How to drive a manual Z smoothly?

shabarivas

Shift slow when you go slow and shift fast when you go fast

nicknick

Good point. You can't always release the cluth slow, especiallly when you are pressing on, if you do then this will be rough. Practice!

jeffreyfranz

BlueMax:

I spent considerable time out driving today, concentrating on shifting and handling. Shabarivas nailed it:

1) In town and in low-speed situations, shift slowly and gently. Drive like a Grannie and, after a while, you'll get smoother and more relaxed with the shifting.

2) In hard driving contexts, shift aggressively and get on the power immediately--shazam! Push the right foot down and feel the power pull you up toward the next shift--very gratifying.

Hope that helps. Now for real fun, turn the VDC off and and go for it. Oh, yeah...

kenchan

and CRUNCH! no need to shift aggressively or slam the throttle wide for fast acceleration. smooth is the way to go.

jeffreyfranz

No, I have never yet CRUNCHed my transmission on this admittedly new car (1200 miles)--I suppose there's still time. I simply meant not to be afraid of the car. In "hard driving contexts" (remember that?)... oh, never mind. It is absolutely not necessary to brutalize the car in order to shift aggressively (or drive aggressively, for that matter), and "getting on the power early" ("slam" was your word) is a necessary and desirable part of high-performance driving. Doing it all smoothly; that is where we are in complete agreement.