Meh, I decided to go with another pic instead

 

Shifting up lowers your rpms. When you press on accelerator, your rpms go up along with your speed. Your rpms are limited at 9000 rpm. Typically, you would up-shift at around 4000rpms so you can continue to accelerate to higher speeds. For example:

1st gear: shift up at 15mph
2nd gear: shift up at 25mph
3rd gear: shift up at 35mph
etc

Downshifting gets your RPMs up so you can accelerate faster. For example, if you're in 6th gear cruising at 3000 rpms at about 60mph and you want to accelerate as fast as possible, you can downshift into 3rd gear so your rpms jump up to about 7500 rpms. The rx8's 'sweetspot' for acceleration is around 5500-7500 rpms.

edit: I also didn't understand what downshifting was for when I was learning. It'll become apparent once you know how to drive.

 

Nice choice in pic

Oh and thanks for the explaination on the whole downshifting thing. Sounds fun!

 

Here's the deal: Shifting up is what you do *after* you are going faster. That is, when you are in gear n and you have accelerated enough that the revs are higher than you want (reasons might be fuel economy or hitting the redline), at that point you change to gear n+1.

Now, in general, you can go faster in gear n just by giving it more gas, of course. But if you want to go faster *faster*, then downshifting to gear n-1 will help with that. Your revs will suddenly be much higher, but the engine will still have an easier time pushing the car in the lower gear, which will give you more acceleration. Of course once you've accelerated to the higher speed you wanted, you'll want to upshift back up.

If you've ever ridden a bicycle with gears, this is easy to understand. Say you're on a 5 speed bike, in 5th gear, casually lolling along. The pedals are relatively hard to push in that gear, but each push moves you along nicely, so as long as you aren't accelerating it's not a problem. But if you suddenly wanted to speed up, you might drop down to 4th, where you'd have to pedal faster, but each pedal is easier, so it's easier to speed up.

Note that automatics play this same game. If you floor it in an automatic, the transmission goes into "passing gear", which is really just a downshift to accomplish the same thing. You can hear the engine turning faster as you suddenly get that burst of acceleration.

Krankor
05 Shinka 6MT

 

Yuh, I wonder what I said.

 

Here's my suggestion. Go to the West section of this forum. Start a thread asking for some help with learning a stick. Here's the critical step: Convince everyone that your avatar is a picture of you. You will get dozens of offers to help from all the young single males on the forum.

 

hahaha that sounds like a great plan. It probabl would work too!

But then what man in his sane mind would not know who Jessica is?

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

OH. Almost forgot, buy the velocity red if you have the choice

 

Haha. Actually I was thinking of BB.

 

:raises hand.

Jessica who?

 

Definitely go with the stick. 40 miles is not that much Here's my experience...

- Test drove 8 as my first ever MT experience, stalled a lot, summer '04
- Share-rented a Miata MT for a day in spring '05, stalled quite a bit, 3 hours stick experience total so far
- Bought RX-8 a few weeks back in Philly, I live in CT so about a 200 mile ( ) drive in the rain, mostly highway. Stalled a few times but mainly silly stuff like trying to find reverse and starting in 6th, not remembering to go back to 1st while busy with the toll booth etc.

So basically I was rusty because I practiced very rarely before now and couldn't afford the 8 yet but like some posters said you'll pick it up in no time and a couple tries during bad traffic will turn you into a pro.

I know the silly stalls were gone before a week was over other than the ocassional, got too nervous on a hill or didn't clutch in fast enough on reverse.

After 7 weeks I still think about certain things but I'm so smooth none of my friends can tell I'm a newbie. You can barely feel any gears except maybe 1st-2nd sometimes :D Up here in the north-east I also have a winter beater Toyota so I did not get daily practice by any means.

 

I`m not suprised the dealership won`t give you a quick MT lesson because they probably don`t want to face any possible liability. Just imagine, sales guy shows you the ropes. You are still a bit nervous but get the car out on the road...something happens with your clutch control and you ram some poor persons rear bumper. You could possibly file suit against the dealer if you or anyone esle got injured.

Anyway, like previous thread says, i`d seriously check out the yellow pages and find a driving instructor who can take a little bit of caring time with you to show you how to operate the car. Just one thing - if you do this, please ensure they show you how to do forwards and reverse hill starts.

Good luck - when you get used to your MT, you`ll find you have an awesome gearbox and loads of fun!!

 

Would it be possible for me to break my tranny and clutch while tryign to learn in the 8? If so, does mazda cover them under warranty?