I was just wondering what is the proper way of using the manual shift mode? The manual says that 5th gear can be used for normal driving with 4th gear to be used for long upslopes or declines. 2nd and 3rd gear is to be used for steeper up hills or downhills. It would seem to me that 5th gear would be the same as driving in automatic mode (drive). Therefore what's the difference? How do most of you us the manual shift mode? Do you start in 1st gear at a stop (like a normal manual car) and gradually upshift? When selecting the manual mode, you are automatically entered into 4th, does this mean that you should downshift to 2nd as the car takes off and upshift as speed is increased? I seem to be doing a lot of shifting between 3rd, 4th and 5th without much use of the lower gears. This doesn't seem right.

 

If you drive with *spirit* through the twisties, you'll come to appreciate the Manual mode, especially 2nd gear. You can hold 2nd gear through a corner, for example, and shift into 3rd exactly when you want to as you transition back to straight. If you tried the same cornering maneuver in auto mode, the car may not even shift lower than 3rd gear throughout the entire straight-corner-straight transition, which would cause you to have a slower such transition.

When I'm using the Manual mode, I'm downshifting with it when I approach tight corners and stops. I upshift with it to control the timing of the upshift to coincide with my exact preference. If I leave the stick in 5th, it behaves as if I had put it into D. As long as you do not over-rev the engine, there's no wrong-right way to do it, here. It's your personal preference that dictates how/when you shift.

Play around with it to familiarize yourself more with the car's dynamics in each tranny mode. With more experience, you'll soon develop your preference between the two for different driving conditions. Enjoy!

2003 G35- Garnet Fire w/ Willow leather interior

 

My only gripe -- it is really slow to react.

Dan Parmelee
2003 G35 Sedan
Stock

 

Yep. I want to test-drive a 6-spd MT as soon as possible.

2003 G35- Garnet Fire w/ Willow leather interior

 

Yeah it is slow to react.

<font color=green> . . : : pestilence : : . .
2003.5 Infiniti G35 Sedan .... sports/sunroof </font color=green>

 

any of you guys tried heel-and-toeing when downshifting with the manumatic??? makes the shift less-abrupt,,,

 

what does heel and toeing mean?

<font color=green> . . : : pestilence : : . .
2003.5 Infiniti G35 Sedan .... sports/sunroof </font color=green>

 

i think he means taking your foot off the gas while shifting and gassing it when the shift is complete.

 

Yes I have tried that. With a little practice you can probably get pretty good at it. How's it working out for you, lilteyang?
For those that aren't familiar with this technique : all it entails is braking with your heel and blipping the gas with your toe simultaneously to raise the rpm,s to allow smoother downshifts. Not as difficult as heel and toeing in a M/T but similar. Gsedanman-Garnet Fire Sedan.

 

If I'm not mistaken when you're in Manumatic mode cruising in 5th and need a downshift you have to do so manually, ie no forced downshift. Has anyone tried a forced downshift while in Manumatic mode. Mine is strictly manual in that senairio, but it will downshift automatically if I stop. Normal?????????
Gsedanman- Garnet Fire Sedan

 

It's not even all that manual -- if you gun it, it still downshifts. And when you come to a stop, it automatically kicks it back down to 1st gear. You'd stall if you tried to get rolling in 4th.

Dan Parmelee
2003 Infiniti G35 Sedan
1999 Acura Integra GS-R coupe
2001 Infiniti I30t

 

heel & toeing is a technique for manual transmission cars. I've never tried it in manumatics.

You use a heal of your right foot to brake and toe of the same foot to hold(or blip) the throttle at(to) the RPMs you want while shifting through gears. This is primarily used for QUICK and SMOOTH downshifting and braking hard. If you get a hang of it, shifts become as smooth as automatics and really quick, you also keep engine RMPS where you want them, so you use max power.

One other reasons for using this is if you have an old style, non-syncroed gearbox where you have to double-clutch and match RMPs. This would be in either old cars or race(true race) cars.

In most cases it is now more of a toe-toe technique, basically you use left side of your right toes for braking and right side for throttle.

The ability to do this is also defined by spacing of brake/throttle pedals, German cars tend to be REALLY good at this. Japanese...depends

Has anyone tried this on 6M G35c yet?? if so, let me know. I've got used to it on my old S4 and loved it.

 

to add to my post.

i would think it is pretty pointless to use it in manumatics, since hte idea of this is to be able to match rpms while using clutch. Manumatics match rpms via torque converter and there is no clutch, so you can use left foot braking instead.

 

true there's no clutch.... but if you use the manumatic and downshift at around... say 3000~3500 rpm, you'll feel strong engine braking... which is not good for the transmission nor the engine... to downshifting smoothly, you'd have to brake realy hard and get the rpm really low... I actually tried heel-and-toe-ing (or rather, as you said, toe-and-toe-ing) when using the manumatic. The idea is probably right, but with my heavy foot it's hard to brake smoothly because the G brakes have such strong bites.... I ended up using left-foot-braking while blipping the throtlle with my right... the result was more satisfying i.e. smooth downshift with rpm right at the torque band.... but maybe there's a way to use the manumatic smoothly without all these fusses that I'm just not aware of... if so, please let me know...

 

As i said, i've never tried either technique in an automatic/manumatic cars. I've never owned one . But basicaly, i agree, it should be better and easier to use left-foot braking while shifting the manumatic.

Problem with heal-toe is that it is really only used in race conditions. What i mean is that if pedals are set up correctly, you can only use it while at threshhold braking(since this is how you would brake for corners in a race). In this case, if you are trying to do it on a street while NOT using max brake forces(and most of us don't every time we come up to a corner or we'd be changing tires/brakes every 1k miles), your brake pedal is much higher then throttle. Also, once you get used to driving like that on street(if pedals allow it) it's pretty hard to "re-learn" it for race use(this is my experience, so i may be wrong. I also don't really race that much).

This is why left foot braking can be used more effectivly(or rather more easily adapted) on street or in race. It is, however, much more difficult to use in manual cars...you need some serious foot dancing to acomplish that many tasks with your feet.