As some may know, I had an auto but switched to a t56. It's been a week since I started driving stick and I'm definitely lovin it! I'm glad I went this route, though it proved to be quite expensive. I quickly learned that driving in traffic isn't as bad as I thought. Plus my left calf doesn't hurt, nor is it any bigger than my right.
The first thing I've noticed about my Cobra t56 (purchased from D&D btw) is, compared to my friend's 03 Cobra's, my first gear is a bit shorter. It's definitely NOT the long 2.66 first. I know the tranny is rebuilt and assume D&D must've swapped for the Cobra R ratios (2.97, 2.07, 1.43, 1.00, 0.80, 0.62)? Whatever it is, I LOVE it, and I'm glad I went with 3.55 gears. I think it's the perfect combination for my pretty much daily driven street car. Doing 75mph @ under 2200 RPMs in 6th gear definitely helps the highway gas mileage also. With my auto & 4.10s, I was doing about 3K rpm @ 75mph.
At first, I was guilty of "riding the clutch" too often. So I started using neutral a lot more instead of holding/riding the clutch pedal down. Speaking of which.. "Wow, that clutch (Spec Stage 3) really grabs!" That's pretty much what everyone who has ridden in my car so far has told me. It took me a few days to get the hang of it. I had issues taking off smoothly, but has gotten there. The Stage 3 can actually be slipped a little despite having a reputation of being an on/off clutch. It didnt take long to learn how to take off on hills since the exit of my neighborhood is on a steep incline - so I really had no choice, I couldnt avoid it lol. My clutch was chattering like a MOFO but it's MUCH quieter now. Despite some heavy criticism of Spec clutches, I'm really liking my Stage 3 so far.
The MGW shifter seemed a little notchy at first and I was having issues missing gears. But I discovered the shifter has springs, to where I can just pull straight up to shift from 2nd to 3rd, or downshift from 5th to 4th. So no more 1st to 5th gear shifting! I pretty much have it down to where I can now shift through the gears quite smoothly, though I still granny shift to a certain extent. The odd thing is I must use TWO hands to get it in reverse! I just recently discovered that I might be missing the reverse lockout switch. I actually don't mind, since I wouldn't have to worry about shifting into reverse while driving, if that's actually possible. Plus I'm a stong guy, I can "muscle" it to reverse with little effort.
Anyways, just thought I'd share my first week experience driving stick, with you guys. I've stalled only once the past two days and that was because I fogot I was in gear.
The first thing I've noticed about my Cobra t56 (purchased from D&D btw) is, compared to my friend's 03 Cobra's, my first gear is a bit shorter. It's definitely NOT the long 2.66 first. I know the tranny is rebuilt and assume D&D must've swapped for the Cobra R ratios (2.97, 2.07, 1.43, 1.00, 0.80, 0.62)? Whatever it is, I LOVE it, and I'm glad I went with 3.55 gears. I think it's the perfect combination for my pretty much daily driven street car. Doing 75mph @ under 2200 RPMs in 6th gear definitely helps the highway gas mileage also. With my auto & 4.10s, I was doing about 3K rpm @ 75mph.
At first, I was guilty of "riding the clutch" too often. So I started using neutral a lot more instead of holding/riding the clutch pedal down. Speaking of which.. "Wow, that clutch (Spec Stage 3) really grabs!" That's pretty much what everyone who has ridden in my car so far has told me. It took me a few days to get the hang of it. I had issues taking off smoothly, but has gotten there. The Stage 3 can actually be slipped a little despite having a reputation of being an on/off clutch. It didnt take long to learn how to take off on hills since the exit of my neighborhood is on a steep incline - so I really had no choice, I couldnt avoid it lol. My clutch was chattering like a MOFO but it's MUCH quieter now. Despite some heavy criticism of Spec clutches, I'm really liking my Stage 3 so far.
The MGW shifter seemed a little notchy at first and I was having issues missing gears. But I discovered the shifter has springs, to where I can just pull straight up to shift from 2nd to 3rd, or downshift from 5th to 4th. So no more 1st to 5th gear shifting! I pretty much have it down to where I can now shift through the gears quite smoothly, though I still granny shift to a certain extent. The odd thing is I must use TWO hands to get it in reverse! I just recently discovered that I might be missing the reverse lockout switch. I actually don't mind, since I wouldn't have to worry about shifting into reverse while driving, if that's actually possible. Plus I'm a stong guy, I can "muscle" it to reverse with little effort.
Anyways, just thought I'd share my first week experience driving stick, with you guys. I've stalled only once the past two days and that was because I fogot I was in gear.