I am looking for tips on how to be a better manual transmission driver while daily driving my S. Can you guys offer what you have learned over the years? Here are some from me:
- When at a stop, put the car in neutral gear instead of pressing on the clutch and holding it in.
- Do not rest your hand on the shifter when the engine is on
- Do not rest your foot on the clutch pedal, use the dead pedal

Also, this has been at the back of my mind ... when approaching a stop, is it better to downshift to each gear or is it ok to coast to neutral until you reach your stop?

 

You shouldn't coast in neutral - you may need to suddenly accelerate. Other than that, you have the basics.

 

Here is a forum that could help you out a lot standardshift.com

Jason

 

Don't skip gears.

Downshifting and rev-matching upon deceleration is generally an ideal way to decelerate. This keeps you in control and the ability to accelerate in an instant in case of some sort of emergency.

 

So if you are driving at say 40MPH in 4th gear, while you are braking, you should be downshifting while revmatching to 3-2-1-Neutral then stop? That's a lot of effort

 

Skipping gears for downshifting is OK (with a rev match). Dont skip going up gears though as others have had problems in the transmission because of it. . .what the exact problem is, I dont recall.

I normally coast up to lights/stop signs with the clutch pedal in but still in gear, so I can shift if needed. Once I get to the stop though, into neutral it goes until I see the other lights change to yellow.

 

[QUOTE=TheCarGuy2021,Dec 30 2007, 06:43 PM] Downshifting and rev-matching upon deceleration is generally an ideal way to decelerate.

 

absolutely true!

i dunno what would happen in my S,
but when i was in a spirited run in my n/a MR2 ( )
i disengaged the clutch, pulled it out of second, then slammed it right into third.

i broke my right shift cable. lol.

something i learned is to not let the clutch out suddenly with a shift.
it reduces that shock and jerk. dun do it slow like you're starting from a stop of course,
but put a little hesitancy in the release so that the transition is a little smoother.
stops people from banging heads ;p
i totally mastered this in my MR2... but i can't seem to do it as well in the S

but if you're in a spirited drive mood, hell disregard that.

 

^^no shifter cables to break in the S

 

practice for 30 minutes and it won't be much effort at all. i used to think that when i first got the car but it all becomes second nature. my dad always notices that i downshift/rev match through every gear and tells me that i'm confusing myself/it's wasted effort/i'm just drawing attention to myself, but i and everyone else who does it don't really give it any thought at all.