How do you drive a manual car?
I was just bored and wanted know more about other CT users driving habits, particularly how they may drive a car with a manual transmission. Do you shift slowly and deliberately? Or is it your goal to out-shift a Dual Clutch box? I’ve sort of fallen into a habit of shifting fairly quickly, even when I’m just cruising along. I wouldn’t say I’m banging gears, just quick smooth shifts, nothing abrupt, but definitely quicker than most other drivers rowing their own gears (I’ve had more than a few of my friends comment on my shifting, and all of them drive manual daily). I want to say the reason I started doing this is because I’m subconsciously competitive. When ever I was at a red light next to an automatic car, if we took off at the same rate of acceleration, I would fall back with every gear change. This bugged me, so I started shifting faster. After a while, shifting got smoother, and it became normal. So now, whether I’m running late for work, or just cruising along, I shift quickly. It’s gotten to the point where I no longer slip the clutch out for smooth engagement, I more or less dump the clutch and match the throttle with the engine speed (while shifting, obviously dumping the clutch from a stop is not going to achieve a smooth take-off). There’s never any jolt, bucking, or chirp from the tires, just one gear into the next. So I want to know if anyone else does anything similar, or if anyone else gets slightly bothered when an automatic car pulling ahead because you had to change gears, or if I’m just weird.
Comments
personally, when driving my volvo, my priorities are 1. conservative clutch wear 2. fuel economy and 3. smoothness. I’ve found that when I shift quickly, the engine doesn’t have time to “fall back” in RPMS, so the gear change is smooth because the clutch is slowing the engine down for me, which feels the same as the acceleration in the previous gear. I hope that sentence made sense. So, instead of shifting fast, I give the car a split second to settle down between upshifts. The shift into the next gear is not a smooth, but wears the clutch less. Of course, this makes me a pretty slow driver! Another habit I have is to accelerate from a stop without touching the throttle at all until first gear is completely engaged, this is another technique I use to extend the life of my clutch. finally I have the habit of never engine braking unless on a severe slope. the way I see it, my brakes are powerful enough to lock the rear tires, so engine braking is redundant in my car unless I am heading down a long steep hill. keep in mind that these habits are just my style, and may not be fun for you! when I want to shift fast into the next gear (upshifting) I move out of gear without using the clutch, and then use the clutch to enter the next gear. I find this to be faster with my car when I am trying to keep up with traffic or have some fun on the freeway. hope this helps. -dave
I also have a Volvo, and I noticed that it drops revs pretty quickly, so shifting quickly is actually smoother and puts minimal wear on the clutch When I first got it, I shifted at a more normal pace, as I was still getting a feel for the car, but I noticed the clutch would have to speed the engine back up to match road speed. I also engine brake extensively, but I rev match, minimizing any clutch wear. I have yet to burn out a clutch, and I’ve used about 1 32nd of brake pad over the course of 2 years on my other car, which I drove daily before getting my Volvo. How I drive isn’t necessarily rough on the clutch, and I don’t really rev the engine out too high, so I don’t trash the syncros too bad, I just wanted to see what others driving habits were.
For me i shift the way whats best for my truck, which is take your time smooth. Also i dont want to wear out the synchos becuse it was never made for fast shifting. But when i do shoft fast i still do it properly by not just slamming the lever in to the gear but fast and smooth. Otherwise my gearbox loves the smooth shifting becuse when i do it reaards me by letting me hear the mechanism work. Kinda like a gated shifter.
Nothing like the sound of a good mechanical shifter. I know shifting quickly can be rough on syncros, however my normal driving usually doesn’t bring the RPMs up past 3,000 so the syncros don’t have to work nearly as hard as an abrupt shift at 5,000. Like you said, my goal is fast and smooth. Usually the lever just slots right into gear with minimal resistance, so I don’t think I’m beating up the syncros too badly.
My personal ambition in my corolla is to beat the EPA. So that means lots of shifting! I try to go for minimal clutch wear. I rev match and try to “catch” the ideal rpm for my speed and gear. And I only drive smoothly when someone else is riding with me.
Occasionally I will go out and have some fun and practice my quickshifting!
I’m assuming you’re talking about gas mileage? If so, I may have a bit of advice. If you’re shifting real early and bogging the engine, that will actually net you worse gas mileage. Your engine’s working harder to move the car, so it’s gonna lay on the fuel by lengthening injector pulse-width to compensate for the increased volume of air from throttle being opened farther. If you’re at a higher RPM, you won’t need to press the gas as hard to accelerate the car. The throttle won’t be open as far, so less air will enter the engine. Less air means less fuel. Less fuel means better MPGs. So if the engine is bogging, don’t be afraid to downshift. I’ve had fuel injectors hooked up to oscilloscopes, so I’ve seen first hand how engines behave under load. Also, accelerating at a decent pace also helps with MPG. The quicker you get into your top gear, the quicker you get into your cars “maximum efficiency zone”. I’m not saying to floor it, but driving like grandma won’t net you the best fuel mileage.
Press clutch fully, start car while holding clutch, Put car in gear (1st or reverse) Slowly put some gas on whilst decompressing the clutch, If you’re in first gear take foot off the gas pedal while compressing the clutch again, when you feel the clutch getting fully compressed switch to 2nd gear ETC.
I guess I don’t think about it too much but I’m slow and methodical when in traffic and I speed up when I get out on my own and open up. On the track i like to heel toe but my shoes don’t really work on my commute!
I’m a fan of heel toe as well. It’s something that I do whenever I drive my cars. I’ve gotten some strange looks from others when they see me heel toe downshifting my CR-V lol.
So its 3am where I am and I Just realized the title sounds like I’m asking how to drive a stick car. I meant to ask how you personally drive your car, what your shifting style is like, etc. Feeling kinda dumb right now. And tired.
Dat automatic life, bro. (Walks away to go cry in a corner)
I always shift smooth and revamatch, people think it’s automatic untill they look on the gear stick
That’s funny, my first car was an automatic Honda CR-V. The transmission would often slip between gear changes, so I would let off the gas just as it went to shift. It made it look like it was manual, and I had a few people ask me if it was 5 speed. Now that I have nothing but manual cars, I do what you do, fast, smooth almost automatic shifting.
When the car is cold or when i am tired I have taken the habits of chaging my gear with 2 fingers very smoothily at low rpm and feelong the gear enclenche itself.
I aslo love quickshifting smoothily double declutch and catch the best rpm to keep a maximum torque
It depends on my mood and the situation on the road. Sometimes I change very slowly and precisely but when I’m overtaking or I’m in a hurry or mad, I’m shifting quickly and almost brutally. I even powershift sometimes. (Yes, I know it’s really unhealthy for the gearbox)(And yes, it can be done in a 206 ;)). Usually I’m trying to shift quick but smooth. Also as I don’t have armrest in my car, I always move my whole arm when shifting. I’ve been teached to always shift so smoothly, that passangers won’t feel it, but come on, not when driving fast :)