What is your preferred downshift method?

[redcivic19x]

I have the Acuity pedal spacer but I don't heel-toe lol. Just wanted the spacer to move the accel pedal closer to the brake pedal. Now I moved my seat back a little and the clutch pedal is too far away... I think my root problem is the brake pedal being too damn high and close to the driver lol. Cons of having long legs ?

Ok, enough with the rant. I rev match by doing double-clutch downshifts. While slowing down/braking: clutch in, shift to neutral, clutch out, blip the throttle, clutch in, downshift, clutch out. When you blip the throttle, foot comes off the brake pedal to blip the throttle, but only for a second. The whole process should take 1-2 seconds.

I have never personally tried double clutching, but I could see after doing it enough times where it would take 1-2 seconds. When I rev match I normally clutch in, blip, shift, clutch out. Probably takes < 1 second and works nicely. Though it gets a little awkward if you let up on the clutch too quickly after blipping and your car wants to shoot ahead. I've done this a couple of times and hate that feeling.

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[redcivic19x]

I probably more often go from 6th to 3rd. I am in this scenario every morning going to work, if I want to go fast I just drop 2nd after I'm straightened out on the county road. I use the brakes very conservatively and that makes a big difference on how much I would heel toe

I'm more of a 5th to 3rd as well. If i'm in 6th and not on the highway I usually quickly rev match to get to 5th and then i'll heel-toe down to 3rd or 2nd. Though I try and stay away from downshifting all the way to 2nd because my car just gets craaaaaazy loud (thanks @MAPerformance for that beautiful race exhaust

 

[zenren]

I'm more of a 5th to 3rd as well. If i'm in 6th and not on the highway I usually quickly rev match to get to 5th and then i'll heel-toe down to 3rd or 2nd. Though I try and stay away from downshifting all the way to 2nd because my car just gets craaaaaazy loud (thanks @MAPerformance for that beautiful race exhaust

I used to not use 6th but now that I do I average 40mpg on highway and county roads.

 

[CanadiaegeanBlue]

Rev matched downshifts are easy in this car, heel and toe not so much but I have done it sometimes.

With rev matching I've discovered that the 3 - 2 downshift works best when you stab the throttle quickly 100% to the floor to rev match it smoothly. With all other gears a partial throttle rev match is fine

 

[Drake]

I agree with the "I would heel-toe if I were racing" sentiments. It seems like that method is designed for accelerating out of corners as fast as you can, which isn't really required in daily life just as you don't need to WOT at every stoplight. However, I'm sure it enhances your driving experience if you are skilled at it/have a pedal spacer, but for most the majority of drivers simply rev-match downshifting and braking into the corner is all you need to be a competent manual driver on the road.

 

[MutatedMango]

I couldn't for the life of me imagine downshifting without rev matching in day to day driving

 

[coopermidnight]

Haha unfortunately i used to be one of those people. when my dad taught me to drive stick some 10 years ago now, never once mentioned rev matching to downshift. Only said to downshift so the engine can help break. I’m embarrassed to say that I have been driving a stick for 8 years now and just started doing this about 4 months after I got my car (so for the last 8 months I’ve been doing it - I’ve had the car a year).
I was pissed I had been doing it wrong for so long and no one failed to tell me. Lol.
better late than never I suppose

Believe it or not, there are.

I don't heel toe as I'm not a race car driver but I do rev match.

Excuse me while I go scream into a pillow

(Edit: Don't mean to give you too much shit, OP. Glad you learned to do it!)

 

[Tags]

Hey guys! I was just reading through another thread about downshifting and it got me wondering - what method do you guys normally use to downshift?

Always rev-match, heel-toe if I'm braking hard. Pedal spacer is a must.

 

[Sprinqer]

Heel toe every downshift, I'll rev match if there's no need to brake.
OEM pedals, no bracket or whatever the Acuity thing is. Works fine for me!
Edit: Taught myself to do this because I feel like it puts less stress on the car not having it jerk on the downshift without a rev match.

 

[vasekvi]

I had reconstructive surgery on my right ankle and I can't flex my foot that way anymore. But I do always rev match when I downshift in whatever manual car I'm driving. With my FK8 I leave the auto rev match on.

 

[redcivic19x]

I used to not use 6th but now that I do I average 40mpg on highway and county roads.

I used to be the same way a bit too. I would mainly only use 6th for the highway (which is basically why we have a 6th gear) and never be in 6th while normal driving. But now I do it all the time. Only annoying thing is if you are in 6th and casually cruising at like 50-55, you have to downshift to 4th to safely get going again.

Rev matched downshifts are easy in this car, heel and toe not so much but I have done it sometimes.

With rev matching I've discovered that the 3 - 2 downshift works best when you stab the throttle quickly 100% to the floor to rev match it smoothly. With all other gears a partial throttle rev match is fine

Interesting. I couldn't imagine stabbing the throttle all the way to the floor to get that rev match unless I was in a really high RPM band while in 3rd. Normally just a quick blip is always fine for me.

I agree with the "I would heel-toe if I were racing" sentiments. It seems like that method is designed for accelerating out of corners as fast as you can, which isn't really required in daily life just as you don't need to WOT at every stoplight. However, I'm sure it enhances your driving experience if you are skilled at it/have a pedal spacer, but for most the majority of drivers simply rev-match downshifting and braking into the corner is all you need to be a competent manual driver on the road.

Yea it definitely isn't required. I already love driving a stick shift as it is, and once I learned how to heel-toe it just made my driving experience that much better. Unfortunately I don't even get to practice in to corners much because here in Florida we don't have those beautiful curvy mountain roads like all the people from Cali.

I agree with the "I would heel-toe if I were racing" sentiments. It seems like that method is designed for accelerating out of corners as fast as you can, which isn't really required in daily life just as you don't need to WOT at every stoplight. However, I'm sure it enhances your driving experience if you are skilled at it/have a pedal spacer, but for most the majority of drivers simply rev-match downshifting and braking into the corner is all you need to be a competent manual driver on the road.

Excuse me while I go scream into a pillow

(Edit: Don't mean to give you too much shit, OP. Glad you learned to do it!)

HAHA I fully expected a little bit after admitting to that It taught me how naive I truly was. I used to skip those suggested videos on "Best way to drive a manual" because I thought I knew what I was doing. Started watching a few of those and realized I had MANY bad habits - resting my hand on the shifter, resting the top of my foot on the clutch pedal every so slightly while at a stop, coming to a stop while in neutral, etc. All bad things to do that I had NO idea about haha. But I'm learning, even if at a slower pace haha. I'm an IT kinda guy; only been researching and modding for about 7 months now. Thanks for taking it easy on me

 

[redcivic19x]

Heel toe every downshift, I'll rev match if there's no need to brake.
OEM pedals, no bracket or whatever the Acuity thing is. Works fine for me!
Edit: Taught myself to do this because I feel like it puts less stress on the car not having it jerk on the downshift without a rev match.

Agreed! You're a trooper for doing it on the OEM setup haha. But I guess it depends on how you do it as well. I know some people use the side of their foot where their pinky toes is to do the quick blip and then I've seen others do it where they legit have the heel/ball of their foot on the bottom of the gas pedal while angling their foot to the brake pedal. So blip with their heel, break with their toes. That one is a bit more uncomfortable for me, but i've heard that is technically "the way to do it". Maybe one day I'll try and master that.

I had reconstructive surgery on my right ankle and I can't flex my foot that way anymore. But I do always rev match when I downshift in whatever manual car I'm driving. With my FK8 I leave the auto rev match on.

Danm man, sorry to hear that. I had 2 broken feet at the same time back in college and one needed surgery and one didn't so that one healed faster. I legit was that dude pushing my clutch in with a cast/walking boot on my left foot because I love driving manuals so much. Probably wasn't the smartest decision looking back though.
I don't think our SI's have the auto-rev match unfortunately. Maybe the 2020's do?

 

[CanadiaegeanBlue]

Interesting. I couldn't imagine stabbing the throttle all the way to the floor to get that rev match unless I was in a really high RPM band while in 3rd. Normally just a quick blip is always fine for me.

Same here, but I just couldn't get it right until I tried it and it's worked well for me for smooth engagement

 

[fiend busa]

Rev match my go to and heel and toe if in braking and need to go down gears.

 

[jakdotdot]

Single clutch rev-match in day to day driving. I rarely heal toe as it is a bitch to do while doing street levels of braking.

I have also noticed this car likes the throttle stab (to the floor) more than a traditional throttle bip when rev-matching.

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