That's kind of more in line with what I was thinking, though not quite technically what I was pondering. But same result - if you're overworking/shifting too fast for a synchro, especially in the S2000, I would think you'd get pretty obvious feedback in terms of grinding.

 

Agree, there is feedback to tell you when your doing it wrong, and it doesn't even have to be grinding, it can be more subtle than that.

With a synchro gearbox you have to shift gears with some mechanical sympathy, not just yank back on the stick in one motion. It is two acts, taking it out of one gear and then putting it into the next gear. There should be a slight *pause* in between (with some slight force on the stick toward the desired gate) as the input/output revs match (heel/toe required for downshifting at highish rpm). Do it right and the lever will practically fall into place with little to no effort. Doing it right at lower-speed tooling around takes a little time, but get in the habit of *waiting* for it to drop into the next gear, applying relatively little effort at the stick. You're applying a more limited force at the stick and allowing it to drop into gear instead of enforcing the desired motion with whatever force is required to drive it home. Under higher-performance driving situations (much higher revs, much more highly loaded), it can happen much more quickly, but it's *still* two acts, not just yanking back on the stick.

Proper technique is *way* more important than whether or not gears are skipped. With poor technique, skipping gears will be more of a problem than not skipping. Proper technique + skipping gears = no biggie.

 

Why would you skip gears in any car?

If you're that lazy don't drive a car with a manual transmission.

 

Because I'm interested in getting around the track and on the street in as effective and efficient way as possible with minimal wasted effort/concentration/time.

It's not laziness exactly, just don't see any point in diverting attention away from threshold braking banging off an extra unnecessary downshift in the braking zone on the track. On the street, I drive in traffic every day. Plenty of times I'm cruising along in 6th at ~55mph waiting for an opportunity to get in the adjacent lane to pass the slowbie in the left lane in front of me. When I see an opportunity, I don't see any purpose in downshifting to 5th then 4th, it just doesn't make any sense.

Unless you don't know how to drive a manual. In which case your synchros probably live in constant fear of hamfisted shifts anyway...

 

Beautifully put ZDan