Need tips for driving manual 370z

radix023

Downshifting to a light I generally let revs drop to 1200 then downshift. From 3rd I go to neutral.

For sport/racing cornering, I will downshift a bit more aggressively (earlier) but I leave the transmission a gear longer than what I will apply power in. I only go to that gear when applying power. This is from decades of racing simulations when I realized that when transitioning in a corner an aggressive downshift may have left you with unwanted engine braking, hence I leave it a gear long to mitigate than and only do the last downshift to apply power. YMMV

The only way to be really smooth from 1-2 is to baby it and shift around 2k (economy shift). If you are hooning around, you are going to be a bit rough. You can't engage 2nd at 5k and not have your head move.

Where I find myself skipping gears is away from a traffic light. I give it some welly to get away from traffic then go to 6th/overdrive.