do it nice and slowly, and SLOWLY let off the clutch and listen to the engine (until you get the feel for it) and make sure you match revs and speed. definatly dont try this while making and turns and curves.

thats what i do. after time, you will know when you have hit 3rd anyways. just practice at it, and if you arent sure yet, dont get crazy. you are doing the right thing taking it easy until you have the 6speed down to a T.

you will get there with time, and if now the GMM ripshift is always a phone call and a cruise away

todd

 

If your cruising with your foot on the gas in cruise position, never let off the gas, hit the clutch, shift, and come off the clutch flooring the gas. Takes some practice, but thats what I do, most of the time from 5th to 4th, 4th to 3rd, but 5th to 3rd works if you get the rpms up high enough.

Rob

 

Hey, Rob, Todd, thanks for the tips. Thanks especially for protecting The USA.
I'm a former Coastie. BTW- feel free to let fly on the CG jokes. Regards Vinny

 

Hey, Rob, Todd, thanks for the tips. Thanks especially for protecting The USA.
I'm a former Coastie. BTW- feel free to let fly on the CG jokes. Regards Vinny

:gr_jest: no problem vinny. i better not make and CG jokes though, my father-in-law was in the CG, and he woudlnt be happy :gr_jest:

 

:gr_jest: no problem vinny. i better not make and CG jokes though, my father-in-law was in the CG, and he woudlnt be happy :gr_jest:

Yeah Man, don't mess with the inlaws. Unless you like sleeping on the couch !:gr_jest: I'm gonna call it a night. I'll drop you a note(not a tranny) & let ya know how the shifting goes . Thanks

 

Its also somewhat good to know what speed each gear will take you, although the speed will be affected somewhat by the driving conditions. I know my 1st gear will take me to about 30MPH, 2nd to about 60, 3rd to 90, 4th to 120. If I'm curising at 65 in 5th gear, I know I'm relatively safe dropping it to 3rd gear for passing purposes if I'm on a flat "typical" road. One thing I would suggest is driving each gear "mildly" as close to redline as possible to get yourself familiar with each gear's speed range.

 

yeah, just make sure you found third and not first. once you get it down pat, and you get it good and fast the car is friggin rocket on the highway.

 

Its also somewhat good to know what speed each gear will take you, although the speed will be affected somewhat by the driving conditions. I know my 1st gear will take me to about 30MPH, 2nd to about 60, 3rd to 90, 4th to 120. If I'm curising at 65 in 5th gear, I know I'm relatively safe dropping it to 3rd gear for passing purposes if I'm on a flat "typical" road. One thing I would suggest is driving each gear "mildly" as close to redline as possible to get yourself familiar with each gear's speed range.

Great advice, It will be taken and practiced. Thanks too Lithium. What about throttle position? Should I be on it hard, As I release clutch in 3rd? Provided I am actually in 3rd, god forbid 1st. BTW- 60-65 mph is what I'm refering to. Good call.

 

To shift from 5th or 6th to third:
1) Push clutch down normally in 5th or 6th gear, hold clutch down
2) Put shifter in desired gear, continue keeping clutch pushed down
3) Press gas peddle down to desired RPM (probably around 4000)
4) Hold gas peddle steady
5) Let out clutch slightly slower than normal. If you hear bad things while you're engaging the clutch then push the clutch back down and try again. If you are off on your target rpm in 3 the car will lurch a little bit but it will be ok. Have fun. Don't be scared, the drivetrain won't die. People have been abusing these drivetrains for almost ten years now.

 

i'd say it should be a lot easier if you had an aftermarket shifter, our shifter sucks especially downshifting from 5th to 3rd, everytime i've tried to do this fast, i've found myself looking for the 3rd gear gate and hitting the wall between 3rd and 5th.
i had a short shifter in my mach1, (i wish MGW had a shifter for our trannie, best short shifter ever created, take a look at the little sucker in action, http://www.mgwltd.com/shifthandle/bullittshifts.mpg) and i could shift 5th to 3rd almost as fast as 4th to 5th, it was that good.
unfortunely,it's really hard to do a fast clean shift from 5th to 3rd with our stock shifter.

i've found it easier to shift from 5th to 4th, then 4th to 3rd
here is what i do, although not good for racing because of the time it takes, but at least i'm not hitting the wall between 3rd and 5th, besides, is fun as hell

1) push clutch
2) short rev (matching rpm)
3) shift to 4th, release clutch
4) push clutch
5) short rev (matching rpm)
6) shift to 3rd, release clutch

if you do it this way, you won't have to find the 3rd gear gate from 5th, it would go to the desired gear without any problems. from 5th to 4th you don't need to find the gear,(example: 4th to 5th or 5th to 6th) it would go straight to 4th, same for 4th to 3rd. you can skip step 2 and 5 if you don't know how to downshift matching your engine revs, but it's a recommended practice for us m6 owners, it save some clutch in the long run.

you can also save some time just skipping step 3 and 4, just push the clutch, shift to 4th then go to 3rd, release clutch.

Have fun

 

I do it all the time, nothing to be worried about.

 

I do it all the time too now... after ^^^^ got on me about it.

 

swap the shifter IMO...was the only thing I didnt like about the car at first. and you are much smarter for asking now than posting a
"Does anyone have a giant magnet I can borrow" post next week...

 

Just one more thing, to find 3rd let the shifter do the work it will spring back to the middle and then just push up. If you try to find 3rd by hand you'll most likely miss it and hit 1st b/c of our crappy shifter.

 

Start slow and learn. Practice big down shifts at low speed. ie : 35mph in 6th, go to 3rd. Once you got the feel for that motion try 35mph 6th to 1st. Get ready to shift again quick.


Honestly, the only way to master it is practice. It's a must to drive a M6 properly.

 

I was the same way when I got mine. I was scared to go from 5'th to 4'th.:drink: I usually just put it in neutral, wack the gas then drop to 3'rd. If you give it enough the engagement will be fine. Just practice, you'll get it.

 

Someone on here told me about "tapping" the throttle (taking it up to 3500 - 4000) just before letting clutch fully out. This way the clutch spins fast enough that you don't nose dive and you are in your powerband. I believe they were talking about this in regards to road racing and cornering. I practiced it for a few days and it works like a charm. Barely use the brakes on some twisties now.....

Good luck and don't worry about breaking it. These cars are pretty tough IMO (no comments from Tom here)!

 

Thanks to all for the good tips. I changed the shifter to a GMM Rip, not too long ago. Its awesome. Missing gates isn't my fear though. Its the RPMs & the foot work that I need to practice. Funny about the stock shifter. Most complain about imprecision & missing gears. I had no problem with that. I didn't like the long throws.The throw from 1st to 2nd took too much effort. Got worse under hard acceleration. I don't miss it.

 

Practice makes perfect!

If you keep at it, you'll be able to eventually perfectly match your RPMs and achieve perfect downshifts (and have a helluva lot of fun doing it!).

 

Can't exactly say I'm gettin' killed in my '04 M6 but I've been passed a few times when I didn't want to. The GTO aint the trouble, Its me. I know many times called for the old patented 5-3 down-shift. I'm just too scared to do it at highway speeds. I'm expecting a big Thud, Clank & Nosedive if I get it wrong. So how do you do a smooth 5-3 ???? Thanks.

Red line is 88mph in 3rd. Make sure you are below 80 and you are good. My advice, anything under 80mph, drop that biatch! I do it all the time. Puts the car in the max power curve and allows you to take advantage of ALL the HP!

 

I'm pretty new to the M6 as well, so I understand were your coming from. And yes, I've dropped down a few gears and didn't rev match quite correctly. It will jerk you from behind, but nope the tranny didn't explode (yet..). And yes, you'll feel really stupid but just as soon as you hammer the gas and grab the next gear up, your over it and prolly won't make that mistake again. Remeber, if you gonna mis-match, better to rev too high than too low.

P.S. I just came back from my first 5 hr road trip in the Goat this week. Purposely drove about 80 mi out of the way just to get on long stretch of 2 lane roads. Lots of good practice and fun going 6-4, 5-3 down shifts. Even more SEG... Still need more practice or just a reason to more burn 93 octane...

 

This is my first manual transmission car.. only driven a few at the dealership when I was 16 (6 years ago) for maybe 10 minutes total. I probably made my dealer shit himself when I took it for a test drive, I eventually just let him drive it for me. I even had them drive it home for me since there was 1 of me and 2 cars.

The first couple days I was scared of stoplights and stalled at about 1/4 of them. This is my second week with the gto and rarely stall it, I even drive it in rush hour on nice days. 1st to 2nd can still a bit wierd...

I am wanting to learn some of the tricks and this thread is going to help with my downshifting. Now I want to learn more about launching

 

Hey,
STI, Pulse, Raider & Zenith. Thanks to all of you. I'll get it for sure now. Just one more fear to be addressed. Since I'm practicing to match revs, sometimes I'll be close to red line with no load on the engine, for a split sec... right?
How does she like that? Regards, Vinny

 

Hey,
STI, Pulse, Raider & Zenith. Thanks to all of you. I'll get it for sure now. Just one more fear to be addressed. Since I'm practicing to match revs, sometimes I'll be close to red line with no load on the engine, for a split sec... right?
How does she like that? Regards, Vinny

Won't hurt it. It's like revving your engine in neutral at a stop light.

 

Won't hurt it. It's like revving your engine in neutral at a stop light.

Ok Man, Time to let 'er rip. Thanks for the info.