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End all be all of Downshifting

cgreen5150

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Neither. Putting in in neutral wastes gas and downshifting every gear while coming to a stop is a complete waste (unless you're on a race track).

Keep it in the gear you are in and right before you are about to stop clutch in to neutral.
Exactly! Unless you're on a track, (or pretending you are), no need for the rev match and you definitely don't need to downshift if you're just coming to a stoplight that isn't about to turn green in a second. Ultimately you will figure this out without damage to your car. As you can see by the replies, we all seem to do things slightly different. In short - drive it and have fun! :ford:
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Norm Peterson

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Regardless of how much better it might be for the car for you to rev-match the majority of your downshifts, your passengers will always appreciate fewer (or no) episodes of forward head-toss.

Never mind that the smoother you can make your driving inputs (all of them!), the more enthusiastically you'll be able to drive without eliciting complaints. Should you decide to take in a track day, the smoothness that you'd have been practicing all along will be pretty much natural . . . and be one less thing competing for conscious thought while you're trying to learn all the track-specific things.


Norm
 

PJR202

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I like rev matching purely because it's smoother. This thing bumps and thumps when downshifting unless your speed differential is a pretty wide gap.

Something else I do when rev matching on downshift is to ease that last bit of clutch into place. Really I have to do it when up shifting as well unless I wind the RPM's up higher than normal for just regular driving speeds. I've been concerned with whether it's causing additional clutch wear but it's the only surefire way I've found to keep the downshifts smooth. I don't smell any telltale sings of friction. If you happen to hit that perfect RPM on the rev it's fine, but I don't get that lucky a lot of times.
 

Rambl3r

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First manual here as well. When I first got my car, I'd coast in neutal to a complete stop but now I'm getting the hang of rev matching downshifts. It's fun and you feel a sense a of accomplishment when you nail it perfectly. PLUS the exhaust note is awesome :D
 

Norm Peterson

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If you happen to hit that perfect RPM on the rev it's fine, but I don't get that lucky a lot of times.
Comes with practice, I guess. But even then, you'll occasionally screw it up. 45 years later there's still times when I'm kicking the throttle a second time and trying again because I knew I didn't get it right the first time.


Norm
 

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PJR202

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Comes with practice, I guess. But even then, you'll occasionally screw it up. 45 years later there's still times when I'm kicking the throttle a second time and trying again because I knew I didn't get it right the first time.


Norm
I'm mostly concerned with the fact that I have to release that last bit of clutch slowly. I just picture it making contact then slipping slightly during that half second i'm easing it into place.
 

altjx

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there's still times when I'm kicking the throttle a second time and trying again because I knew I didn't get it right the first time.
:lol: Same here. I'm still new, but sometimes when I over blip, I end up doing it again the right way, lol.
 

TURTL3

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I don't understand how people can drive and never rev match downshift. That just boggles my mind. But as always, YMMV.

This is the easiest clutch I've ever used in my life. It's so forgiving it's insane.

I have a buddy that coasts in neutral all the time around town and then pops it into gear when he wants to accelerate and it drives me crazy.
 

PJR202

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This is the easiest clutch I've ever used in my life. It's so forgiving it's insane.
Maybe it's different for the v6 despite being the same transmission. The clutch on my GT is far less than forgiving. It's worlds better without the assist spring, but still nice and thumpy if you aren't treating it perfectly every time. I don't know of anyone on here who doesnt find the spring assisted clutch annoying at least sometimes.
 

ghst

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I don't understand how people can drive and never rev match downshift. That just boggles my mind. But as always, YMMV.

This is the easiest clutch I've ever used in my life. It's so forgiving it's insane.

I have a buddy that coasts in neutral all the time around town and then pops it into gear when he wants to accelerate and it drives me crazy.
I know people who still ride the clutch everywhere and have been driving for years.

I'm on my 2nd week of driving manual in this car so far, and you're right. It's a really easy clutch, which is why I said screw it and bought the PP for my first manual car.

Maybe it's different for the v6 despite being the same transmission. The clutch on my GT is far less than forgiving. It's worlds better without the assist spring, but still nice and thumpy if you aren't treating it perfectly every time. I don't know of anyone on here who doesnt find the spring assisted clutch annoying at least sometimes.
Going from neutral to 1st, and 1st to 2nd it's not super smooth unless you slip it just a tad bit longer than normal I've noticed. Anything above 2nd gear is buttery smooth. Then again, most people I've talked to agree that these cars aren't going to be perfect when it comes to shifting these lower gears. I think it's just the nature of these cars.
 

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cgreen5150

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To be clear, I do like to rev match most of the time when downshifting, but I was letting the OP know it is not required IMO.
 

Macfarland

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My Stang is my first manual. I knew the basics, but I actually learned on YouTube and of course, practice. I think by the 4th month of ownership, I pretty much was comfortable driving through stop and go traffic and hills. I still don't know how to heel and toe, power shift nor double clutch, but rev-match I pretty much nail it every time. When I'm slowing to a stop light or sign, I just leave it in 4th or 3rd gear and go to neutral just before coming to a complete stop. Sometimes I do downshift when approaching a complete stop just because I like how the engine and exhaust sound at higher RPMs. So far, I haven't damage the tranny nor the engine.
 
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JohnD

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If you can't rev match properly on downshifts you shouldn't bother, sooner or later you're going to do more damage with badly matched shifts than if you just coast up to the stop sign in gear, dump the clutch and stop. I've been heel/toeing since I was a teenager and it's second nature, though as I "mature" I note I'm not quite as good as I once was. That plus the throttle response on modern cars suck unless you've got some revs on.

There's always the auto-blip too. Never used one but they seem to be quite popular with a lot of guys.
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