Clutch

ClemsonWill

I disagree. Every car I have ever owned has been a stick (15 years of driving). It takes practice but you can shift smoothly. You just have to learn the optimum point of releasing the clutch and engaging the accelerator for each gear. A smooth shift is matching the engine speed with the speed in which the transmission is turning. It is not the same in each gear or under different types of driving. It just take practice. I was able to shift smoothly 75% of the time with my S2000 (given I daily drove that car for 3 years).

I will agree with the fact that shifting smoothly everytime is near impossible. Humans are not made to be perfect everytime. But shifting smoothly most of the time is definitely possible with concentration and learning your car.

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ProfessorDave

Good point about practice, especially when going from on manual trans to another (e.g., gear ratios for the S2000 are quite different from the Z- much more "user friendly"). I go through an adjustment period of a couple miles everytime I get into my daily driver, the wife's car, or my son's (daughter seems to have not gotten the manual shift gene).

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Rain, snow, sleet, hail: 2009 Mazda 3 sGT HB
Everything else: 2009 370z, PW Touring 6MT