Shifting Question
 

If anyone thinks they know how to drive a stick, please educate me on a couple of things.

1) First off, we all know that when at a complete stop, we feather gas while releasing cluth to accelerate. No question here.

2) When you are ready to upshift, I see a couple of ways to do this. I also have questions about each way. Let's proceed.

a) 1) Push clutch in
2) Shift
3) Release clutch

question regarding above shifting) When you release the clutch, the engine will be revving slower after upshifting. My question is this. Should you release the clutch before or after the point at which the engine and tranny would be spinning at the same speed? My thought is that you should try to release the clutch at the exact point of matched speeds or a little early.

b) 1) Let's say we have revved 2nd gear to 5500 RPM and
need to shift now.
2) Push into 3rd while releasing throttle and let synchros
allow gear to mesh at same speed point. Stick will
go into each gear almost automatically while upshifting,
without applying too much force at all.

question regarding above shifting) Will this type of shifting
cause extensive synchro wear, or would it be about the same as regular shifting? I like to shift this way. It seems to be smoother and put less wear on clutch then first method. You don't miss the point of matched speed, you don't have to double clutch, and you don't have to touch the gas or clutch till after the stick falls into gear. Please tell me of any negative side effects of this type of shifting.

c) 1) Push clutch in very little and quickly shift while
releasing clutch.

This is my mad man style of shifting...it seems to be really smooth, really quick, and gives me the best acceleration in each gear.
Question is this. Would this be considered "Power Shifting"? If not..what is power shifting? Why does my car acclerate more smoothly in this style than any other? I'm not even pushing the clutch all the way down and the shifting is smmooothhh, acceleration is responsivly quicker then first shifting style.

I know that in my Protege 5 which is driven very heavily at high RPM's has not had a problem as of yet concerning shifting. When going from Second Gear at 5500rpms you should press in and release in about 8/10's of a second. This seems to work really well keeping the car above the TQ line allowing for the fastest acceleration.

Power Shifting basically is a way to transfer power from one gear to the next with minimal loss in shifting.

The best way I've found to accomplish this is to slam the clutch to the floor as fast and hard as possible, shift, and rebound your leg to allow the clutch spring the abilty to fly the clutch pedal back towards you.

To vouch again, I live in Atlanta and frequent the Mountains of Western NC around Deals Gap -- Highlands -- Franklin area doing a mass amount of shifting and very little brake play and am still yet to have an issue with the shifting.

The problem I see with option C is that if you dont hit the point correctly you will tear something up. Most common case and point is that burning clutch smell :)

not depressing the clutch all the way when shifting WILL cause excessive clutch wear...period.

"power shifting" is more referring to shifting without depressign the clutch...it can be done if you shifty at EXACTLY the right rpm's, but is likely to cause excessive clutch wear and cause wear to the tranny