HELP am i down shifting the right way??

[rafael]

i just got a 01 celica gt and love it. my dad is teacing how to drive manual. he tells me that when i go to make a complete stop to use the brake the whole time like an automatic then press the cluch in before it completely stop,the when it is stopped down shift to 1ST. is this write or his he wrong please help!!

[sexiest]

There's actually no need to downshift to 1st gear. Depending at what speed your wheel is at when you want to stop, like if you're doing 50km/h at 4th gear, you may downshift straightly to 2nd gear and before the car stop completely, press the clutch. Some people may even shift to neutral gear and let the vehicle move forward with no gear. I do that sometimes, but only at low speed.

For making a stop from a relatively high speed, say at 5th gear, hit the brake, downshift to 3rd gear, then 2nd gear, and before the car stops completely, press the clutch. Let the gearbox helps to slow down the car alongside the brake. Later, you may of course learn to downshift by heel-and-hoe, which is a good way to get a smoother downshifting.

I doubt if your Celica lets you to downshift to 1st gear when it's moving. You need to rev-match before you can do that.

PS: Dude, you need to work hard on spelling.

[rafael]

lol, i always mess up typeing oh well, thanks for the re-ply,
i down shift to first when the car is completly stopped

[Modern Angel]

Originally posted by rafael
lol, i always mess up typeing oh well, thanks for the re-ply,
i down shift to first when the car is completly stopped

Generally it's best to only shift into first when stopped.. however you can double-clutch downshift into first if you're going to be creeping along at around like 5 mph (ie if you're going through a parking lot slow or something) .. in that case it's better for your engine to be in 1st gear so you'd want to downshift into it.