6MT accelerating from a red light

[solman]

I have experienced numerous scary moments when being first in line at a red light. When the light turns green I take off and shift to 2nd gear at around 3000rpm. There is always a slight lag in acceleration from first to second gear, this is a normal occurrence for me in a standard shift vehicle.
At times there can be a super aggressive driver behind me that nearly rear ends my car or wants to drive over me as I make the shift and resume acceleration. I live in central NJ which is pretty congested and find this happens all to often for my peace of mind. Even pushing to a higher rpm for the first shift doesn't seem to help me much.
I wonder if I am alone in finding myself in this situation or perhaps others find this happens to them as well.
Not sure if there is much I can do to alleviate this situation but perhaps others have a suggestion or two as to what they do.

 

[DaNuKidd]

The delay is the motor rocking back and forth in between shifts when I installed my hasport rear motor mount the 1-2 shift is so much smoother and quicker.

 

[solman]

The delay is the motor rocking back and forth in between shifts when I installed my hasport rear motor mount the 1-2 shift is so much smoother and quicker.

I had read somewhere in this forum that the stout rear mount makes the low rpms a bit harsh, do you find this to be the case?

 

[DaNuKidd]

I had read somewhere in this forum that the stout rear mount makes the low rpms a bit harsh, do you find this to be the case?

Yea it’s slightly annoying but considering the short gearing on the 6MT once you’re at cruising speeds you don’t even notice it. The harshest vibrations are from idle to about 1500rpms. I have considered replacing my hasport mount with the PRL mount. I will keep the forum updated if I go that route.

 

[BKK Jack]

Accelerate away a little slower, the "pause" between shifts will be less and Spunky McJackrabbit will be going slower, too.

 

[KiloFTW]

A smooth shift into 2nd has been the hardest part of learning this MT.

In this scenario, I’d recommend the comment above about slower acceleration and shifting into 2nd ar a lower rpm. Comfort mode helps me keep the rpms down. This may not help when merging into higher speed traffic.

More of a side comment, but funny that you mention 3000 rpm. When I need to launch the car a little faster, I try to wait for the rev hang (I think) to dip from 3000 to like 2100 to get a smoother shift into 2nd. I don’t think that’ll help if someone is on your tail though.

 

[lunchbox]

If I'm understanding the issue, I have experienced it a couple times and it's just throttle/clutch timing. Are you giving it some throttle and slipping the clutch a bit after shifting? Since you still don't have much momentum yet at 3k in 1st and these are tiny engines with low inertia, you need to add some torque with the throttle while easing the clutch in so the RPM doesn't drop so much causing the engine to bog. Careful not to get into too much boost tho and over power the clutch. I struggle with that for sure haha.

But yeah, if you're just going up 3k in 1st > clutch in > shift to 2nd > clutch out > throttle in a step-by-step manner, it's going to drag the rpm down when you let the clutch out, have zero torque/boost, and then take time to build all of that up again before it gets you accelerating again.

Higher RPM should be helping you. Try light throttle up to 4-4.5k in first. Doing that will give you more torque once you're engaged in 2nd and make the engine less reliant on boost giving you more predictable acceleration. Also, keep it in normal mode. Comfort makes the throttle too lazy for city driving. It's really only useful on the freeway.

Hope that helps and not too confusing! Took me a little bit to get used to shifting this thing too, but you'll get it eventually.

 

[solman]

Lunchbox thanks for your suggestion and comments.
Do you mean to shift at 4000-4500 rpm or rev up to that between the shifts>

I don't slip the clutch between gears and Didn't think anyone else did this either. My comfort level for general driving is shifting at around 3000 rpm, I am retired and in not that much in a rush. I can go higher no problem bit I never know who is behind me, if they are a jackrabbit driver or not.

 

[submitaweasel]

Lunchbox thanks for your suggestion and comments.
Do you mean to shift at 4000-4500 rpm or rev up to that between the shifts>

I don't slip the clutch between gears and Didn't think anyone else did this either. My comfort level for general driving is shifting at around 3000 rpm, I am retired and in not that much in a rush. I can go higher no problem bit I never know who is behind me, if they are a jackrabbit driver or not.

With the rev hang on these cars you have option 1: get rear ended by someone texting their way down the road behind you when shifting.

Or option 2: excessive clutch wear by slipping the clutch into 2nd and 3rd. The remaining 3 gears have close enough ratios and the car has enough speed that you're generally in the clear.

I switch between these depending on traffic flow. (Or I did in the <2mo the car was in my possession.)

 

[BKK Jack]

You could also speed up your shifts a little and make them smoother.

Put a little pressure on the shifter in the direction you want it to go before engaging the clutch. The shifter will flick into the next gear as soon as the clutch is engaged enough to take the pressure off the transmission - well before the pedal bottoms out. As soon as that happens, let off the clutch while adding throttle and off you go.

Waiting until the clutch pedal is fully depressed before shifting wastes time and momentum.

 

[Escobar929]

maybe its because I mastered driving manuals cars in shitty Nissan transmissions, that I dont have any problems shifting into 2nd w/ this car. Its smooth and quick and only if I'm driving it hard that the rev hang seems to be a problem.

there are a lot of good suggestions on here though

 

[SKL]

You could also speed up your shifts a little and make them smoother.

Put a little pressure on the shifter in the direction you want it to go before engaging the clutch. The shifter will flick into the next gear as soon as the clutch is engaged enough to take the pressure off the transmission - well before the pedal bottoms out. As soon as that happens, let off the clutch while adding throttle and off you go.

Waiting until the clutch pedal is fully depressed before shifting wastes time and momentum.

This is it. Just gotta find that point that lets the gear in without grinding. It also helps if you've got a heavier shiftknob.
I don't recall ever having to depressed the clutch fully for shifting in my past vehicles (5G Prelude, 3G TL, Bugeye WRX)

 

[solman]

Just to clarify I don't have any problem shifting into second gear. There is however a normal acceleration lag when you shift and its at this point where an aggressive driver runs up on your tail. When it comes to people with a heavy foot They follow too close to begin with and then almost rear end you.

 

[A3REDT]

Manuals are always going to have a break in acceleration due to the shift that modern automatics have essentially eliminated, not to mention EVs. It's especially noticeable during the 1>2 shift, as many others here have pointed out. The only way I can think of that the Integra makes this worse than any other car is the extremely short 1st gear. The only way you're going to fix that is by starting in 2nd, which is certainly possible in these cars when not on an incline.

Personally, I live with the pause in acceleration because I enjoy driving a manual transmission, and I can confidently say that I've never heard of anyone being rear ended during a normal shift in a manual car.

 

[SKL]

Just to clarify I don't have any problem shifting into second gear. There is however a normal acceleration lag when you shift and its at this point where an aggressive driver runs up on your tail. When it comes to people with a heavy foot They follow too close to begin with and then almost rear end you.

I will usually start off pretty slow in 1st gear, shift to 2nd relatively quickly then take off from there. I'd like to think this lets the driver behind me know that I was not planning on accelerating quickly. If there's an incline, I'll always roll back a little before the green as to say 'back off' especially if he/she is closer than I'd like.

If the driver behind me insists on being aggressive, this will only cause me to accelerate slower and if he/she hits me that'll be on them.
Yes, it's a bit passive aggressive but after years of driving an auto Outback, I've picked up more methods to annoy aggressive drivers like a nice spray of wiper fluids on their newly washed car - it's a shame I can no longer use this on the Integra.