It sounds like anyone with the clunking sounds needs to work on their smoothness, both with the throttle while driving in 1st gear and with the clutch when shifting into 2nd. The transmission does have more of a 'torquey whine' to it while moving in 1st. This is the nature of the gearing...put a LandRover into 'low range' and you'll hear that sound in every gear.
As for the 1st to 2nd shift, I've found that I've become much smoother after driving the car for the past week. Initially my wife complained about how 'herky jerky' the car was and I'd yell at her to shut up or get out
. Now that I'm acclimated to the clutch, the shifts are buttery and the car just zips along smoothly. It just took some time to get the feel.