6-speed... Hard as Hell to Drive

I recently test drove a 6-speed trans am. Is it just me or are those gears as tight as a murf? I mean i have driven a few acuras and hondas and the shifting is like a warm knife through butter but the Trans Am is like "clunk, clunk" through the gears. Maybe it is just me. But the gears seem to be soo tight. And the clutch pedal has to be nearly forced through the bottom of the car for a smooth shift and even then if you don't get your timing right it chunks up on me. I was wondering if it was just the car i drove or if all Trans Ams are like this? If they all are, is there any way to maybe lighten up the clutch pedal a little bit or make the shifts smoother without getting into the gear ratios and messing with the actual transmission itself? Would a new shifter do anything? I asked a Trans Am owner before and he said "It's a race car. It is going to have tight gears and a heavy clutch. It all has to do with the suspension of the car." I didn't understand that because if it is a race car, don't you think they would try to make those things a little bit easier to do instead of harder and heavier? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Most Honda and other car's like the S2000 are made with performance in mind but don't have to contend with gob's of low end torque which would rip apart one of those import clutch's, Every car in the 300 + Torque rating needs a heavy duty clutch, I have driven the Viper, 6 Speed F-body's (LS1 & LT1) and Vette's Older and Newer versions and all have a heavy clutch but of them all the Vette Clutch (97+) for some reason seams to shift the smoothest. But the clutch in a Rx7 is pretty heavy too

So do you agree with me about TAs having a heavy clutch and a tight shift pattern? Also, do you know of any ways or parts that could lighten the load a little bit?

Yeah it has to have a heavy clutch but you get used to it, think of it as a work out for your leg. I have yet to hear someone wanting to put a lighter clutch in a performance car everyone is usually making heavier if anything. Ram Clutch's are even heavier but can handle more power yet!

Maybe the heaviness of the clutch doesn't bother me that much, the only thing that does is the fact that you have to push it sooooo far down. I mean the heaviness i can get over, but its just the fact of having to push it down soo far that gets me. Another thing, TA's are very sensitive to the "let off the clutch at too low of a speed and shut off your engine" thing. I mean what makes the car shut off if you let off the clutch under a certain speed? Why does it do that? If i can get passed 1st gear then i have nothing else to complain about. Another question: For getting a good launch, what do i need to do? I mean do i need to start at a certain RPMs while my foot is on the clutch or do i need to just drop the clutch and slam the gas? In other words, does my foot need to be on the gas way before i drop the clutch or can i drop the clutch as i slam down on the gas? I am not very familiar with racing 6-speeds or any manuals. I usually race autos but i changed my style.

As its not easy to teach someone to drive a stick over the net I will give it my best. The reason that your stalling the car is that your pulling the clutch pedal out too fast and the reason it has to be pushed down so far isn't a Trans Am problem its a car problem either the car is low on Brake fluid in the in the Clutch master cyclinder or the clutch has alot of wear. The process of engaging and shifting any stick should be a smooth one of lifting the clutch pedal while apply forward pressure on the gas. And as for what rpm's to launch at depends on alot of things, How good your tires are, if your car is stock, track conditions. The best way to learn where to shift and how to launch is drive the car. Also once you master the power shift (revving the car upto a higher rpm while engaging to the next gear) you will be loving the Manual thing

So do you know why the engine shuts down when you disengage the clutch at too low of a speed? The one i test drove, when i pressed the clutch down, the farther it went down, the harder it pressed against me. In other words, the further down it goes, the heavier it is. Do you have a stick? If so, does your clutch feel pretty heavy to you or does your leg feel like you are pushing the clutch down harder than it should have to be pressed? That's how i felt. Maybe it is just the car but are all TA's a heavy clutch and have tight gears? Thank you for the help

My current Formula is a Auto but my L98 Vette I had before this was a 6 Speed and the clutch felt exactly like the Newwer LS1's I've driven. Also its supposed to feel slightly more pressure the farther you go down, Its like your brake pedal it uses brake fluid compressed into cyclinder to disengage the transmission although most have a point where there is a equal pressure point where they are fully disengaged but this is not the case on a damaged clutch. Also your not driving the car correctly if your stalling it, it's not the Engine its the way your releasing the clutch that making the car die at low speed. One reason is because your not providing enough gas to maintain the cars idle and when the car is already reached a cruising the speed the car won't stall when the clutch is disengaged due to the fact that the engine almost pulls the tranny to the correct rpm which isn't the case at a lowwer speed.

But isn't a manual idle anything like an automatick idle? I mean, in an auto, when you are in drive you can take your foot off the brake and the car will still move some. Doesn't a manual have that? I mean when you are in 1st gear and you disengage the clutch, doesn't it put any gas to the engine to get it moving some? Is it better to let off the clutch faster or more gradually to avoid the engine shutting down?

The Automatic and Manual are nothing alike, An automatic engine uses Fluid pressure bands and gears to force fluid into your torque converter and drive the rear wheels its capable of moving independant of the tranny in a stopped position. The manual is just gears and a linkage hooked into your shifter when you have your shifter in 1 st gear the linkage that's attached to the side of your tranny engaged that specific gear, but while engaged is not capable of moving independtly of the engine. So the reason its stalling is imagine you have a wheels spinning at 800 revolutions per minute and generating about 80 - 90 Horse's and 120lbs of torque you jam a 3000 Lb rod in one of the spindle its going to stop abruptly, now imagine that they couple together smoothly while the wheel is slowlying spinning faster. The trick is to apply slow pressure to the gas pedal while smoothly(with no jerking)releasing the clutch pedal until you find the clutches G-spot in which case you'll be able to release in any given acceleration

Thank you for your help. I understand much better now. One more thing about the racing issue: when you look at the statistics of a car and you see "320 horsepower at 5500 RPMs" or "345 lbs torque at 5500 RPMs" does that "5500" refer to the max power range for each gear? I mean does that number signify when the gear power range is at it's peak in which exceeding that number will result in no more power gain? In other words, is that the best time to shift when you are looking to get all the power you can out of a gear?

320 at 5500 rpm's means that your car makes its most horsepower at which means that after that it remains constant or drops off and while horsepower has a great deal to due with how fast you go in which ever gear your in it has nothing to do with acceleration which is a product of torque. You don't want to just hit your peak and then down shift cause you might not be in your power band in the next gear and the LS1 is known for gob's of torque upto redline so it you take your car upto a yellow zone almost red and downshift your should remain in your powerband. Hope this helps

Wait, downshift or upshift?

Sorry I meant upshift , see what happens when you ramble

I assume he meant upshift. When I run mike I run it till the end of the yellow/ start of the red before I shift. I haven't launched it hard too many times so I'm still toying with what rpm to drop the clutch at off the start.

just to help you out...if you get an aftermarket cluch kit...centerforce(streetstrip)...ect. they usually dont have the heavy clutch feeling...the stock clutches just suck...just for the info

i have a 97 formula lt1 and i drop mine at about 2400 but i have decent Nitto street tires, but you have to play with it sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt its wierd

I would practice the manual trans/clutch/power shifting in someone else's car(Your mom's Camary?)till you get the hang of it... ;)

Consider yourselves lucky... Whoever had my Formula before I did, did a lot of modding to it, including giving me a tighter gear ratio. If I DO get on it the whole way from a stop, I dont have time to look at my RPMs for the first three gears.... Im not bragging...it actually sucks... I NEVER floor my FB from the start...

umm... i dont know whats up with the car you drove... but the 6speed clutches in 4th gens are hydrolic... easy as hell to push down.. especially the later models, ... and my tranny with 90k on it, and my clutch with 30k on it. are smooth and easy, the clutch fully disengagues about 1inch from the top, so basically all i have to do is barely push it in. im guessing the slave broke in that one, causing the clutch to barely be able to disengage. and actually never disengauging, causing the tranny to clunk when you shift

PS have you ever tried a mustang clutch? now that is a leg press

I agree on the mustang clutches, mine was really hard to shift and wouldn't fully disengage. Turns out the clutch was totally shot, and the previous owner had been driving it like this for quite some time, and it wrecked the syncros in the tranny, the flywheel, etc. So $1600 later it shifts great! I also found out, after I had the car for a month and put about 1100 miles on it that there was NO airfilter in the car, the air cleaner box was empty, guess the guy who owned it before me took it with him...

Yep, it was definitely the one i drove. B\c my parents just surprised me with a 99' WS-6 Trans Am 6-speed and all!!! I have been waiting for this day to arrive and it is finally here. I drove it around the block the first day i got it and it was sooooooooooooooooo much easier compared to the one i drove. The clutch nearly pushed itself (well not really but after you drove the one i did that is what it feels like). The gears shift extremely well and smooth. I bet the other guy that owned the one i drove before me must have raped his clutch or something b\c i feel like i'm in an Honda Civic.

Congrats on your new car, Be careful those things are pretty powerful

Yeah, it definately had to be the car because I just test drove a 2001 trans am 6-speed and I had no trouble driving it. and um I'm 16....and it was like the 3rd time I ever drove a clutch.

One of my aunts trans ams is a 2002 Collectors Edition with the 6-speed and i thought the shifting felt awesome...but then again, my old truck was a '77 F-100 Custom with a 3-in-the-tree so it was probably just me.