Powershifting is when you dont let off the gas. You have to shift almost near redline and quickly shift into the next gear. You must be a really quick shifter in order to pull this off. Too much time with the clutch in, and the revs will spike up into .3 seconds...

 

I had an 03.5 auto sedan traded in for a 06 6mt coupe. In normal driving getting from point A to point B in Boston I am sure I could do it faster with the auto. But in a race I think my 06 6mt would win.

Don't know how to explain it but it was easier for me to accelerate aggresively and smoothly with the auto so that my wife didn't know we were going fast. If I try to speed up fast (not racing fast but just fast) in the 6mt she complains about me (her word) dragging the car.

Oh well it's still more fun with the 6mt.

Don't worry about smooth shifting. I had driven a Ford Probe GT 5spd stick for 7 yrs 94-01. 5 yrs off the manual and it took me about a month to get to smooth shifting again. And even now every once in a while it's a little jerky between 1 and 2.

 

so then what is it called when you shift without even touching the clutch? and don't say "it's called an automatic" or "not knowing how to drive stick" you smartasses, i know you're out there =P. i knew several semi-truck drivers that did this and do it in cars too without ever damaging the tranny.

i don't know about powershifting, it seems like an awful lot of stress on the car. i would think your synchros would get worn out at an incredibly fast rate if you did it too often. nevertheless, i'm going to try it maybe a few times and see if it's any quicker for me. i would say that shifting conventionally, i do it in maybe half a second if i drive it like i stole it redlining each gear.

i love the automatics on the g35s and tear it up when i get a loaner from the dealer especially the 05's with the rev-matching downshifts. they shift so fast and so smoothly i was surprised! but it's just not the same as a manual. now if it was a dual-clutch sequential, ooh, that would be nice.

 

I think if you have the rpms of the engine exactly matching the spin of the tranny that you can put it in gear without using the clutch. I wouldn't try it if I were you.

 

I've been a valet driver for over a year now and I noticed that our coupes dont give the best feel for the engine. Our engines are "drive by wire" , with the throttle being controlled electronically. REV-MATCING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR THE GUYS ASKING ABOUT IT BEING JERKY in 1st and second.

 

the revs of the G drop too slowly in the 1-2 shift for a quick shift though. Just my opinion.

 

Trick is to not dump the clutch out on 1/2 shift. Let it out till it barely makes contact the rpms will drop then you let it out fully.

I am used to the rpms dropping quicker. In my Probe GT I'd have to do the opposite. Give it a bit of gas to make a smooth shift.

BTW the manual in our cars (as it should be) is much better than I remember in the Probe. You couldn't shift it very fast and it was much more difficult to shift smoothly.

 

quick question im hearing alot of people say rev matching etc.. im still new to this i just got a 06 stick and for some reason there's a light up that say REV what does that mean?

 

the REV light is always on. it doesnt mean anything.

 

The "REV" light will blink when your near redline, atleast thats when mine blinks. You can adjust it to where you want it to blink, thats when the Manual Handbook comes in handy

 

I did this about half the time in my WRX, you really have to know the car though, and I definitely wouldn't recommend downshifting without the clutch. I've also done it in the G, first to second and second to third shifting at around 3k is easiest. It's really amazing how much energy you save in your foot and leg not having to clutch your 1-2 and 2-3 up-shifts

The idea is you just let off the gas a little when you are going to shift, which should help it kinda pop/slide out of gear, then know exactly what RPM the next gear should be at at the speed you're going, and just firmly push it into the next gear when the revs drop to the exact point they need to be. It all works very smoothly if done right and you cannot feel the shift.

 

Depends. You're clutch probably is probably not making any contact before you've fully pressed it to the floor.

There's a lot of travel in the clutch on these cars, too much IMO. Myself and many people have shortened the travel in the clutch pedal by a simple adjustment you can do yourself in a few minutes. Before I did this there was probabaly about 2 inches of extra travel that I didn't care for. Now, it engages about an inch or so off the floor.

So really, in the case of most people here not depressing it fully really wouldn't do anything wrong as long as you pressed it down far enough.

Why they made so much travel in the clutch I'm not sure. There was a lot of arguing back and forth as to whether adjusting it to shorten the travel would cause any harm. You need to make sure that at one end it's fully engaged and at the other it's fully not. You can adjust it too much where you screw up one of these or the other. But if you make a small adjustment and test it (try stalling it in 6th gear in the driveway with the clutch fully pressed and slowly let off to make sure it would stall an inch or so off the floor) to make sure you didn't screw up it makes the car easier to drive IMO.

Oh, and overall, 1st to 2nd shifts on this car are different. You're going to want to lose slightly more RPM's on that shift then any other upshift. I just learned to shift slightly slower 1st to 2nd and its been smooth sailing ever since.

 

I push the shifter to the [+] position before the needle thingy hits the red line thingy

 

so i've gotten my G, had it about a month now and gotten really good at shifting... gf's dad gave me a lesson and all, but now i need some help...... how do you guys downshift when you're coming to a stop? say you're in 4th or 5th gear and you see a stop sign comin up a block or two away... what's your order of operations for coming to a complete stop? i've been braking until my speed and RPMs get low, then hold clutch in while i go backwards through the gears (to slow the tranny down slowly) is this good, or is there a better way?

PS: i've been practicing rev-matching to downshift from say 5th to 4th, but still not good at it. but my question above is mainly for being in 4th usually where downshifting to slow the car isnt as practical as going from 5th to 4th

 

Heel/Toe it and do a nice rolling stop!! j/k

Just learn what gear has what rpm range. For racing, know where your power band/mph limits are for each gear as well. You can ususally downshift/upshift to 2nd around 40-50mph, but I have an auto G and the trans. gearing was different on the Cobra. Try downshifting and breaking slowly at the same time, and as you get closer to stopping just put the clutch in and break. Try not to downshift into 1st gear, it is not great on transmissions and not really necessary.