If your downshifting to engine brake then I would recommend that you shift through all the gears and with rev-matching to maintain positive control throughout your gears and your deceleration.

Downshifting to accelerate you can either double clutch once to hit 3rd from 6th or you can rev match down through the gears...

 

Lift your foot off the gas pedal
Clutch in, shift to neutral from 6th, clutch out
Give it gas for rev matching (this is the tough part)
Clutch in, shift into 3rd, clutch out
Give it gas and go

All these are done in about a second. Obviously, you probably can't be moving faster than 85 MPH when doing this, or you'll blow the engine. First check what speed is when redlining in 3rd, which should be around 90 MPH.

 

[QUOTE=Purple Haze,Jan 1 2006, 05:03 PM] Do you mean to tell me if I'm driving on the parkway and come to a red light, and I slow down, then it turns green, I have to downshift thru a series of five gears before I go into 2nd?

 

For what it may be worth, I recently installed a Voodoo knob that shortens the length of the shifter by about 1 1/2". For whatever reason, this makes the action of the "return spring" much more effective for me when shifting from 6 or 5 to a lower gear. For some reason, this simple mod has made the shifter center more definitely in neutral right between 3 and 4. And, as xviper says, you should be downshifting as your speed decreases. However, in two lane highway driving, I do find the 6 to 4 shift to give a good "passing gear" for this car, and it is a much easier shift with the more "positive" spring centering of the shifter with the Voodoo knob.

Thanks,
Richard

 

Richard, this may in fact, be very true and applicable, but what I see here is a lack of understanding of what that spring is meant to do. Until that understanding is acquired, making the spring action more evident will be of little use. It is this same lack of understanding that may be the cause of many mis-shifts that result in catastrophic over-rev.

 

xviper:

Corrrect me if I'm wrong, but I use the "feel" of the centering spring to tell me the point wherein 3 is forward and 4 is back on the shifter, which further indicates to me what action is necessary to reach any other desired gear. Am I in error?

Thanks,
Richard

 

BINGO! Fear not, Richard. You have a firm grasp of the concept. It's amazing how many people do not. As I tried to hint at earlier (and I guess sometimes it takes more than just a hint), that centering spring is the key to selecting the desired gear. Some drivers (especially those who are new to 6 speed manuals) haven't figured this out yet. But, as is indicated in this thread, there is way more to the original poster's driving skills that need to be addressed. Dwelling too much on the centering spring in this example, is unproductive till other deficiencies are resolved.

 

Now I see! The point is that if one needs to go all the way down to 3 from 6, one shouldn't have been in 6 then in the first place. Right? If so, I would certainly agree.

Thanks,
Richard

 

You do not need to jam the stick from one gear to another. As everyone stated, centering the stick is necessary to selecting the right gear sometimes. The fact that you are having to ASK how to shift into 3rd shows that you have not learned the higher techniques to driving a manual transmission.

I recommend that you read this site, which has tons of really helpful information:

http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving/driving.shtml

At the bottom of each page it has a link to the next article, and teaches things like heel toe and rev matching.

Read. Learn. Drive safe.

 

So as not to mislead anyone into thinking that this is a single steadfast rule, let me point out that there are exceptions to this as well. That exception being in the event of an emergency deceleration or stop. Stopping and slowing down in a hurry takes precedence over proper sequential downshifting. In virtually all other scenarios, sequential upshifting and downshifting should be a matter of good driving habit.