ok. now i have a question... somtimes when i down shift (when not in a hurry) ill put it in neutral and let the rpms drop to the idle then put it in gear. is that bad to do? i sometimes do this while upshitfting as well. its just the way i drive.

 

If when u re-engage it in a gear it doesn't feel smooth you should start taping the throttle a little before re-engaging the gear. I don't think its too bad for the car to do it your way, but it will probably make the syncros work more.

 

if this was for me. it feels fine when i re engage the gear. doesnt feel hard or resist at all.

 

On the downshifting part, here's what I do. The S2000's engine will gain and drop revs VERY quickly when not under a load. That is, when you're blipping the throttle with the clutch disengaged to rev match on a downshift. Also, the gear ratios are pretty close together so that makes it difficult to do a throttle blip for a single gear downshift, at least I've never gotten it right. The combination of a fast reving engine and a short ratio'd gear box makes rev matching a single gear downshift very problomatic for me.

I've found that on 2 or 3 gear downshifts (ie: 6-4 or even 6-3), a light throttle blip works well once you get a feel for where the rpms need to be in the gear you're downshifting to. Please don't try any of this until you're familiar enough with the car to KNOW what speeds a given gear is good for! Mechanical over-revs, such as downshifting at 70 mph to a gear that's only good for 60, are VERY bad news.

As for doing a single gear downshift (5-4, 4-3, 3-2, etc.) I just hold the throttle steady at a point that would ONLY maintain speed at best. I don't try to blip the throttle at all. With this relatively light load on the engine, I declutch, shift, and release the clutch in one quick movement while the engine it lightly reving after being unloaded when the clutch let go. In traffic, I've gotten it down to an art. At least "I" think I do!

If you're decelerating with your foot off the gas, just apply enough gas to hold speed, and perform the shift. Once you're used to it, the process is very quick and results in near butter smooth downshifts most of the time. I'm not 100% with it, I don't think I'll ever be, but it works for me the vast majority of the time.

Now, what I'm talking about is simple routine driving. If you're really pushing the car?? You're on your own!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

i find that the smoothest upgear transition is at about 4,500 rpm.

 

Yea I think thats about right...actually I can get really smooth shifts at anything about 4000 rpm easily, but easiest is 4000-5000rpm...

The only thing I wanna try now is how to heel-toe properly. I had finally learned how to do it on my civic, but then I lost the car I then got my S but now I'm not used to heel-toeing any more, lol. Any advice on this matter as to how to place my foot on the brake and accelerator?

On my civic the brake and gas pedals were further apart so i could actually use my heel toe by twisting my leg... But on the S, the pedals are really close, and besides, when I try to do that, the center console under the dash just prevents my foot from twisiting that much...

Any advice?

 

Some people bend the gas pedal ever so slightly so it looks slightly like this "/" It helps your heel tap it.

 

9000RPM=

 

You mean the actually go take the pedal, take some tools, and physically bend it???

LoL I'll just try to figure it out some other way if thats the case...

 

so how about downshifting to slow down? is this bad for the syncros or bad for anything? does it drag the clutch out and wear it down faster?