Semi auto euro is faster. ;) (experimenting)

[aaronng]

Just practice man. Be smoother on the throttle and clutch. Easy clutch take ups mean smooth gear changes. It sounds like you are too harsh on the clutch.

I find 1st gear is really touchy when driving sedately though, because of the instant responce of the drive by wire throttle. The other gears I find are smoother due to momentum and they have some weight to pull.

Practice at lower rpm's (~2500rpm) changing smoothly. It will make it heaps easy because of the lack of response at low rpm's.

The undesired effect comes when at 4000rpm I am in the process of pressing DOWN the clutch. I am still in 1st gear and haven't changed to 2nd yet.
At 2500rpm, I can shift 1-2 without the passengers excessively bobbing forward. Of course, shifting at 2500rpm means that Camry is ahead of me already.