Downshifting to 2nd or 1st while moving (technique)

Originally Posted by vividracing

I was always taught to avoid leaving the car in neutral while rolling. In the scenario you described, here's my technique.

Heel-toe to brake while rev-matching for 2nd gear.
Place car in 2nd gear, let clutch out. Engine braking + pedal braking slows you down.
When you see your opening, hit the gas.

Look up Ayrton Senna in car footage if you want to learn some awesome foot work

Originally Posted by Vaughanabe13

I apologize if this is the wrong forum....I didn't see a section for non-track driving technique.

Anyway, I think I've gotten pretty decent driving the Z in 90% of situations (this is my first manual I've owned). However, there is one situation that I feel like I never handle correctly.

Say I'm approaching a yield right turn in 4th gear, 35MPH or so. I need to slow down a lot to check for traffic. I see a car and decide I need to slow down and possibly stop. So I clutch in and brake and either keep the clutch in or go into neutral if it's a longer brake.

Now let's say I underestimated how fast the oncoming car was going and the car has already passed me, and now I'm free to drive through the yield turn. Now obviously I need to engage a gear and I'm going probably 10-15 MPH in neutral/clutch disengaged. It seems just a tad bit too fast to switch into first, because prior experience tells me going into first will throw me forward from the sudden braking under load. So I try to engage 2nd. Here's where it gets tricky. The car really lugs and feels like it's going to stall as I engage 2nd. The RPM has already fallen despite the efforts of synchro rev. I have to give it significant gas in 2nd to prevent stalling and it takes a few seconds to get my RPM back up and get back into the power band.

So how should I have handled this situation? Just hit first and accept the jolt to prevent the lugging in 2nd? Or should I have blipped the throttle manually or done something before/after switching to second?