Manual gearchanging

[DXP55]

My first two cars in 70's were auto - my last three were auto and in 30 yrs in between I drove manual so know how it's done.

Today my neighbour took me out in his Mazda MX5 - nice motor - electric roof- leather - the works.

Pulled away change to second -dunk - foot straight off clutch - same with all gears - every time -dunk and head nod on my part - made my neck ache - Now he was a postie in a van before he retired so it that why he does it ?

Anyone know of anyone else that does it?

That poor clutch and gearbox

dave

 

[DXP55]

Smooth gear changing takes practice and is all in the balance of clutch and throttle.

Not just down shifting, but up shifting too, clutch should be going in before acceleration has been fully removed to remove the lurch of a snap removal of engine speed.

Smooth driving is an entirely different prospect on top of that. There is fast, there is smooth and there is fast and smooth. Ordered in amount of difficulty/skill required.

By smooth I mean cannot feel the gear change at all, purely transparent. It's surprising how difficult a fully smooth drive is and how much attention it requires.

This is exactly what I have been saying - He doesn't use clutch correctly - he dumps clutch peddle(By that I mean he just's takes his foot off instead of easing it up) up or down gears with a dunk sound and jerk of car. Not a smooth driver by any means - I have to say I find modern cars with high revving engines and light flywheels more difficult to drive smoothly through gears as the cars of earlier years - only 2 valve per cylinder engines with heavier flywheels as rev's don't instantly die.

I am a totally auto box man and always have been.

Dave