Hey guys! During my first week I posted a thread about driving the car smoothly.

I'm getting better but finding it's still tricky.

If I let the clutch out too fast in first or second, my car lurches suddenly.

Anyone else having this challenge?

 

I haven't been having any trouble myself, but I've been driving stick on every car I've had for 18 years.

It's a tough clutch. It engages very positively at about mid-point in the throw, and I engage it by knowing when it will engage and when I get near that point, I actually push in on the clutch with my ankle as my knee is still lifting off of the clutch to slow the actual clutch travel to dead slow while still letting the pedal out.

Also, it helps to match the revs. If you shift a little more slowly than as fast as you can, you can let the engine revs drop to where the gears engage more naturally (eg: when you disengage the clutch, the revs will start to fall because it is not being driven by the wheels and your foot is off of the pedal. As this happens if you let the clutch out at the point where the revs are matched to the revs of the engine with the new gear engaged then there will be no trouble with bucking). If the gears engage near that natural point then there is no reason for the car to buck because everything is moving at the same speed. It's another thing that I do pretty naturally and which will probably help.

Other than that, all I can tell you is keep driving it, and eventually you will get better at it. It just takes time and practice. Don't get discouraged!

 

When I test drove my 8 I noticed it was a much 'touchier' clutch than my Miata... I'm silky smooth rev-matching in my Miata- to the point you can't feel anything between shifts. In the RX-8, I was very jerky the first few stop'n'go's.... I was actually apologizing to the sales girl on a hard take-off. I could tell it would be a good amount of time before I got used to the 8's clutch. Just two more weeks and I'll be driving her...

-Sean
http://theswamp.com/miata

 

I'm also having that challenge. Haven't driven a stick for at least 10 yrs. But I did drive sticks for over 10 yrs earlier. I find it easy to be smooth when I shift at low rpms (4k-5k) and take my time. But still haven't learned to rev match well at higher rpms. Some of the difficulty is I'm having fun driving it hard and not worrying about smoothness. In fact, when I really pushing it I have to concentrate on not letting off the gas during the shift. I've never had a car with a rev limiter. And with the rev limiter in place, I have no reservations about shifting at the redline from 1st to 2nd and not letting off the gas to achieve a good chirp into second. Have only chirped it a couple of times into third, and have not tried it into fourth yet :D

 

I've got to say that I can be a very sloppy clutch-engager when I'm driving by myself. The only time I'm overly worried about ultra-smooth shifts is when I've got others in the car with me. Then, I try my best, but since I'm not in practice, I'm not as good as I could be.

Funny, it was something I was consciously working on when my car took an unfortunate detour to the body shop. I will continue practicing when I get it back.

Anyway, no you're not the only one, Oldsnwbrdr. Just keep at it and it'll come.

 

I havent been driving stick for long (8.5 yrs), but its _all_ Ive driven since 14. Its extremely hard for me to drive automatic; I can never get em to shift when I want.

Anyway, I have 1500 miles on my 4 wk old 8. I have a few tips to drive smoothly through town:

> Rev 1st high (5.5-6k rpms, or about 20 mph.) Dont use alot of throttle or youll burn alot of gas.
> Skip 2nd, the gears are close enough that this is effortless. Engine rests at about 2k rpm. Apply power light and smooth.
> The revs drop off fast, so even for driving slow, I perform a fairly quick shift. If the shift is fast enough, the revs will be right where they need to be when you come off the clutch. This also minimizes the need to rev match coming off the clutch. The 1-3 shift should be a tad slower since the engine is falling more.

I do a 3-5 shift sometimes too, especially if I dont feel like doing the quicker shifts. Just be sure to shift into a gear with enough revs. Other than 1-3, I try to shift into a gear where I have about 3.5k on the tach after the shift.

This is my method, but Ive found it very succesful. Ive gotten tot the point where I use 2nd very little around town.

 

I don't think it is a good idea to skip gears...something to do with the tranny syncros or something...asking to much of them going from high RPM 1st gear to low RPM third gear...I read that on one of these forums somewhere...anyone know for sure???

 

You can do it if you leave enough time for the engine revs to drop off before you try to move the shifter into third, however, it isn't a great idea. I used to do it myself when I was a kid, but it doesn't afford you the best control of the car.

 

You can up-shift (low gear to a higher one) from whatever to whatever.
Each gear synchronizes on its own and it won't hurt anything other than the motor of you lug it - which is to say place too much load on the motor at too low of an RPM.
You wouldn't want to go from 9000 RPM in 1st to 1500 RPM in 5th straight away for a long period of the motor's life.:p

 

I find that there is an actual throttle hesitation on the RX-8 when up-shifting.
It makes for a slight "stutter", regardless of how hard or smooth I shift.
However, if I turn the DSC off, it smoothes out.
I suspect this is an ECU tuning issue.
Maybe I should start another thread.?:shrug: