There's certainly a tremendous amount of thought that goes into it when driven aggressively on track, or your favorite challenging twisting road. Experience and skill allows one to perform much of it subconsciously, but it is completely engaging, and often at high risk if not done well. The driver keeps track of the current gear in order to select the next gear he'll select, shifts are planned based on reading the road ahead, upshift rpm points are done by ear, next gear selected based on knowing the current gear, timing the upshift so as not to unbalance the car during cornering/cresting/low grip, co-ordinating the clutch/throttle/lever into the correct gear and doing it smoothly to maintain car control when approaching the limits of adhesion, downshifting planned and executed often while under hard braking, done by ear, driver providing the timing and amount of throttle blip to maintain rear tire grip and car control, or loss of rear grip done purposely to pivot the rear of the car in a very tight corner, corner exit gear planned prior to entering the corner to prevent mid-corner shifting and ensure maximum exit speed and control. You have to do all of that correctly in rapid-fire succession on a race track, while passing cars, analysing the road ahead, monitoring other traffic in your mirrors, picking brake points and so on, and do it dozens of times within maybe 90 seconds around a 2.5 mile track at speeds up to 150 mph! You definitely have to put some thought into it on a race track or favorite twisty road driven aggressively, although things are a lot more relaxed when cruising around town. You need to get out on the track with yours...and post those videos!!!
A track friend with a GT-R with DCT finds his quickest lap times are in full auto mode and he doesn't have to do anything related to shifting that I mentioned above. That makes it a lot less engaging.
Bruce
