How To Learn To Use Paddle Shifters?

[MidwayJ]

Once you are in manual mode (shifter is S and you've shifted once with a paddle), watch the tachometer and listen to the engine. You will notice the difference in how the engine revs and sounds, and how the car accelerates at different rpms. Start by focusing first on when to upshift to the next higher gear. The transmission will downshift for you if you don't. The faster you want to accelerate the higher you let the engine rev before upshifting. Compare the RPM where the auto trans shifts gears to what you are doing with the paddles.

Once upshifting becomes natural you can practice downshifting. Too soon and you rev the engine abruptly in normal driving. Too late and the transmission does it for you. I find paddle shifting is most fun on twisty roads. Downshifting into turns gets the engine into a high rpm where you have power to blast out of the turn into the straight.

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[Linkster1666]

I'm having fun with the A 10 and paddleshifting but the only time I get tripped up is when I'm turning the wheel hard and the paddles aren't convenient to locate. No big deal.

Bondurant taught us hands at 9 and 3 is all you need and would slap your hand if you grabbed the shifter if not shifting.

 

[acemastr]

I'm really good with the paddles I've only hit the rev limiter 15 times in 1800 miles.

This! If I don't change at 7k it whacks the limiter and then won't change when I do hit the paddle lol

 

[Bespinoza66]

Hey everyone!

So I have a 2018 GT and I’ve honestly never driven a manual in my life (I know that must be blasphemy on here lol). Obviously the paddle shifters aren’t a great representation of driving manual, but I’d definitely be interested in learning how to use them. I’ve heard it makes the driving experience a little more fun. Does anyone know of any videos of how to use the paddle shifters on the 2018+ models? I wish there was a “How To Use Paddle Shifters For Dummies”. I just don’t want to mess up the transmission and such learning. No clue when to upshift or downshift etc. If anyone has any material or videos to help me learn it would be appreciated.

Also, thanks to everyone for being so awesome on here. You’ve been super helpful with my noob questions.

Drive it around on D, normal, and listen and feel the car when it shifts for a couple days. I'm not sure if the 18+ do it, but if you can have the gear display on your digital cluster just look at what rpm the gear changes in various driving conditions (I.e, heavy traffic and normal traffic on the streets and freeways). That's the way I learned, if you downshift or upshift too late or too early, the engine will let you know lol.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Smokey613]

I do not know how the A10 works but my A6 in Sport mode using shifter will of course upshift/downshift automatically until you use the paddles the first time. Then upshifts are manual by paddles. I did discover that even in full manual paddle mode it will downshift automatically but it does as smoothly as regular Drive mode without the rev matching behavior it does in auto Sport mode. Not sure if I have described this properly.

 

[CF-105]

My last two cars had paddle shifters, and about once a year I'd give them a try, and then realize the car was shifting better then I was, so I may as well leave it alone.

As others have said, just play with it. The computer will outsmart you every time if you try to do something stupid. The video game idea isn't bad either, because you are effectively doing the same this. That is, giving a suggestion to a computer, and allowing it to change gears for you.

Most importantly, enjoy your car and just have fun.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Hey everyone!

So I have a 2018 GT and I’ve honestly never driven a manual in my life (I know that must be blasphemy on here lol). Obviously the paddle shifters aren’t a great representation of driving manual, but I’d definitely be interested in learning how to use them. I’ve heard it makes the driving experience a little more fun.

As a concept, all you're trying to do is keep the engine running at enough revs so that you have adequate response when you step into the throttle a little . . . without running so many rpms that you're making noise without using much of the power. This will vary as the driving situation changes.

Best way to learn? Practice and pay attention while you're practicing. Of course, with 10 fairly closely spaced gears to play with, plan on being a bit busy at times trying to stay in whatever engine rpm 'sweet spot'.


Norm

 

[90Notch]

Here's a trick with the A10 though not really about the paddles.

If you are cruising and want to drop gears, blip the gas pedal and it will drop down a few gears. It's nice when on the freeway, drop a few gears then mash pedal once it downshifts. Or you can tap the left paddle once or twice and let her rip but then you have to manually upshift also.

 

[Shdwrlmstang]

Thanks everyone who responded with constructive feedback! Definitely looking forward to trying to learn it. I’ll try and practice on the weekends.

It's life brotha there is no life without douchey people. One advice for something YOU KNOW will attract these swine infested mosquitos who love to insult people your best bet is to simply look on YouTube and google trust me YouTube is gods gift

 

[Sigma6]

My last two cars had paddle shifters, and about once a year I'd give them a try, and then realize the car was shifting better then I was, so I may as well leave it alone.

As others have said, just play with it. The computer will outsmart you every time if you try to do something stupid. The video game idea isn't bad either, because you are effectively doing the same this. That is, giving a suggestion to a computer, and allowing it to change gears for you.

Most importantly, enjoy your car and just have fun.

Agreed. Paddle shifters are fun vs being in an auto without but the only draw back I’ve seen vs letting the car do it’s thing is decreasing MPG. Otherwise as other posted, there’s built in protective measures in the ECU which will prevent you from shifting up/down when you’re not suppose to.

 

[Grandad11]

I've owned quite a few cars with paddle shifters, but I have to say I use them far less on the Mustang than on previous cars. I liked then on other cars because they would keep me in the power range for passing on 2 lane roads, but that's not really necessary with a GT in sport mode. Also 10 speeds is way too many, I wish they had a paddle mode that accessed every other gear, that would be a lot more enjoyable.

 

[damships]

Lol. Okie Dokie expert. Manually shift it all you want...

Never said I was an expert, per my noobie post ;-) But of course, I’ll shift to my heart’s desire.

 

[damships]

Thanking everyone again for the great feedback and input! :-) I’m going to try it out this weekend and go from there. It’s really motivating me to learn manual for future cars.

 

[Andy13186]

I paddle 99% of the time, but I had 3 manual sports cars before this car, just keep using them and youll learn what you like to do and what works best. I also am tuned with an 8200 rev limiter so, I never hit that..

 

[Bubba Bear]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I just started trying the paddles and is there any way to make the computer take over after downshifting while in S+ mode?

In my BMW the ZF8 allowed you to do downshifts when changing lanes in traffic so you could hammer it, but would immediately take over unless you chose to put it in manual mode. This 10 speed seems to stay stuck in the gear I downshifted to until I click and hold on the right paddle to upshift? It's really annoying if that's how it's supposed to work

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