Shifting 2012 V6 Manual Transmission

[Steve9]

I just got a used 2012 v6 Mustang Manual with about 55k miles on it.
I absolutely love it.

This is the first "sports car" I have owned and the first sports car I have driven with a manual transmission.
All my past experience with manual transmissions has been with pickup trucks (probably put in about 125k miles driving various manual trucks - never had to replace a clutch - so im no noob to using a manual and i guess i think i know what im doing).

Here is my question/problem:
In my past experience-> slip clutch while you are taking off from a stop in first gear. Every gear after that (because you are already rolling) you just drop the clutch. So shifting into 2nd, 3rd and so on - no slippage required for a smooth transition in to that gear.

My Mustang - I MUST slip the clutch while going into 2nd and 3rd gear or the car will buck or lurch a bit.
The one exception is if im accelerating hard in first gear (getting up in to the high RPM band) I can then drop it in to 2nd with no slipping and its fairly smooth - assuming the tires don't break lose in that shift to second.

Is this normal behavior for a car/sports car/mustang? or is there something wrong with my clutch?

 

[echo7]

You need to wait a half second or so for the rpms to drop before dumping it under a normal, smooth acceleration. Otherwise, you will definitely get a lurch forward. Wait to long, and you'll slow down a little. Foot needs to come completely off the gas for at least half second to a second. And by dumping, i don't mean as fast as you would at a drag strip, just letting it out without much force from your foot.

This 5.0 is my first manual personally, driven many over the years and got bad shifting habits from quads, but this seems to work well for me as I'm still getting better as i put more miles on. Up to almost 5k on it.

 

[Steve9]

Makes perfect sense. I have been experimenting and was randomly accomplishing what you suggest and was struggling to repeat it. thx!

 

[echo7]

Yeah, I still get a little quick at times and notice my shifting getting worse if i haven't driven it for a few days. Then I have to put some thought into it to make it smooth. Eventually I'll retrain myself for it to be second nature.