My Camaro is my first ever manual, so as a newb I was wondering a few things...

1. The normal way to back up would be to hit reverse, back up, come to a stop with the breaks, put it in first, then go. I've found that I can skip the break part. I'll just put it straight into first and gently switch from backward movement to forward movement. Is this bad at all?

2. Engine breaking\motor stoping, whatever you call it. For example, cruising around in 4th, then you need to slow down to turn off the road you're on. Pop it into 3rd and let off the clutch, then as you slow some, put it into 2nd, ect, ect, ect... I assume that going from 4th (like, 35, 40mph) straight into 2nd is really bad for the tranny\clutch and that you should mix engine braking with regular breaking and move down the gears in reverse order. Is this right?

Thanks for any help!

sounds bad on the tranny, clutch, driveshaft, and axles.

more hard on the clutch then the tranny .

if it was an automatic, then i'd say go for it, but in a manual, you really do want to be careful with the clutch

Yeah If you down shift to fast the new tranny will cost more then a set a breaks, I was at NewEngland dragway on an open street night the guy down shifted to fast at the end of the track and he needed a tow home ! as sad as that sounds he was racing his moms car.

You have to remember........they put the brakes there for a reason....

You can safely use engine braking on the downshifts as long as you don't overrev the engine in the process. It's especially useful for saving you're brakes when going down long, steep hills.

If you think about it - when you upshift, you can only stay in each gear until a certain speed then the RPM's climb too high and you risk engine damage.

When you're downshifting, its the same principle. You don't want to overrev the engine by going to too low of a gear too soon. You can skip gears on the way down, just as you can skip gears on the way up. However, 90% of the time you will go down in order.

It's also a good idea to match your RPM's to the gear you are downshifting too. Especially if you have a T5. It helps to lessen the shock to the transmission/rear end. If you downshift too aggressively or dump the clutch too fast you can break the transmission or rear. The higher in a gear's RPM range you downshift into it, the bigger the shock to the transmission and the closer you will come to kissing your steering wheel when you're head snaps forward due to inertia.

The only time I would recommend skipping gears is during a panic stop situation where you are trying to stop as fast as possible and have already stomped the brake pedal to the floor(just short of lockup of course) and your speed is dropping too fast to hit all the gears.

Here is a tip from a ex-road racer. I can't answer if downshifting is bad for the transmission, but if you rev match it IS NOT hard on the clutch whatsoever.

Rev match example:

3rd to 2nd

You are in third slowing down for a turn or just plain slowing down. Your rpms are probably at about 2.5K-3K. When you push the clutch in to shift to second.... Give it some gas to match where you think the rpms will be in second gear. This takes the wear off the clutch (and it's a fun skill to learn).

And once you master the technique, use it when you are in a corner. It will help you keep the car stable when downshifting.

Enjoy your first standard. I can never go back to an automatic. , This is what driving is really about