Advice for first-time 6MT owner?

[loopsandsounds]

The best single advice for a manual transmission n00b:
Treat the pedals as if there are eggs on top of each one, I.E don't mash on either the clutch or the gas. Slow, deliberate movements can result in amazingly smooth and efficient gear changes. Once you are comfortable and proficient with slow and smooth, you can juggle eggs:-) Oh, and if you drive with an SO or people who don't care about cars, that smooth shifting talent will score you points!

[BimmerM]

I suggest you have an experienced guy that knows how to drive a manual go with you to show you the ropes. An even better suggestion would be to have him/her drive it home for you so you can learn in a familiar area.

Since this is your first time, I'll share with you how my brother taught me way back 10 years ago. Hopefully you'll find it somewhat helpful.

• Make sure you are in neutral
• Start the car
• Clutch in
• Engage first gear
• Slowly (I mean really slowly!) release the clutch till you feel it engage and when the car starts to move a little.
• Press the clutch in again, and repeat maybe another 2 times just to get a feel for it. Of course slipping your clutch like this is not good but it also won't kill it. You need to do this to get a feel of things.
• Once you get a feel for the clutch and where it starts to engage you can do the whole motion: release clutch a tad faster (but still slow) and as the car starts to move, give it gas slowly. You'll need to do both, release the clutch and give it gas as the same time and before you know it the clutch is fully released and you are moving in first gear.
• As for the rest of the gears, I don't think you'll have much trouble with those. The hardest part for a beginner is always getting the car going from a stop.

It will definately take some concentration since it's more involved than DCT or a traditional auto trans. You have to worry about the clutch, gas, RPM, it can be mind boggling at first. Just take your time and you'll learn it just fine.

Good luck!

[Prince_of_Persia]

Originally Posted by Kobaiyashi

-- stay calm. Accept the fact that at some point, you will stall the car at a light, in heavy traffic, etc. Be calm, get the enging started again, and go forward.

-- Others may disagree, but I'd suggest not trying to downshift into either 2nd or 1st for the foreseeable future. Especially for someone new to the MT, the gearing is such that you need to be both careful and have a good amount of familiarity with the resulting changes in revs before doing so.

-- 3rd gear is the money gear; my numbers won't be exact, but it can seemingly be used to go from 15 mph to 100+ mph.


Peter

^Really useful information!!!
-For sure you will stall the engine; you better accept it and be calm when it happens. If you stall it, turn on the engine right away and drive. Try to learn why you stalled your car to avoid it next time. (I have stalled my car at least 20 times since I bought it, so normal for new manual drivers)

-Totally agree with not down shifting to first and second gear (specially around the corner, 3rd gear is the easiest gear to down shift to if you are not turning too slow)

-For the gear that I used the most, I use 4-5 mostly for in-city cruising. But he is right, 3rd gear has to most range for speed.

Good Luck

[Seattle S65B40]

6MT Rules!

[JusCruzin]

The M3 is my first manual transmission car as well. I've had it for 2 months now and am really enjoying it. It's still not totally natural, with rev matching being the biggest challenge.

My main advice would be to take it very easy the first week or so until you get the hang of it. I actually found a beater rental car and practiced on that for a week or so before getting the M3. It's very difficult to find a manual rental, but try checking out Rent A Wreck or some mom-and-pop rental place. Plus, it will give you something to do while waiting for your new M3 to be delivered.

You seem pretty concerned about parking garages and lots. I really wouldn't worry about that, since the M3 (and most cars) will crawl along at idle in 1st without stalling so long as you are not going uphill.

Try checking tpout the site standardshift.com, which has some useful posts and some how-to videos by a guy in his M5.

Good luck and have fun!

[SYT_Shadow]

You're lucky, and I don't only mean that because of the M3.

The E92 M3 has a wonderful, wonderful clutch. It's so light it could be in a Civic, so it'll be a breeze to use.

The E92 (at least european ones...) have auto hill holding, meaning that when you let go of the brakes to put 1st in it'll hold the brakes for you for an additional 2 seconds, giving you pleeeenty of time to start the car. This is the #1 problem newbies have with MTs, so BMW fixed it for you!

Enjoy!

[bavarian06]

the 6mt has a very early engagement point. best to shift around 3K if you want to shift smoothly. shifting from 4th to 5th requires you to slightly hold the gas down to avoid drop of rpm due to the long row and a lightened flywheel on the M3.

dont bother to downshift into 1st cause in my experience you'll get locked out at speeds greater than 20? just rely on your brakes. heel-toe is tricky to get used, different from japanese car setup. fyi, the cars rpm responds differently to which throttle mapping you have. so you'll have to learn how much throttle to give the car when you blip for downshifts (according to which map).

and a must, get a ZHP shifter. the goose neck factory shifter is horrible, not weighted enough.

manuals are a dying breed, just like gas guzzling high rpm v8s. you made the right choice. enjoy!

[jbtco]

Also remember to push the clutch down when coming to a halt. I have been driving manuals for 45 years but still get caught out after driving my DCT car for a few weeks then getting back in a manual.

[double_j]

Originally Posted by OC3

You are overthinking (but, couldn't hurt to post, just in case).

Just know that each and every time you step on the clutch, the car (whether you notice/feel it or not) lunges forward a bit. If you're stepping on the clutch, you're not accelerating, so the cars are designed to give a bit of extra lunge to compensate for the moment while you're neutral to shift gear. Anyhow, in slow rolling bumper-to-bumper traffic condition (where said lunge is substantial compared to the forward motion of the car at the moment), you might rear-end a car if you step on the clutch and not the brake also.

Is this right? I always just assumed the 'lunge' was because there was no more resistance from the transmission (since the clutch totally disconnects the wheels from the engine).

I never heard of this before.

[MUFCbmwbear]

Business parks on Weekends are prefect for practicing. I taught my old man Manual in my Ford Contour SVT back in the day. It was completely empty and didnt have to worry about other drivers.

All good input from everyone. Just like anything else....Repetition is the mother of all learning

[piloto]

Originally Posted by double_j

Is this right? I always just assumed the 'lunge' was because there was no more resistance from the transmission (since the clutch totally disconnects the wheels from the engine).

I never heard of this before.

Only if you're in gear, and then it's only because of the inertia from the clutch through the trans to the differential. If you were in reverse, it would do the same but obviously in the reverse direction. It's not designed to "lunge" per se, but it does as a consequence of the design.

[ploo]

A lot of good advice in this thread. Learning on the M might not be ideal, but you will be just fine - the clutch can handle a little extra slippage at first and many previous posters seem to have learned on this car as well.

The best advice I have is to relax, take a deep breath, and control your surroundings when you first get your car while you get used to using the clutch pedal. You will be extremely excited being in your new car, I suggest avoid rush hour, steep hills, tight parking, and other stressful situations in the first couple weeks as you get used to driving it. Might want to lay off customizing the iDrive, audio settings, etc in the initial period.

I say this because you are going to be focused on your clutch and throttle inputs, probably so much so that you won't be paying as much attention to what's going on around you as you normally would.

Parking lot is a great idea for a first place to get comfortable with engaging the clutch smoothly from a stop, I suggest not only starting in 1st gear, but shifting from 1-2 before you stop and try again.

-engaging clutch smoothly from a stop on a level surface
-engaging 2nd gear smoothly from 1st at around 2500-3000 rpm
-driving around town, practice until you don't have to consciously analyze what gear you should be in
-engage clutch smoothly from a stop on an incline

at this point, you should be good to go for general everyday driving. i would avoid rush hour, if possible, until you really are very comfortable with the above.

then practice
-engaging 1st gear relatively quickly while maintaining car at parking lot speeds
-re-engaging 2nd gear from low speed, e.g. if you were to approach a red light that turned green again after you already took it out of gear.

also don't neglect
-4th to 5th and 5th to 6th (e.g. on the highway) in this car may require a small amount of throttle input for the best shift depending on what rpm's you are at and the speed of your shift. the relatively light flywheel and lower inertial mass mean this car may drop rpm's quicker than other cars you may have seen or driven. a good starting suggestion is to shift 4-5 and 5-6 at ~3500 rpm, that helps smooth out the shift and buy you a little more time to catch the revs on your upshift. feel free to ask if this doesn't make sense; it may not until you actually start driving your car


finally, the major things to avoid have mostly been mentioned already
-be very careful when you start to drive the car harder and harder. things happen very quickly and you're going to have a lot more to think about with 414bhp and rowing your own gears. there's a lot more torque during full-throttle shifts than you will be used to at first. take care to engage the proper gear on both upshifts and downshifts, when you begin practicing them. i think it's a great idea to start practicing single-clutching rev-matching downshifts early, but i would be very patient about starting to practice heel-and-toe or rapid downshifting as you increase your chances of major clutch wear or a catastrophic money shift (e.g. 5-2 when you meant to grab 5-4) at higher rpms. slipping the clutch at full throttle or overrevving the engine during a missed downshift are the major errors to avoid; a little bit of extra clutch slip on hills or certain shifts while you are learning the transmission shouldn't break anything, only lead to slightly more wear....but the car can handle it.

anyway, you're doing your research and you're gonna be just fine. you don't need to be afraid of the clutch, the car isn't that fragile, but i'd hesitate before going into stressful situations early or trying to drive the car hard before you're fully comfortable with all the subtleties of clutch- and throttle-modulation - because that's probably where things would ever actually go wrong.

finally, we're all michael schumacher typing on the keyboard, but we all have our on- and off-days. everybody misses a shift here or there, i've stalled my car a total of 3 times since owning it, once i even accidentally let off the clutch pedal abruptly while parked with the handbrake on, thinking i had already turned the engine off! i felt very bad for the car, but it survived, no big deal. just goes to show what can happen if you're distracted or tired. i definitely don't shift as smoothly when i'm exhausted and driving home after not having slept the night before. it happens; if you make a mistake here and there, don't beat yourself up too hard, the M is a durable machine and you won't have any problems.

sport mode helps with heel-toe but i find it too sensitive for daily driving, and unnecessary for single- or double-clutch revmatching downshifting on the road. you might want to start with the normal throttle map. you also don't have to power into every next gate; it's a little easier on the synchros if you give a slight pause when you're back to neutral position on your way to the next gear.

oh and there's a guy who made videos of several basic shifting techniques from the cockpit of his e39 m5 i remember watching a long time ago. if you can find those videos, i think he also teaches a nice way of gripping the shifter to differentiate between 2-3/3-2 and 4-5/5-4 shifting that helps avoid money shifting, especially if track work is potentially in your future. i have to admit, i don't always use those grips when driving sedately around town, though!

best of luck and congrats on the M. austin traffic can be pretty miserable; hope you can avoid rush hour for the first month while you get super comfortable driving your sweet new car. just be patient and soon it will become second nature, just as it has for so many of the rest of us!

ps you can get a lot of driveline chatter when the car is cold; you'll see what we mean after you receive the car. good time to be extra smooth!

[ploo]

Originally Posted by piloto

Only if you're in gear, and then it's only because of the inertia from the clutch through the trans to the differential. If you were in reverse, it would do the same but obviously in the reverse direction. It's not designed to "lunge" per se, but it does as a consequence of the design.

+1...waiting for someone to chime in and brag about how they no-clutch shift their M3 by paying attention to matching the driveshaft speeds and driveline inertia...personally, i don't bother! also too afraid of doing it wrong on the M, back in high school used to try it all the time in a friend's old beater subie haha!

[BimmerM]

Since it's a new car, don't forget one key point, you have a break-in period the first 1200 miles, don't go above 5600rpm.

If you accidentally go over it won't break anything, but at the same time the owners manual don't recommend it during break-in

[T.J.]

It's not so hard to learn the 6MT, but it's really hard to master smooth shifting (which I haven't completely done but sometimes I can do it). This was my first manual car as well, got it 2 months ago and it's REALLY fun.

My little bit of advice is that when you're coming to a stop at a red light, don't just put it in neutral and coast in to a stop. Instead if you're in a higher gear while braking you can stay in that gear, then at about 30 mph, downshift to 3rd gear, then while still braking when you get down to about 10 or so MPH you can shift to neutral (don't worry about 1st and 2nd in a stop). Apparently it is more fuel efficient to down-shift while braking than to coast in neutral.

[piloto]

Originally Posted by T.J.

Apparently it is more fuel efficient to down-shift while braking than to coast in neutral.

Actually, when you're off the throttle, but in gear, your car's ECU will shut the fuel off, so there is no fuel being injected into your engine. It's strictly the engine's momentum at that point, but obivously it will be gradually slowing down. Once it reaches near the idle speed, the ECU will then start injecting fuel again to prevent the engine from stalling. So, you're right, if you slap it into Neutral, and your engine very quickly goes to idle, it'll start injecting fuel to maintain the idle speed (and prevent it from stalling), whereas if you keep it in gear and just let off of the throttle, it'll shut the fuel supply until you reach idle speed.

Likewise, if you're on a downhill grade, if you leave it in gear (any gear), and just let off of the throttle and let the engine's compression help brake the car, the ECU will shut the fuel supply and you'll improve your fuel economy.

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by ploo

A lot of good advice in this thread. Learning on the M might not be ideal, but you will be just fine - the clutch can handle a little extra slippage at first and many previous posters seem to have learned on this car as well.

The best advice I have is to relax, take a deep breath, and control your surroundings when you first get your car while you get used to using the clutch pedal. You will be extremely excited being in your new car, I suggest avoid rush hour, steep hills, tight parking, and other stressful situations in the first couple weeks as you get used to driving it. Might want to lay off customizing the iDrive, audio settings, etc in the initial period.

I say this because you are going to be focused on your clutch and throttle inputs, probably so much so that you won't be paying as much attention to what's going on around you as you normally would.

Parking lot is a great idea for a first place to get comfortable with engaging the clutch smoothly from a stop, I suggest not only starting in 1st gear, but shifting from 1-2 before you stop and try again.

-engaging clutch smoothly from a stop on a level surface
-engaging 2nd gear smoothly from 1st at around 2500-3000 rpm
-driving around town, practice until you don't have to consciously analyze what gear you should be in
-engage clutch smoothly from a stop on an incline

at this point, you should be good to go for general everyday driving. i would avoid rush hour, if possible, until you really are very comfortable with the above.

then practice
-engaging 1st gear relatively quickly while maintaining car at parking lot speeds
-re-engaging 2nd gear from low speed, e.g. if you were to approach a red light that turned green again after you already took it out of gear.

also don't neglect
-4th to 5th and 5th to 6th (e.g. on the highway) in this car may require a small amount of throttle input for the best shift depending on what rpm's you are at and the speed of your shift. the relatively light flywheel and lower inertial mass mean this car may drop rpm's quicker than other cars you may have seen or driven. a good starting suggestion is to shift 4-5 and 5-6 at ~3500 rpm, that helps smooth out the shift and buy you a little more time to catch the revs on your upshift. feel free to ask if this doesn't make sense; it may not until you actually start driving your car


finally, the major things to avoid have mostly been mentioned already
-be very careful when you start to drive the car harder and harder. things happen very quickly and you're going to have a lot more to think about with 414bhp and rowing your own gears. there's a lot more torque during full-throttle shifts than you will be used to at first. take care to engage the proper gear on both upshifts and downshifts, when you begin practicing them. i think it's a great idea to start practicing single-clutching rev-matching downshifts early, but i would be very patient about starting to practice heel-and-toe or rapid downshifting as you increase your chances of major clutch wear or a catastrophic money shift (e.g. 5-2 when you meant to grab 5-4) at higher rpms. slipping the clutch at full throttle or overrevving the engine during a missed downshift are the major errors to avoid; a little bit of extra clutch slip on hills or certain shifts while you are learning the transmission shouldn't break anything, only lead to slightly more wear....but the car can handle it.

anyway, you're doing your research and you're gonna be just fine. you don't need to be afraid of the clutch, the car isn't that fragile, but i'd hesitate before going into stressful situations early or trying to drive the car hard before you're fully comfortable with all the subtleties of clutch- and throttle-modulation - because that's probably where things would ever actually go wrong.

finally, we're all michael schumacher typing on the keyboard, but we all have our on- and off-days. everybody misses a shift here or there, i've stalled my car a total of 3 times since owning it, once i even accidentally let off the clutch pedal abruptly while parked with the handbrake on, thinking i had already turned the engine off! i felt very bad for the car, but it survived, no big deal. just goes to show what can happen if you're distracted or tired. i definitely don't shift as smoothly when i'm exhausted and driving home after not having slept the night before. it happens; if you make a mistake here and there, don't beat yourself up too hard, the M is a durable machine and you won't have any problems.

sport mode helps with heel-toe but i find it too sensitive for daily driving, and unnecessary for single- or double-clutch revmatching downshifting on the road. you might want to start with the normal throttle map. you also don't have to power into every next gate; it's a little easier on the synchros if you give a slight pause when you're back to neutral position on your way to the next gear.

oh and there's a guy who made videos of several basic shifting techniques from the cockpit of his e39 m5 i remember watching a long time ago. if you can find those videos, i think he also teaches a nice way of gripping the shifter to differentiate between 2-3/3-2 and 4-5/5-4 shifting that helps avoid money shifting, especially if track work is potentially in your future. i have to admit, i don't always use those grips when driving sedately around town, though!

best of luck and congrats on the M. austin traffic can be pretty miserable; hope you can avoid rush hour for the first month while you get super comfortable driving your sweet new car. just be patient and soon it will become second nature, just as it has for so many of the rest of us!

ps you can get a lot of driveline chatter when the car is cold; you'll see what we mean after you receive the car. good time to be extra smooth!

Wow, thanks for taking the time to write such an awesome post!! Fortunately while traffic is indeed miserable in Austin (only during rush hour though, not 24/7 like LA), I only live 2 miles from work with no freeway travel required, so no worries there. I'm going to have to intentionally drive around randomly between home and work though since I don't want the bulk of my driving in the M (especially when new) to be 2 miles long -- but hey, that's just extra practice! I got the car primarily for pleasure because I can walk to work when the weather is nice and then just go out driving on some of Austin's incredible driving roads for pure fun. This car will definitely be reporting for track duty, but not until I've gotten very comfortable with it. Thanks again, really appreciate it!

[jbtco]

We are always learning.

I went on a BMW track course at the Mugello circuit in Italy and was aware that cars would be left hand drive (I am from UK so used to RHD) and expected to use an SMG E46 M3 (then current M car) however we used lhd manual Z4MCs and I still remember trying to brake from high speed, find 4th gear from 5th, (with the "wrong" hand) and get the turn in point and apex right for the corner at the end of the main straight.

[e92m3allday]

Originally Posted by piloto

Actually, when you're off the throttle, but in gear, your car's ECU will shut the fuel off, so there is no fuel being injected into your engine. It's strictly the engine's momentum at that point, but obivously it will be gradually slowing down. Once it reaches near the idle speed, the ECU will then start injecting fuel again to prevent the engine from stalling. So, you're right, if you slap it into Neutral, and your engine very quickly goes to idle, it'll start injecting fuel to maintain the idle speed (and prevent it from stalling), whereas if you keep it in gear and just let off of the throttle, it'll shut the fuel supply until you reach idle speed.

Likewise, if you're on a downhill grade, if you leave it in gear (any gear), and just let off of the throttle and let the engine's compression help brake the car, the ECU will shut the fuel supply and you'll improve your fuel economy.

Wow very interesting. I too, will be new to driving 6mt. I grew up riding ATVs and dirtbikes so I have a full understanding of the shifting concept. I have also driven manual tranny cars before such as a g35. The only thing I need now is my car to practice with. Please god speed up this torturing process! Back on topic, so my only little struggle will be to adapt to the M3 and its feel. I have a few questions that may have you people looking at me as an idiot, but whatever I like to learn. I pick things up VERY quickly and I like to learn as much information as possible so once I'm in the driver seat of my M3, i will be able to understand and apply certain driving techniques more easily as opposed to being clueless.
1) What exactly is a MONEY SHIFT? Downshifting from 5 to 2 instead of 5 to 4?
2) Rev-matching, what exactly is it? Kind of like giving a tap of gas while the clutch is held in, so once you release the clutch it isn't jumpy and shaky? If that is correct then I completely understand that. But i would like a little explanation if someone can please further explain this.
3) And lastly, can someone please explain the heal-toe technique, or toe-heal technique. (excuse my lack of knowledge)

[gthal]

Originally Posted by e92m3allday

Wow very interesting. I too, will be new to driving 6mt. I grew up riding ATVs and dirtbikes so I have a full understanding of the shifting concept. I have also driven manual tranny cars before such as a g35. The only thing I need now is my car to practice with. Please god speed up this torturing process! Back on topic, so my only little struggle will be to adapt to the M3 and its feel. I have a few questions that may have you people looking at me as an idiot, but whatever I like to learn. I pick things up VERY quickly and I like to learn as much information as possible so once I'm in the driver seat of my M3, i will be able to understand and apply certain driving techniques more easily as opposed to being clueless.
1) What exactly is a MONEY SHIFT? Downshifting from 5 to 2 instead of 5 to 4?
2) Rev-matching, what exactly is it? Kind of like giving a tap of gas while the clutch is held in, so once you release the clutch it isn't jumpy and shaky? If that is correct then I completely understand that. But i would like a little explanation if someone can please further explain this.
3) And lastly, can someone please explain the heal-toe technique, or toe-heal technique. (excuse my lack of knowledge)

Money shift... downshifting into too low of a gear for the engine speed thereby causing a mechanical overrev and high probability of ruining the motor... avoid this at all costs.

Check YouTube on the heel-toe technique. Lots of very good instructional videos... takes a lot of practice but fun when mastered.

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by e92m3allday

1) What exactly is a MONEY SHIFT? Downshifting from 5 to 2 instead of 5 to 4?
2) Rev-matching, what exactly is it? Kind of like giving a tap of gas while the clutch is held in, so once you release the clutch it isn't jumpy and shaky? If that is correct then I completely understand that. But i would like a little explanation if someone can please further explain this.
3) And lastly, can someone please explain the heal-toe technique, or toe-heal technique. (excuse my lack of knowledge)

1. Yes, a money shift is what you described. It's named that because if you shift that way it usually costs you money because of the damage it causes. But your example isn't very likely, and going 5-2 when you meant to go 5-4 may actually be ok depending on your car and speed. The more common scenario is downshifting when you meant to upshift in scenarios like a drag race -- like being at redline in 3rd and shifting into 2nd when you meant to go to 4th.

2. Rev matching is also exactly as you describe, blipping the throttle mid-shift to get the engine speed to the appropriate level for the new lower gear. I suppose the term can also apply to timing upshifts properly so the clutch reengages at the appropriate lower RPM as well.

3. The last term you want is called heel-toe, and that's actually a misnomer. It's most popular on a track but some people do it on the street. Its purpose is to allow you to downshift and rev-match while braking. Let's say you're in 4th gear coming up to a turn that you can't take at your current speed. You have a few options: 1) Get your braking done, let off the brake, downshift, and then take the turn. This isn't as quick or as smooth, and on a track it wastes time because you end up coasting after you're done braking while you're downshifting. 2) Get your braking done, hold the clutch in while taking the turn, and downshift on the other side of the turn. That's a HUGE no-no on the track; you're never supposed to have the clutch in going through a turn because it minimizes your ability to make throttle adjustments and it can also unsettle the car. So Option 3 is heel-toe: Get MOST of your braking done, clutch in, move your right foot a bit to the right and tilt it over a bit so that you can blip the throttle while still braking, and then let off the clutch and the brake and take the turn. Most cars aren't set up to do this well on the street because you need to have the brake down pretty far (causing harder-than-normal braking for the street) to let your foot blip the throttle while on the brake. The name heel-toe came about because some people tilt their foot such that their heel is on the brake and their toe is on the throttle (or vice versa) but most people actually do it with the left part of their foot on the brake and the right part on the throttle. There are some great YouTube videos to demonstrate this.

[e92m3allday]

Originally Posted by jphughan

1. Yes, a money shift is what you described. It's named that because if you shift that way it usually costs you money because of the damage it causes. But your example isn't very likely. Intending to go 5-4 and going 5-2 may actually be ok depending on your car and speed. The more common scenario is downshifting when you meant to upshift and you were already at high RPMs (like during a drag race) -- like shifting 3-2 when you meant to go 3-4.

2. Rev matching is also exactly as you describe, blipping the throttle mid-shift to get the engine speed to the appropriate level for the new lower gear. I suppose the term can also apply to timing upshifts properly so the clutch reengages at the appropriate lower RPM as well.

3. The last term you want is called heel-toe, and that's actually a misnomer. It's most popular on a track but some people do it on the street. Its purpose is to allow you to downshift and rev-match while braking. Let's say you're in 4th gear coming up to a turn that you can't take at your current speed. You have a few options: 1) Get your braking done, let off the brake, downshift, and then take the turn. This isn't as quick or as smooth, and on a track it wastes time because you end up coasting after you're done braking while you're downshifting. 2) Get your braking done, hold the clutch in while taking the turn, and downshift on the other side of the turn. That's a HUGE no-no on the track; you're never supposed to have the clutch in going through a turn because it minimizes your ability to make throttle adjustments and it can also unsettle the car. So Option 3 is heel-toe: Get MOST of your braking done, clutch in, move your right foot a bit to the right and tilt it over a bit so that you can blip the throttle while still braking, and then let off the clutch and the brake and take the turn. Most cars aren't set up to do this well on the street because you need to have the brake down pretty far (causing harder-than-normal braking for the street) to let your foot blip the throttle while on the brake. The name heel-toe came about because some people tilt their foot such that their heel is on the brake and their toe is on the throttle (or vice versa) but most people actually do it with the left part of their foot on the brake and the right part on the throttle. There are some great YouTube videos to demonstrate this.

Great thanks for the explanation.