Downshifting

I would try to step this conversation up, but it is clear to me that I have been defeeted....

Pat

I know it sounds bad, but in truth it works with remarkably little drama. Give it a try sometime.

Well, 95% of cars here in the UK are manual (only old boring company execs drive automatics), so I feel qualified to comment.

Downshifting - yes, you need to keep the engine in a rev range it's happy with.

Double-declutching - on an MX-5, just for show. Sometimes it helps when getting from 2nd to 1st when the box is cold. Makes a good noise though, when you do it right.

Try coming at it from another ankle... You're bound toenail it.

I'll give a try, I am just afraid that someone is going to sock it to us if we don't stop.....

Pat

Just shoe 'em the door. But tread lightly so you don't make 'em mad enough to lace you out...

You guys just might get booted... ;-)

By your arch rival? Perhaps you should approach it from a different ankle.

I love getting a downshift just right. Say you have a hill coming up and you want to go from fifth to fourth, you give the throttle a little nudge and you're doing exactly the same speed, only at higher revs. It's one of those satisfying little things that never fails to put a smile on my face.

I've been trying to do the heel-and-toe thing, but I think my feet are the wrong size for the pedals.

No.

I read that in Europe it's 80/20 in favor of standards, and 20/80 here. I don't understand why this is.

Don't think "heel-toe" so much as ball-of-big-toe-on-brake-edge-of-foot-towards-heel-on-accelerator

Same here. Every car I've tried it in I have the same problem: The pedals are too close together, so I can't actually mash "just one or the other" - Trying to mash one invariably mashes the other, no matter how I position my foot.

Americans are lazy. (says an American)

Personally, if I've got the option, I'll take a stick over a slushbox EVERY time. Just something about the added level of power control available when you're the one choosing the gear/rev/groundspeed combination. (Yeah, yeah, I know... modern automatics are supposedly more efficient, do it better, yadda-yadda-yadda. You think so? That's nice. You drive 'em. I'm the brains of the operation.)

Then there's the "fun" of coming up to a stop sign in a borrowed automatic, forgetting it IS an automatic, and out of 20-odd years of stick-driving habit, coming off the gas and mashing the clutch pedal (which is, of course, actually the left end of the triple-sized brake pedal) to the floor as you reach for the nonexistent stick for the downshift... AUGH!!! No matter how loudly I tell myself "remember it isn't a stick, stupid!" it happens to me at least once every friggin' time I get in an automatic.

It may seem callus, but I've toed you guys a dozen times that he's a heel. He's so corny it's like he was from a different pronation. If it bothers you that much, call a flatfoot.

-- Larry

For some reason I don't often try to step on the clutch pedal that isn't there when driving an auto, but I often reach for the stick that isn't there as I come to a stop.

Obviously, you can operate the brake pedal without hitting the accelerator for normal braking operations, yes?

So...

Place your foot so that it is on the brake pedal as you would for normal use. Now, move it slightly to the right and rotate it counter clockwise, so that you end up with the ball of your foot still on the brake pedal, but the right edge of your foot just over the accelerator (near the heel, but you're not actually trying to get the heel squarely over it).

You should now be able to apply all the necessary force to the brake pedal and by "rolling" your foot, use the edge of your foot to blip the accelerator.

Holy crap! I am sidling out of this thread right now. You win Larry.

Pat

Well, how would you like it if the shoe was on the other foot?!

Ready to stand on the shoulders of giants then, Pat?

Yeesh... talk about kicking a guy when he's down...

pws wrote in news:iwV2h.4133$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.texas.rr.com:

Good move, in the words of the great philosopher, Lt. Harry Calahan, "A man's gotta know his limitations."