[QUOTE]Originally posted by fg23knight
[B]Can you explain what lurch is in some more detail?

 

wow..nice issue....i would personally just use my brake pads....honestly.....even if you down shift correctly....and know how to do it....if you dont practice it....when you run into an emergency braking situation...you probably wont use the downshifting technique anyway...

 

Since you are new to MT. I would say just get the start down and practice normal shifting before you worry about the other advanced techniques. You need to walk first before you can run right.

Xviper gave me some tips since the S is the first MT car I've owned but it is fast to pick up. There are some quirks to the tranny that you'll have to find out about. I've got basic shifting and driving down, and now are practicing the odd downshift with rev matching, it is a slow process for me but with time it will speed up.

Have fun with your S, but don't go abusing it before you really know how to drive a MT.

 

There's NO "probable" about it. As I've said before, "emergency braking" takes precidence over all else. (Don't be messing around with downshifting if you gotta stop in a big hurry.)
The example I used before was that in the event of "emergency acceleration", will you be ready if you don't have the clutch out and in the right gear. And yes, there will be occasions when you will need to rapidly drive out of trouble. (I used to teach this in the advance motorcycle safety course.)
It's not a matter of "can" you or "should" you drive a certain way. It's a matter of being in control as much as possible. Some guys get away with steering with their knees on the wheel and never have anything bad happen but is there a better way?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by fg23knight
[B]
StwoK mention that downshifting put additional wear on the syncro, but from what I know, the syncro is that thing that allows the "dogteeth" to engage the gears properly.

 

man...im learning more and more everytime i enter this site....anyone heard of black rock dessert? its somewhere near reno...i hear that its just a big flat road and you can spin drift and do whatever you want....that would be a good place to go test out your car...

 

There is a lot of application to rev matching and even heel-and-toe shifting in regular everyday driving.

If you are slowing to stop for a traffic light or stop sign, the goal is clearly to come to a dead stop. You can choose to put the wear on your brakes or on your clutch (or some of both). I generally choose to put the wear on my brakes.

In other instances, traffic will be slowing but not coming to a stop. This necessitates getting into a lower gear because of the slower speed. In this case, I like to rev-match/downshift to get into the proper gear and in most cases don't need the brakes at all.

And finally, sometimes you just feel frisky and want to take that turn onto a side street with speed, so I heel-toe the corner (what can I say, cheap thrills )

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by StwoK
[B]
Down shifting to brake puts additional wear on the synchros.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by boiler
[B]

Let me simply say this: I have NEVER had to replace any synchros in any of the manual transmissions that I have driven and several of them have had over 200,000 miles on them.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by boiler
[B]

Let me simply say this: I have NEVER had to replace any synchros in any of the manual transmissions that I have driven and several of them have had over 200,000 miles on them.