Strugeling 1st gear!!??

[advocate]

It's hard to get ANY manual car into first gear while still moving. This is just because there is so much power in first they don't want to car jerking to a stop when you down shift into it from 2nd.

To fix this, slam the gas while the car is in neutral to match the revs and then throw it into first as fast as you can and let go of the clutch. The idea is to get the RPMs at neutral to what they would be had you down shifted straight into first, right before you try and throw it into 1st. This, in essence, matches the engine's speed to the car's speed and makes for a clean shift.

I've done this a handful of times but I'm still not that great at it. It's easy to overrev and get a bit of burnout when you do this or underrev and get a bit of car jerk.

Good luck!

[schleppy]

Originally Posted by advocate

It's hard to get ANY manual car into first gear while still moving. This is just because there is so much power in first they don't want to car jerking to a stop when you down shift into it from 2nd.

To fix this, slam the gas while the car is in neutral to match the revs and then throw it into first as fast as you can and let go of the clutch. The idea is to get the RPMs at neutral to what they would be had you down shifted straight into first, right before you try and throw it into 1st. This, in essence, matches the engine's speed to the car's speed and makes for a clean shift.

I've done this a handful of times but I'm still not that great at it. It's easy to overrev and get a bit of burnout when you do this or underrev and get a bit of car jerk.

Good luck!

While your intentions with this advice are good, nobody should be slamming anything. What you're trying to tell him to do is to rev-match the shift down to 1st. And while this does work you need to be very smooth when you do it. Don't slam anything.