel... ie: Youre in neutral... so pushing clutch all the way down is the same as being in neutral... your gears are linked to your wheels... not the motor... of course in all technicality, everything is linked to everything else :D but Im sure you see what I mean here

mikochu

http://www.car-forums.com/s7/t4240.html

yup... I'll keep rev matching in neutral...

SpdLmtNA

If you look at the way a car works (transmission, and motor)... you will see that there is no such thing as burning your clutch when its not touching the flywheel... think about it logically... you push clutch pedal down... that goes thru the pressure plate, and "lifts" the clutch plate AWAY from the flywheel... which means you can rev all you like, but the motor is not anywhere near the clutch plate... therefore, youre in neutral... the link you pasted is wrong where they discuss clutch riding (the second post in the thread I think)... but where that guy talks about the syncros is where there is more truth... dont believe everything you read... look into it for yourself... a good website is www.howstuffworks.com they have pictures, etc. you will see that what you are reading about a clutch somehow being riddin' when not engaged is completely impossible

SpdLmtNA

Oh yeah... I also forgot to mention... do you really think a race car driver has time to put his/her car in neutral when rev matching...LOL

And those hardcore racecars have sequential gear sets... which means neutral is a long way down... take my word on this... and please look into it yourself, I want you to see it for yourself:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/clutch1.htm

viper1701

I think you guys are referring to engine braking, not downshifting. Downshifting in a car is often done because you need more power for acceleration- not because you want the engine to help slow you down. If you are in 5th on the highway going 70 and you want to pass someone quickly, you might downshift to fourth for the extra power (due to the lower gearing).

neverspeakawordagain

Stupid question here, but I've never driven a stick before, and am about to get one... if I'm driving along at, say, 45 or 50 miles an hour on a local main road, and somebody cuts in front of me... do I have to brake and shift into neutral, or can I just let off the gas and apply the brake, leaving the engine in gear?

JasonH

You can leave the engine in gear. The brakes can slow down the engine just like the engine can slow down the car. I assume you mean somebody cuts infront of you going slower, not to the point where you have to stop.

You can actually leave it in gear all the way to a stop, but the engine will stall. In a panic stop situation, you generally want to put the clutch and brake in, which is second nature to me, but people new to manual transmissions sometimes just jam on the brakes, which works too.

In the situation you describe, a lot of times if I have to slow down a lot I will also grab a lower gear as I put on the brakes. That way, if I need to swerve out of the way or go around them, I'm in the right gear to have all my power available. More than once I've been saved by accelerating around or out of trouble, rather then slowing down for it.

vanberge

Yes, I was referring to engine braking / coming to a stop. I do not like to downshift when coming to a stop light or stop sign. Obviously when pass / decrease cruising speed you will need to downshift.

zoltiz

Being in neutral and pushing in the clutch is NOT the same.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/transmission3.htm

2JZ

I just got my car yesterday... and after driving it around for a good four hours, i can conclude that the tC really isn't a great car for a beginner to learn stick on because of the clutch. it IS a bit on the jerky side, zizi, and i'll sympathize with you on that. but that's only first gear, the rest of the gears i think are great.

when you keep driving and practicing, you'll start to instinctively learn some fancy footwork when driving through parking lots and traffic where you're constantly depressing clutch, tapping accelerator, doing a balancing act to keep the car from dying and moving too fast... just keep driving and don't stress so much about burning clutch or anything.

someone asked me to do a simple write up comparing this car to my former IS300 so i'll be elaborating a little bit more in that post.

zoltiz

tC is my first 5-speed car, so I had to learn on it. I did not have anyone to sit with me and show my mistakes - I knew the theory, I've read a lot of articles on learning the 5-speed, but I did get to a point of frustration when I thought that I made a big mistake buying a 5-speed. But after that peak of frustration everything got better. I'm pretty comfortable driving around now, still a little jerky at times, but at least I don't stall and not scared of hills and people stopping too close to me.

When I drove my buddy's 5-speed matrix I noticed that I can drive it much smoother than my tC - no idea why, but it did seem easier and more natural, though it was the first time I ever drove his car. I guess tC is special