My first car was equipped with a manual gearbox and my father taught me how to double clutch when downshifting. He used to race a fair bit in Belgium before coming to the States back in '55 with mom, my older brother and two older sisters. He spent a fair bit of time with Paul Frere, before Paul became famous as a race driver (class wins in the Mille Miglia, overall at LeMans, etc) and journalist. I've been using this technique ever since, and that first car (a 1974 Dodge (Mitsubishi) Colt GT) went 198,000 miles with only a handful of adjustments to the clutch. Later on my 1984 BMW 318i needed the thrown out bearing replaced at 145,000 miles but the clutch itself was still going good when I got rid of the car at 189,000 miles. I'm either incredibily adept at the task, or it simply ain't hurtin' nothin'

With the Crossfire my wife can hear me coming home as our house sits on the side of a hill overlooking the main road where, with clear traffic, I approach downhill in 5th and heel/toe and double clutch my way to 4th, 3rd and finally to 2nd to make the corner into our development. She can hear the Magnaflow exhaust ripping off those shifts and says even the dogs have gotten to know the sound - daddy's home!!!!