downshifting

supraman626

sorry guys this might be a dumb question as i am still new to stick, can i downshift from 4th to 2nd with the synchrorev on or do i have to go from 4th-3rd-2nd? i read somewhere its best to down shift one gear at a time. If i downshift from 4th - 3rd, can i depress the clutch the whole time while shifting from 4th- 3rd - 2nd? Or do i have to depress clutch 4th-3rd, release clutch, depress clutch 3rd-2nd? thanks!

YellowStar

It does not matter if you go from 4th to 2nd, just make sure you have enough revs for the downshift.

Could not think of a reason on earth to go 4th to 3rd to 2nd.

Island_370

Depends on how (or if) you were taught to drive a stick. I was taught (and it makes sense to me) that you should always have the tranny in a gear and the gear should be in the useful rpm range. What if you need onto the gas to avoid an issue? If you are going 15mph, but still in 5th....you can't accelerate. So as I reduce speed, I drop the car into lower gears that I would use if driving. I don't always let the clutch out, but I have the gear selected.

I said "if taught" since a lot of folks just by a manual and self-learn. This teaches technique, but not philosophy. Same with folks that use the parking brake to hold the car on a hill. It works, but it is not the best....

Just my $0.02......

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AK370Z

As long as you're matching the REVS, you can go from 2-4 or 6-4 whatever. Sometimes I go from 6th to 4th and many 6MT drivers upshift from 2nd to 4th and 4th to 6th. If you have the SRM on and you downshift too many gears, you will hit the rev limiter if your initial REVs are too high. So watch out for that.

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phantom21

Under normal driving for me, I hardly ever touch 5th.

But, Im like Island...I may keep the clutch depressed, but I'm in the gear I need to be in to go, go, go.

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vipor

5th is my highway passing gear, but otherwise it stays fairly underused.

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Snakes709

Also like some said, make sure you are always in gear to get out of a situation. Quick little story. I had a Cobalt SS/SC. Was on the road driving at 50kmh. Women in the on-coming lane wanted to turn left and decided to bolt out in front of me. Couldnt go in another lane because to my left was a curb and to the right was another lane of traffic. I slammed on both my brakes and clutch. Never shifted but by hitting the clutch i lost the ability to stop faster. You stop alot faster if you use brakes and the engine to slow down, rather then just the brakes.

Year later, was in my 370z, another car did pretty much the same thing with me...so i just hit the brakes and slowed down really quick. Right before my rpms got to 1200~ i pushed the clutch in so the car wouldnt stall. Sure enough, everything worked out.

But as many people already answerd, yes you can drop 2 gears as long as you match the rpms.

CBRich

Gotta agree on 5th getting skipped a bit. The power allows 6th to pull from a lower RPM just fine.