Speedshifting and Powershifting

[snakebite]

Good evening guys and gals! I've never driven a manual vehicle until I purchased my 04 SVT Cobra. A friend of mine claimed that I didn't want to learn how to drive a stick in a Cobra.

I bought it anyway! :bna

Every blue moon I still stall the car. So far, I've only failed twice to put the car fully in gear, thus followed the grinding noise. I know thats not good.

Right now, I am trying to learn how to be smoother with my shifts. I stumbled on a article about speedshifting, and powershifting. From what I've read, they can be useful, but can be very harmful to the transmission. Is this true?

Should I spend some money on a "beater" and learn how to drive a manual better? I've even heard that the stock clutch doesn't fully engage on shifts thus creating a "clattering" noise, or clashing of plates.... Errr... Something like that.

The car only has 4800 miles on it, should I get a Centerforce clutch, etc? Change the flywheel? Any advice would be appreciated!

[dwtalso]

Learn to drive the car you have :). Being smooth and fast on the shifts is just a matter of practice.

Generally speed shifting just refers to normal shifting very fast. Power shifting usually refers to shifting without lifting all the way off the throttle. The T-56 has internal stops so it's hard to damage the tranny shifting either way. Clutch wear will increase slightly.

The risk with power shifting is missing the shift with the throttle pressed. The engine will rev to redline in a heartbeat. If you have left the rev limiter in place you won't hurt the motor but it takes getting used to the experience :).

I would just practice shifting fast and smooth. You'll get faster as time goes on. Don't worry about power shifting until you are looking to squeeze out every last tenth at the drag strip ;).

[99SVT3753]

when I got mine, I only used 2nd gear .. enough TQ to get of off the line slow enough not to stall it and I could take it up to 92.5MPH before redline

I wasn't worried out the clutch as much because I already had a lightweight replacement for it on order ..

course I'm not S/C'd - it was stock 99 4.6 at the time.

Tim

[snakebite]

when I got mine, I only used 2nd gear .. enough TQ to get of off the line slow enough not to stall it and I could take it up to 92.5MPH before redline

I wasn't worried out the clutch as much because I already had a lightweight replacement for it on order ..

course I'm not S/C'd - it was stock 99 4.6 at the time.

Tim
You can get up to 92MPH in 2nd? Do you have a CobraR? Thats what it looks like in the photo!