I just recently got my 5spd SE and I been learning to drive manual since i purchased the car. I'm good at it already, but i have some questions. If I'm crusing at decent speed about 40mph and I'm in 4th gear can i shift into second skipping over 3rd gear? Or if I'm on the highway and driving in 5th can I shift into 3rd skipping over 4th? Please help me not ruin my G-RIDE.

 

Yea as long as you can rev match.

 

skipping gears is fine, as long as you aren't going a speed that is too high for the gear you want to go into. Why would you want to downshift to 2nd from 4th if you are going 40mph? Why don't you just downshift through the gears like you are supposed to?

G RIDE? lmao

 

The key is to pay attention to the rev range! By that I mean, if you want to shift from 4th gear at 40mph into 2nd gear, you should have an idea of what rpm you need to rev the engine to match 40mph in 2nd gear. Try running your car up to 40 in 2nd. I have a 5sp. So I know mine will do 60 in 2nd near redline, 3rd near 100 and so on to 5th.
In order to match revs to match 2nd gear at 40, I would need to rev the engine to about 4500-5000 coming from 4th gear.
When you are asking this questions, I would advise shifting thru each gear both up and down until you are familiar with your car. Drive the car thru some curvy roads and you will learn quicker. Besides then you will understand why the VQ is perfectly matched to it's 5 speed!! Enjoy

 

what if he's trying to slow down?

 

Nothing slows you down quicker than disk brakes!!

 

Brakes are also cheaper than a new clutch

 

Thanks allot and hell yeah i rather use my disc brakes before i burn my clutch trying to slow down.

 

The reason I would want to downshift into 2nd from 4th is if some lil dude next to me trying to race i can shift into a more powerful rpm range and leave his *** goodbye, but is that wise to do?

 

simple dont shift into 2nd if ur on top of 4th...

 

that's what I was trying to get across.

As for not downshifting and just using your brakes to slow down....I'm not even going to go there. Too many debates of that type on the .org already.

 

Sure, just know the speed limits for each gear. It's in the user manual, and remember two things:
1) you don't want to shift to the lowest possible gear (say 50mph, don't go to 2nd since you'll immediately hit redline and lose time with an extra upshift). Shift to the gear that puts your revs around 5k. At highway cruise speeds, that's usually 3rd gear. Usually I go down one gear for a little passing / uphill power, down 2 gears for *****-out punch.

2) Rev-match. You can roll down the road in 2nd gear at 50mph, but if you jam it into 2nd and let the clutch out, the engine will be going too slow and you'll actually slow down. Or if you get on the throttle too much/early, the clutch won't engage quickly and you won't be putting the power down. For a big downshift, it's easiest IMO to just hold the throttle down at about the RPM you're going to engage at (rather than 'blip' it), and let the clutch out quick. Do the actual shift into 2nd deliberately, don't force it in fast. The moment the clutch catches put your foot down the rest of the way. You can practice this on a quiet road, and I sometimes do it to get used to a particular engine/clutch. Of course I don't follow through and punch the throttle, in fact I try to do it so that the passenger would never know unless they were listening to the engine revs.

If you get good at this, and your engine isn't loud, they'll never know you've downshifted. (Bad drivers don't make smooth shifts, and you can watch the car pitch forward and backward when they shift, LOL)

Dave

 

it fine as ur not going 2 fast for the gear ur changing to

 

have you read any of the previous posts?

BTW, speak english, please.

 

Okay, if you can actually rev-match, nothing will slow your @ss down quicker than heel-toe IMO. Here in the city I have to use this method quite often and it DOES NOT burn your clutch unless you're a moron.