Originally Posted by Tickwomp

I too found it difficult to hit the 1st to 2nd shift hard consistently and would often miss or grind 2nd.

I've been driving manual transmission for about 30 years so I've gone through some different cars for sure.

After analyzing my shifting in the Z, I noticed that I would put some significant pressure on the stick towards the left when moving the shift lever downwards towards 2nd. This transmission does not like this sideways pressure at all.

When shifting angery now, I put a concious effort to simply move the shift lever downwards and not put any sideways pressure on it. Shifts fine now and I can bang 2nd as hard and as quick as I want.

Tick