I am fairly young and have actually never had the chance to drive a manual car yet, always CVT as far as I know and this is the first DCT car I have ever driven. I understand the basic concepts of shifting the engine up gears to make it harder for the engine to turn and thus creating more force forward at lower RPMs and then going back down but before playing around with changing gear manually even while in Auto I want to make sure I won't accidently money shift or otherwise harm the transmission. I am first wondering if the automated part would kickin to prevent me from going into a gear that I shouldn't (as long as I'm not in manual mode) and second how the clutches are supposed to work beyond just shifting the gears up and down. I've seen that you can use both to engage what would be the clutch pedal, but having never driven a manual I don't necessarily understand what the clutch pedal would have done. Can you do this while you are moving or do you have to be at a complete stop and what is the difference vs revving in neutral? Thanks for taking the time to answer my probably ridiculously basic questions.

 

Go to the Chevrolet.com website and download a copy of the Owner's Manual. It has a section on Driving and Operating that I think you will find interesting. After reading it, you may be able to ask more specific questions about how it works. There are some variations between the Z06, Stingray, and ERay, all of which are in the 2024 manual. The 2023 manual does not include the ERay. The 2022 Manual does not include ERay or Z06. You might start by reading that one.

This link will take you to the place where you can download manuals and other guides associated with the C8.
https://www.chevrolet.com/support/ve...manuals-guides

This link includes an introduction to the C8 and discusses some details about the internals of the transmission. There are plenty of other articles about it if you do some research.
https://gm-techlink.com/?p=12881

 

The car will not let you overrev the motor.

 

No way to over rev the motor and yes, you can pull both paddles at any time and rev the engine just like pressing a clutch pedal.

 

Just put it in D and let it go to work for you, no worries. In track mode the shift points are a little higher, but you can always pull a paddle and upshift at any time.

Once you get the feel of it, try M mode and shift the gears. The only problem in M mode is when I come to a stop the car downshifts into first.
Then I take off and forget it is in M, so it revs pretty high until I pull a shift. It is super easy to learn.

 

I scared myself when I was using the paddles during my break-in period and would downshift by mistake.

 

If you're in east TN you can see mine, functions like an automatic while in D. I've never used drive, always manual. It instantly upshifts and downshifts. It won't accept a shift request if the result is too low or too high of an rpm (you can repeatedly click upshift but it won't stall out the motor or over rev. If you don't shift fast enough you'll bounce the rev limiter.

At a stop it automatically disengaged the clutch and will slip to let you creep. Only real harm in a dct vs a normal auto is letting go of the brakes on a hill will wear the clutch as it slips to hold you still.

It is not as engaging as a manual but beat an auto

 

And, as you very likely know, that is the one area (during break in only) where the car will not prevent the operator from exceeding the specified rpm limit of 4000 rpm. The rev limiter and shift points are designed to prevent exceeding 6600 or there about. It is possible to downshift automatically or manually and exceed 4000 rpm even during break in. The actual redline after break in is 6600 according to the brochure, but it might cut in a little before that - I do not know.

 

Shhhhhhh........

I may have gone over the 4000RPM! I have a very twisty road leading to the road my house is on and I use my paddle shifters a lot on that road. There is a 90 degree turn which I downshift into 2nd to take while applying the brake and on two occasions I hit the paddle twice.

 

This is a CVT Transmission !!

 

Most modern cars have that safeguard built in.