Kick the girl out of the car, less dead weight to haul around if she can't appreciate that it is a pure sports car. If she wants a cushy ride tell her to take the bus

On to the point, in lower speed, rev higher to near 4000-5000 on shifts. You just need more practice to get the perfect synchronization of clutch and gas. The S has surgeon like precision so you just need to fine tune your clutch gas pedal work.

 

i first learned to drive a stick a few years back on a honda del sol. i got to where i could shift from first to fifth and back without touching the clutch. probably not great for the clutch but i won a bet against one of my buddies who swore it couldn't be done. list everyone says... practice. think about it whenever you are driving. pay attention to rpms, if they drop too much between shifts, if your shifting slow, then its gonna jerk when it connects again.

 

IMO keep everything in as fluid of a motion as possible. Maybe to help, start out in first, accelerate slowly to 5.5k, and shift at 1/2 speed to see how it feels, with the extra RPM's by time you hit 2nd it should be close to a good match. As you get better, start shifting at lower RPM's and make the motions faster, but should be muscle memory by now Around town driving I shift @4kish most the time, and try not to cruise below 3k. My dad started teaching me to drive stick when I was 14 in the neighborhood. By time I was old enough to drive, I could powershift, heal/toe down shift, 'blip' the throttle to downshift, and to be able to upshift/downshift w/out use of the clutch which BTW is REALLY hard to do in the S, and REALLY easy on cars like Civic and such. Oh, and he taught me how to have fun with the parking brake in the winter Never forget the first day we went out to that, it was a frig'n blast.
Steve

*Edit for peeps looking for Rev matching downshifts, heal/toe shifting etc., run a search, there have been some extensive threads on this subject.

 

ReDevil, that technique wouldn't hurt the clutch (since it stays engaged the whole time). What it'd hurt is the *syncros*. When you do a clutchless shift, unless you rev match *perfectly*, the syncros have to take over the role of the clutch. They are like mini-clutches, but aren't designed for the loads that the clutch is designed for. Just like a clutch, they force both sides of the gear to match before engagement. In normal driving, that means accelerating the short piece of shaft between the clutch and the gear (very light, easy to accelerate). In clutchless driving, that means accelerating the whole engine (very hard to accelerate, which is why clutches are so big). Great for a little fun, but I'd be wary of shifting like that on a car with synchros on them on a regular basis.

 

man i totally understand what you are going through. I learned to drive manual transmission on my S as well. My trick is that I always give a little gas when shifting as well as downshifting and its makes things very smooth. I dont know aobut you but my big problem was shifting into 2nd gear. Whenever i did, there would be some sort of jerk...but then nowadays whenever i go into 2nd i also apply a little bit of gas...works like a charm...no jerk nothing.....so my concept for my is always give a little bit of gas...makes things a lot smoother...good luck.

-anu