Changing down gears smoothly in a manual car

did my first lesson today.. havnt got to the point where i need to exceed 1st gear.. so this helps

This is actually the greatest explanation video on manual driving I’ve ever seen

I wanted to teally thank you for the helpful tutorial I am currently new to gear shifting and really needed to know how to downshift properly.

You helped me alot

I had a driving lesson today and used your tips to help make my gear change going down smoother and it worked my instructor even said she noticed and was pleased so thanks for this video as it helped me a lot.

I've been driving with family for about a year but only recently started proper lessons with an instructor and she's teaching the opposite of what you (and all my friends and family) say. She considers what you're calling rev matching when downshifting to be riding the clutch and won't allow me to do it in her car. I have my own manual which I have driven for 15-20 hours using the same method you use and it is (mostly) smooth, plus I have another 50+ or so hours in an automatic, so I'm pretty (over) confident on the road yet I can't stand driving with my instructor because nothing makes sense with her.

She specifically told me not to leave the clutch on the bite point when downshifting. She said ignore the tach and it's all about the speed of the car. When downshifting she's always stating "off the clutch! off the brake!" and blames any jerkiness on coming off the brakes half a second before the clutch which she says adds revs to the engine. I don't see how half a second of coasting on a flat could add significant revs and I don't understand why she even wants me off the brakes in the first place if we're slowing for a turn or stop. The more I try to do what she says the jerkier I get. When I trial and error in my own car I can only get her method to work at very low speeds, e.g. to shift to 2nd I'd need to brake to 10mph rather than 20mph.

Meanwhile she also wants me to sit on the bite point for 5-10 seconds to be ready to go at lights, doesn't care whether or not I shift to neutral when stopped for minutes, and says clutch before gas when setting off. From what I understand, half a second on the bite point while downshifting is nothing compared to these things so I don't understand what she is concerned about.

She has excellent reviews and 10+ years experience as an instructor. None of this adds up to me. Is it a case of different driving styles?

When I’m in gear 2 and I slow down a bit and downshift to gear 1, the car is on the high side of the speed and revs for that gear so around 11mph. And when I bring the clutch up there is a of a jerk. How i avoid that is by braking until around 6/7mph then fully coming off the clutch. But my instructor said you can downshift and come off the clutch even if you are on the high side so still around 10/11mph and slowly, smoothly come off. Is this correct and will that prevent the jerk?

Some nice looking shoes.

A few months ago I tried learning manual in my uncles Hyundai commercial van with a diesel engine and my dumbass thought it would be a good idea to downshift by Rev matching just after 3 minutes of driving a vehicle with a manual gearbox for the very first time, I over revved the shit out of the poor van lol

Now revmatch and double clutch from 1800 in 6th to 4500 in 3rd to hit 80 mph on the highway.

I have a bad habit of always having my right foot on the brake at the same time I have my left foot on the clutch to change gears whilst turning left or right onto a junction

You are the best teacher. Am from zambia have been watching your videos for 15 days now and today i just passed my test. All thanks to you 🙏🙏🙏🙏🤝

This was the most informative video on driving I've seen in awhile. I promise you my driving instructor explained non of this.

thank you🤍🤍

Hello everyone! I know this is late but I would like to ask for advices as someone who is on their third practice session before taking the driving test.
Your guidance and advice may help me calm down my instructor and hopefully stop her from yelling at me for every mistakes that I do.

For my first one, I would like to ask on what to do when approaching a stop light.
The approach that I have done without issue is to clutch/break, and then gear to neutral.
However, I would like to ask for help on situations where you are now stopping but the light suddenly turn to green.

I encounter this situation earlier, and got yelled for the car kangaroo-ing before it stalling.
This was my approach, I entered the traffic light with gear 2, clutch/breaking. As I approached it, the light turned green. I then hit the gas but the car kangarood and stalled.
I would like some advices on how to prevent this from happening.

For my second one, I would like to ask on what is the right approach when approaching a curve. My approach was to just work with the break pedal and control the momentum with it. However, my instructor does not like this, and requested me to just clutch, and then break if needed.

This then leads to my third one, when should I release the clutch when I am curving? I followed the instructor's approach, however the car started to jerk. I was pressing on full clutch during the curve. When the curve is done, I then try to find the biting point before gasing and releasing the clutch fully. This then leads to the car jerking and then sometimes stalling.

For my forth question, what should be the procedure when i want to quickly move (e.g. when the traffic turned green)

My approach for this is to clutch, switch to gear 1, find the biting point, and then gas. I tried following the video where I need to add gas before finding the bite point so that I can accelerate faster, but my instructor does not like this.

Hence all I can do is to find the biting point, wait for it to move, and then gas. However, I need some guidance with this, because whenever the car is starting to move, I waited for a while before I press on the gas, which leads to the car stalling.

For my fifth one, how do I start the car without it jerking or kangarooing? (without adding gas)

Sorry if this post is too much to go through, but any help on how to deal with this will be appreciated, thanks!

Thanks

Laughed so much when you destroyed that seat LMAOOOO!

But is it okay to leave your leg in the accelerator while you press the clutch?

I've been driving for almost 30ish years from MT to AT back to MT & I have to say your video helps me aaalot especially this. 👍

I just got my first manual(2011 audi s5), most of the time when I downshift it jerks me around. I also try rev matching every time I downshift. But I don’t dump the clutch like you, is that what I’m doing wrong?

I've binged watch your videos Rich and they're incredibly helpful to me. You're answering a lot of questions that I have not been able to ask my previous instructors.

I do understand what you mean in a driving situation but the numbers you are calling sounds too technical for most learners.Could you break it down in simple terms

Hey, I love your videos and learn so much from them. I just have one request, is there any chance that in future videos you might include km/h as on screen notes when mentioning speed? I'm learning in Ireland and it'd be really helpful but has never been a deal breaker for watching your vids 😅

Is it weird that my upshifts are way less smooth than my downshifts? I can rev match pretty well but always fuck up the upshifts lol.

So what if you blip and/or hold the gas THEN clutch slowly at the bite point? Im just thinking because i find it so hard for my ankle to get that rolling motion while braking and my brain is focusing on so much as things at once. I know its no recommended for beginners but i feel like itd be nice to practice early. I do end up panic if im going fast

Do you not have a video on Overtaking?

Started driving for the first time yesterday. You have no idea how much your videos have explained to me how to drive smoother.

"Oh excuse me, Please change, I'm vibrating a little bit because you've selected the wrong gear!"

"5TH!! 5TH!! NOOOO!! SELECT 3RD!!"

I'm done. Comedy gold

The only cars that don’t have tachometers are cars that are so cheap that they don’t include it or cars that think they’re too luxurious to include one

Great teacher

Very useful sir.

Mate i drive manuel diesel Reno Clio 1.5 dci 2007 and it its for me pretty unique car cus its starts so fast and can go uphil on just clutch alone.

What i want to ask you my car never responded good when i try to hold it for 3-4 seconds on biting point when i want to move the car in first also when i go from 3 to 2 i lt usually jerks when i hold the clutch longer....i started driving 4 months ago after long break.

Any tip...i used to drive petrol car much smoother few years ago tho

nice shoes man

I've watched many videos of this channel. this is the first time commenting.. Thank you for the all wisdom you give. You are a blessing to the mankind ❤

On the "which gear to choose at what speed" thing... you sort of get a feel for it. Some cars have very short gears (and no power), and some cars have very long gears. You spot that sort of thing within a few minutes when you go for a drive.

You also find the power band pretty quickly once you hit a big road with a higher limit.

The "appropriate" gear is never a hard and fast rule, it always depends on what the car is doing, what the engine is doing and what you're doing. For instance, on my bike (which has a close-ratio gearbox, and the gears are pretty long) can chill in 6th at 40mph on a flat road all day. But that doesn't really give me any power headroom, so it's better to be in 5th unless I'm the only one on that road, it's going to stay flat and the limit isn't about to change. Going downhill, 6th is just fine, but going uphill needs 5th, or if it's particularly steep - 4th. This is down to the amount of power needed and making sure the engine isn't excessively laboured at low rpm. You should always let your engine rev if you need the power, but there's no point in doing that if you don't.

A contrast case to this would be an old diesel I used to drive. 40mph - 4th gear. If you need power, there's a turbo. If you don't - just let it sit there, because going to 5th at that point would lug the engine. That's what you get with short, sparse gears and engines with narrower operating bands.

Even with a wide operating band, like every chav's favourite 1l Corsa, it's not necessarily a good idea to follow the green shift light at all times. Sure, it can sit in 5th doing 30 on a flat road, but as soon as you hit nationals, you have to go down to 3rd, else you're not going anywhere fast.

I find that in most petrol cars, just blipping the throttle and smoothly easing off the clutch smooths up downshifts a whole lot. It's not a precise rev match by any stretch of the imagination, but it's done 90% of the job, so the rest is easy to smooth up.

Hopefully this will help me. I'm pretty new to driving even though I passed my test in 2012. I haven't driven much since then. One problem I seem to have is changing down gears. When i change down gears, my car slow right down (engine braking?, I jolt forward quite a lot, even though I do change to correct gear and bring the clutch up slow, I slow right down. I don't hold the clutch at the bite point until revs rise again, so maybe this will help me?

I just shift to neutral a lot of the times especially in higher gears.

I like your videos👍

Watching revs amongst everything else is rubbish changing down is practice until perfect i really wont be watching anymore of your stuff

Thank you so much, i am learning to drive , i haven't been instructed that well in shifting gears down and it makes me anxious driving. Awesome explanation.

I’m nervous about getting close to 1k RPM because isn’t that stalling territory? I’m worried I may not act quickly enough

Thank you so much but plz make video of clutch control on humps or speed bumps

Great lesson! But I have got a genuine question. When downshifting if we are not careful with the release of the clutch, will it hurt the engine. I know there is jerkiness but is it harmful to engine or transmission?