Sometimes my gear transitions are smooth as butta; others, not so much. A lot of times I feel a "notch" in between gears, and I can't seem to isolate a problem with my driving. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? Does anyone at least know what I'm referring to?

 

Yeah I know what you are talking about, there are a few threads on here about it too. SOme say after it gets broke in pretty good it goes away. I hope so cause it sure is annoying.

 

yeah I get that problem too. makes me paranoid cause I keep thinking that my clutch isn't all the way down.

 

Don't get paranoid, just do a double hitch shift. Clutch to the floor, shift to neutral, pause for a split second, shift into the next gear. Easy, just like I did on my first sports car, 1965 TR4 and my last one, 1991 MR2T. Mechanical linkages are often like that, its not a flaw, its just a mechanical linkage, not a cable linkage.

 

Boomer is right, the Z is much more sensitive to shifting, especially first gear and down shifting, make sure you get your RPMs at the speed they would be at in that gear. The 350 is not forgiving like most manuals are. Older sports cars you had to leard to double clutch and toe-heal shift, or at least when down shifting rev the throuttle to the propper RPM then drop it in gear. I can **** butter smooth up and down with no clutch feather and no grabbing and don't feel a bit of syncros... but if I don't rev to the propper rpm, or wait until the rpms drop when upshifting, it will grab, or I'll feel the gears. This is a tight tranny and clutch. Many people I've been with try to shift too fast, and get to the next gear before the rpms are down enough... the vehicle will grab (also called wheel lock) and you will upset the wait ballance of the chassis, tire contact will be off, and you will actually reduce the performance of whatever you're doing. Everyone that hasn't seriously driven high performance sports cars or old ones, should do a search for double clutching and heel toe shifting. This will explain the importance for your tranny, clutch, performance and overall enjoyment.

 

Can you go a little more in depth on this? It makes me wonder if I'm doing it. I don't push to redline or anything, but every now and then I just floor it until I hit 5k rpm and then go into the next gear... but these transitions are never smooth. Still, mentally it makes sense to immediately go into the next gear because I want to keep accelerating, but if I'm looking for quick acceleration *and* smoothness, I should clutch in, go to neutral, clutch out... clutch in, get into next gear, clutch out, gas???

Lemme summarize: what's the best way to accelerate quickly and maintain smooth gear shifts?