Why does my car sound “clunky” when I change gears quickly?

Quite often a new pupil will try and change gears very quickly. This makes the gearbox clunky and it often feels difficult to get the car in gear. It’s quite difficult to explain to someone about synchromesh while they are learning to drive so I usually resort to just saying they need to change gear smoother and slower. Some of my pupils are more ‘geeky’ minded (like me) so here’s what I think is a good little video explaining what synchromesh is and how it works. It also shows how the movement of the gear lever translates into the different gears, and, why you need them.