get better shifter bushings.. and practice.

You cant rightly compare yourself or any of the rest of us average slobs to a professional race driver. Thats all these guys do all day every day is drive. They could probably shift a old air cooled vw bus faster than most of us could shift our daily driver. *shrug* just the way it is mang.

I dont know how long you've been driving stick though.. practice makes perfect. Concentrate on being smooth, smooth is fast. Dont just slam from gear to gear, that'll just damage the transmission.

Remember too that the trans in the sti and the viper are not anywhere near the same beast that's in your wrx. The wrx is a little less apt to slam gear to gear like the more abuse ready competition style trans are in the sti (6mt) and the viper (T56). Those two trans are meant to be hammered on... your 5mt really isn't. We have longer ratios that require the engine rpm to vary a bit more between shifts. The closer the ratios the quicker the gear can be changed because the internals of the trans aren't making a huge jump or drop in speed like they do in trans with gear ratios that are farther apart.

 

Mangostick,

You're always this fast! Man I'm impressed!! Now back to our discussion...

I've been driving manual for nearly 10 years now, and I'd think I'm a better-than-average stick "daily" driver (it's daily driving since I never raced or plan to race). So I never slammed the gear as I do care the transmission. I was just wondering how they did it, and if they were slamming it or not. Sounds like it was practice + brute force...

I used to drive an RX8, and was also kind of slow on 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th as well. Any tips for these transitions?

Thanks again!

 

eh? fast.. nah man I just happened to sign on and saw a post I thought I'd comment on lol...

As for shifting, I watched both vids and to be honest I dont shift much slower than they do.. its not a matter of brute force, but finesse and coordination. Yes a shift should be firm but you def dont want to force it into gear. You've been driving stick long enough to know that much though

I think its more practice in timing the events that need to happen to make the car glide gear to gear while wasting as little time as possible. Anyone who's ridden with me will tell you that I waste no time between gears but.. I'm def no pro either so I wont even make that comparison.

I have some in-car vid of some playful driving around town.. lemme see if I can find it and I'll post it if I do. See how I compare

 

Have you changed your tranny fluid?

 

Short throw shifters can help, and especially stronger bushings, but as Mango said, practice makes perfect.

The more you drive your car, you'll start to learn where the RPM sweet spot is for each gear. Once in the zone, shifts will come quickly and smoothly, it just takes practice.

I definitely recommend looking into some shifter bushings. Those will help you feel each gate much better, and are cheap and easy to install. After that, drive your car for a while, and if you still want more, you can look at a short throw shifter, but I wouldn't jump directly to that right away.

 

mentioned he's already got the factory short throw.. should be fine with just bushings. I'm working on uploading a vid I took last xmas or so.. I'll post once I have it ready.

As for fluid.. that will help. I didn't change mine until the factory required 60K mi.. and its a huge difference in smooth.. get the break in fluid out of there and put good quality synthetic stuff in.. it does make a difference.

 

The OP is asking how to shift like Tommi Makinen, who has been World Rallye Champion four times and has won over twenty WRC events. His father has won the 1000 Lakes and the RAC repeatedly.

It's not the parts used. Fluids and bushings and anything you can buy will not be much help.

What will work is saving that money and using it on tuition. Follow the link, and look at the second row of thumbnails on the left. Makinen has a rallye school.

http://www.tommimakinen.net/

 

Does his school teach how to miss a downshift? Like the one in the vid where he tries to dive into 2nd and over-revs the car? Granted his recovery into 3rd and acceleration out of the turn was very skillful..

even pro's make mistakes.. this is why I mentioned practice as the key to better shifting.

 

You should see how good ge us at hitting a cow at full song on a stage. Both the Lancer and the cow were dispatched. Good times.

 

lol,I remember that one .

OP,let's face it,the bushings & short shifter & tune may help,but none of us will ever shift as fast as Tommi Makinen.

 

Just practice. I used to **** my car pretty slowly, but after a while you get a feel for it. This is not my first manual car, but it just takes time to feel confident shifting quickly.

 

Ahhh folks, just to clarify. I wasn't trying to be as good as those pro drivers. I was just wondering if they had anything special such as special shifter etc. it was just curiosity.

Now back to the topic, I appreciate all the info on the bushings and the fluid. Will definitely try that out. Also, mangostick, I'm looking forward to your videos!

 

After watching some in-cabin professional driving clips online, such the WRX STI sedan setting the lap record at the Nurburgring one, I noticed that those drivers could change gear (for instance, up shift) very quickly in just one motion, rather than the two-stop motion that I have every day: stop at neutral, and then go into the next gear.

I don't understand what you mean when you say you're stopping in neutral. Changing gears should be one fluid motion with no stops.

Race cars generally have a sequential gearbox which shifts much faster than the H patterns shifters you find in cars you buy at a car dealer.

 

I was referring to the small lateral movements between gears, especially for gears from 2 to 3, and 4 to 5. But the videos I referred to seem to be song production cars with H pattern shifters, which is why I asked if there's anything that could cause that difference.

 

I honestly don't really notice the lateral movement when shifting. I guess it comes down to practice, practice, and more practice. The RPM falls slower in these cars than I can shift between gears anyway. I usually have to do a split second pause when shifting or else I end up over-revved for the gear I'm shifting to.

 

Decades of world class skill, camera angle, and I speculate Subaru's shortest available shifter. Item 1 is all the money though, and it can't be retrofitted.

 

SD_GR: So Subaru has several OEM short throw shifter then? The current OEM short throw that I have isn't that short. So maybe down the road I'll replace it with a better one. But of course I'll replace all the bushings and see what happens.

 

I think the widely available short throw for the 6spd uses the same lever action as what privateers use for GrN. Bushings do make a difference and for those you can shop around.

 

I have the kartboy shifter and bushings

here's vid as promised. Its longish (not edited) but the points to watch are 1:38, 2:05, 3:45 and 7:30.

you can watch all of it but my trip to home depot I'm sure is not that interesting. I have another vid that showcases shifting/acceleration better but its too long and no place will let me upload it... I was upset too because that one has much better cam angle on the shifting.

Again though, I'm no pro.. wouldn't ever consider myself close to pro skill.. just a normal joe with a manual trans car. Thats my disclaimer and I'm stickin to it

 

you can watch all of it but my trip to home depot I'm sure is not that interesting.

Oh, don't say that, I can spend hours in there. Thanks for the follow-up and info.

 

I flubbed a shift last week from 1st to 2nd. I was accelerating hard, and felt like a fool. How the heck do you screw up a shift like that? I blamed the bad shift on the crappy, notchy feeling using OEM bushings. (note: I assume these are the non-SPT bushings. When I bought the car, I ordered the STS, but didn't specify the bushings [I didn't know there was an option].)

So, enter the newb questions: Why are the stock bushings crap? How are aftermarket better? (compounds? design?) I'd hate to spend a few hours tearing my car apart to install aftermarket bushings, if there really isn't a difference.

 

They are urethane bushings instead of soft rubber so it gives you a more precise feel going into gear. You WILL notice a difference.

If you need them let me know.

 

Like Kronos said better material.Once you take off the OEM bushings you will know why the aftermarket ones are better.Mine looked like crap with just about 3k miles on them.

And you don't have to tear apart the car.

 

LOL, speaking as a bugeye owner, I don't shift fast. I don't race, and I'm not in such a hurry that I can't wait a split second for my next gear. No point putting additional stress on what is already the weakest link in my powertrain.

 

I have PPGs and the ability to flat foot if I want. I slam the gears harder than you slam your gf at night. I roll through school zones shifting as fast as I can into my money gears. I'm so fast not even light can catch me. I don't miss shifts because I'm the most bad ass mofo around. Try and catch me. Get an SMG if you want fast shifts.

 

holy CLAMF...:rotfl:

 

It doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile, Mike...winning's winning.

 

Paul Walker is teh bestest actor of all time!!1!

 

I live my life a quarter mile at a time!!!!!

 

I've found this to be the same way in my 2011 WRX. Like if im completely stopped and i just put the stick into 2nd, i can easily get that straight 'diagonal' like shift to 3rd, same thing with 4th to 5th. But when I'm actually driving the car, whether it be just DD or when I'm WOT, I find it impossible to shift the same way and cannot get that same straight diagonal shift, have never once been able to do it when actually driving and it frustrates me! haha I know even with shifting regularly I still shift faster than the RPM's drop but still, I want to be able to do that nice clean and crisp shift in one fluid motion, not the up and over and up.

Already got the SPT SS and the SPT shifter bushing, ordered the Kartboy rear shifter bushing and when I get the car in next I'll put in some synthetic Trans fluid. Is there any harm in using the synthetic fluid or should I not use it until XXXXX miles?? ROUghly 15K miles on the car now.