"It's quite premature to be calling this any kind of a significant downshifting," he said.

To be sure, the downshifting is a bit scary.

It has a "back torque limiting" clutch that allows for slicker downshifting.

The brake pedal and accelerator are smartly placed for heel-and-toe downshifting.

Voluntary Downshifting in the 1990s.

Weak clutches, abrupt downshifting, inexperienced drivers, and aggressive driving can lead to more frequent repair or replacement.

Dyes, rare-earth phosphors and quantum dots are actively investigated for fluorescent downshifting.

The latent function of consumption downshifting is to reduce, to some degree, the carbon footprint of the individual downshifter.

For example, silicon quantum dots enabled downshifting has led to the efficiency enhancement of the state-of-the-art silicon solar cells.

Asked whether he thought the BMW art cars qualified as works of art, Stella did some verbal downshifting.

When the downshifting of the gears and the application of the brakes eventually heralded their arrival at the exercise site, one of the team broke the silence.

He highlighted the administration's new overview: that progress is being made in training Iraqi troops, enough to allow eventually for a gradual downshifting in the role of American forces.

The majority of these downshifts are voluntary choices, but natural, life course events, such as the loss of a job or birth of a child, can prompt involuntary downshifting.

The very top of his voice is uneasy and prone to weariness, but Mr. Giordani's prudent downshifting of gears later in the evening got him safely to the end.

PETER WHITTIER Rockaway, N.J. Downshifting, done properly, can be a useful tool in controlling a car's behavior.

Seamless acceleration without the jerk or jolt from changing gears No frequent downshifting or "gear hunting" on hills Better fuel efficiency For more information, see How CVTs Work.

While Slow Living shares Downshifting's more moderate approach to personal change, the movement is not urban-focused or limited to a particular age group, and it looks beyond finances and consumption to all areas of life.

But instead of "a sustained downshifting," he foresees "a two- to three-month affair," after which, he said, "the solid pace of employment growth will bring consumers back to a healthy level of spending."

THE OVERSPENT AMERICAN Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer.

In a further downshifting of convention coverage in prime time, ABC News announced yesterday that it would not pre-empt two preseason football games scheduled for the opening nights of the Republican and Democratic national conventions.

They join the already existing ranks of New Yorkers whose own chronic suffering - from sickness, poverty, abuse and the downshifting of the economy - formed a nearly invisible backdrop to the suffering caused by that terrible day.

"It's a big, uncharted territory for branding," said Juliet Schor, a Harvard economist and the author of "The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer" (Basic Books, 1998).

In contrast, considerable progress has been made in the exploration of fluorescent downshifting, which converts high-energy light (e. g., UV light) to low-energy light (e. g., red light) with a quantum efficiency smaller than 1.

Experienced drivers can steer with the accelerator (throttle steer), brake with the engine, and rev the throttle while downshifting, a complicated but crafty maneuver known as heel-toe downshifting, which helps prevent high-speed spinouts.