My m6 habbits, good or bad?

Forrest

Okay since i am still new to manual i can switch gears pretty good and reasonable pace now.

Infact i got into my dads auto truck to load up some gravel and when i got in i was FREAKING LOST, my left foot was kicking down like a dog who was getting his belly scratched attempting to find my clutch. It was like what do i do? Then i remembered brake! anyways onto my questions.

1st to 2nd. The most tricky gear to do smooth? a combo of finess gas+clutch depending on the rpm?

Skipping gears
Acceleration: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th at 40mph+ switch to 6th and just gently bring it up to 55-65 depending on where i am at. (no hills straights only)
Deceration: 6th. foot off gas till 40mph. Brake lil skip to 4th. Brake lil less skip to 3rd. Gently put foot onto clutch until i shift into neutral and coast into the rest.

Cruising in City for gas mpg trying to achieve at least 20mpg.
No Hard acceleration involved i only gently pres the pedal to maintain speed only, and these are general straight stretches no hills.
if its 25mph, i will cruise 3rd
if its 35mph, i may cruise in 4th or 5th.
If its 40mph+ i may cruise in 6th.

Trying to put the clutch back into 1st while lets say going 5mph hour give or take, gives quite a bit of resistance, so instead of forcing it into first i just let it go into second and treat it as if it was 1st gear from a dead start and gently let off clutch while feeding gas.

Any one ever notice how close people freaking tail gate you when your stopped up hill? Its my worst fear and i swear EVERY TIME, every one does it. I have never did it to any one and i give even more space now to people on hills lol.

Let me know if any thing i am doing is extremely bad, i have not heard any weird noises, Once i got a brief burn smell by trying to reverse up hill by giving to much gas and not letting the clutch out enough, other then that i think i am doing okay.

xDIEGOx

As long as you're doing that just on straights, you'll be fine.

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wstar

You've opened a huge can of worms. A manual gives you a lot of control over the car, and there are a million answers depending on your conditions, driving style, and skill level

Sounds like you're figuring things out ok though. There's a lot of debate on engine braking under normal driving conditions, what with all the subtle tradeoffs involved in terms of maintenance and wear on various things. Personally, I tend to engine brake a lot and save myself some brake wear, I haven't ever experience any engine life issues from it.

Also, there's not much point downshift to 1st in most conditions. It can really wear on some components and isn't all that useful. Once you get low on revs in 2, it's probably best to just put it back in neutral and brake the rest of the way to your stop (or stay in 2 and/or coast in neutral if you're just going through a corner and then re-accelerating). If you were driving on a track and coming through a corner so tight that it demanded first gear for the exit, it might be a different story, but it doesn't sound like that's the case.

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NotmyGTR

Dont see a problem with your senarios. I find 1st gear almost useless myself, unless of course launching from dead stop.
One thing about starting from a stop on an incline.....fwd or reverse, use your e-brake. Keep your hand on the brake, thumb keeping the button unlocked, ease out the clutch until you reach your engagement point (you should have peddle distance committed to muscle memory by now)bump your gas, and drop the brake handle and you should be smooth as silk. This completely eliminates clutch wear(burn).
The military base I lived in Yokohama, Japan had an incline at every security gate, the e-brake quickly became my best friend when having to stop and show an I.D. card. At least you are only dealing with a single plate, I had an HKS twin plate in my skyline..........and it sucked at first.

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Forrest

Okay will specify little more.

On the deceleration, I brake enough so each gear i shift into i do not go over 3k rpm. I really dont want to engine brake.

As for going back into first while moving, heres 2 common scenarios for me as to why i tryed to do it.
#1 Some one does a sudden stop, i brake, shift down all the way then i want to start up again but i realize i am barely rolling so i try to go back to first, bad idea.
#2 "California Crawl" Not stopping all the way but rolling slowly then taking off.
Both these i have learned to go second becuaes the manual doesnt like you to go into first so it was i thought a obvious one but didnt know if it was okay.

Forrest

I have been using what Crash told me a while ago, i keep one foot on the brake, I gently let out till engagement point on clutch then flip the other foot to gas.

I can do the ebrake method too but i seem to prefer the foot work method.

wstar

I love emergency brakes

I read a technical article about pad/rotor wear a long time ago, that talked about how a lot of the wear and damage on daily drivers comes from coming to a mildly hard stop with the brakes and then holding the pads in place at the stoplight (you just generated a bunch of heat, and now you're baking them into a single spot on the rotor, causing uneven wear/heating).

So generally, I try to engine brake early, use the brakes lightly and evenly as I get closer, and then at the final stage (rolling through the last car length, or even half car length, at single-digit speeds) I usually let off the brakes completely and try to time it so the car just rolls to a stop in neutral at the right place without touching the pedal at the end. The e-brake helps if you misjudge a little, I use it for the final halt when necessary. I had great success in extending my pad/rotor life with these kinds of techniques in my last car.

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NotmyGTR

Sounds good, but I have really enjoyed the ease of operation with the e-brake. Works good in all pavement conditions too.

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DIGItonium

The 370Z is definitely interesting... I usually hover under 3k with my 350Z. Now I find myself hovering under 4-4.5k between shifts. It is so smooth as if it likes to be in that range for everyday driving.

I've not felt the need to skip gears (only on occasion).

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wstar

The low 4K-ish numbers are really the cutoff between grandma/fuelsaver driving and really driving in this car. If I'm just running around in traffic I shift somewhere in the 3000's to save fuel (and to give other drivers some repreive from the deafening exhaust note). When I'm having fun, I try not to let the revs go under 4K at all.

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NotmyGTR

Dont let it under 4 at all...Niiiiice. Nothing like the feeling of battle mode. Damn I wish I could roll out at about 11:00 p.m. tomorrow night and run the wan-gan. AHHHHHHHH gotta wait a couple more years to move back to Japan.

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Forrest

Some one posted some where they feel the perfect shift spot is above 4k. For 1st to 2nd it is ALOT smoother if you shift after 4k.