Clutch Techniques??

[Village]

So being new to the whole standard driving thing... (3 months or so) I was curious as to what everyones techniques were, both for standard driving and when they are racing. Also being nobody taught me how to drive standard, I bought the car and braved it home barely able to get the thing going from a start and slowly been progressing from there. Only real trouble is hills and wet with someone on my bumper, they make me nervous so I end up spinning tires. =)

For me right now, I find that getting from 1st to 2nd is difficult to do smooth. But I think that may be more syncro's more or less shot. For standard driving, I let off the gas while shifting and press it back on slow just as it engages the gear.

[zank]

I had the same problem when I got my blackpra, uphill with water and someone on my ass on a red light :x . IM sure youll get use to it :wink:

ohh and if you have a 5MGE I would shift at 5200 RPM's when racing at the track :wink:

HTH's

[BillyM]

Disregard his race-shift comment, 5800 is the place to do it at, unless you have airflow mods, then higher.

My best advice, do not hesitate. Commit to the shift. The jerky feeling in a shift is you hesitating. Slip that clutch out, mash that accelerator in.

--BillyM

[quick]

Teach yourself to rev match and then progress to heel-toe. It makes the experience much more fun. :)

[SupraFiend]

but don't worry about that stuff for at least a year. It takes a long time for shifting to become completely natural. What you want to do above all else is concentrate on being smooth. When you can smoothly progress up and down through all the gears without riding the clutch and/or jerking the car consistently, then start thinking about fancier stuff.

[BillyM]

If and when clutching does not work, big smokey burnouts are a good alternative.

--BillyM, offen goes for the burnouts.

[Zombiepup]

A good alternative to getting nervous about someone on your ass on a wet hill, is to simply pull the parking brake. If the brake is working properly then it should hold the car in place. When ready to move, put the car in first, give it some gas till you can feel it start to want to pull, then drop the parking brake. You should take off without any wheelspin or rolling back.

As a professional truck driver, I use this trick all the time, in both commercial and private rigs.

[Village]

So far I've tried to avoid using the parking brake. Force myself to do it without. I'm at the point that unless it's really sharp hill there isn't any real noticeble roll back. Just somtimes I slip and gun it..

[CST]

yeah, you can use the parking brake, I do it sometimes in bad weather and I sure get that enough.
What's a good launch RPM? I use 2500RPM then let the clutch of somewhat slowly.. is that a good RPM and would it be better to just pop it instead of letting off nice and slow?

[MKII boy]

when i first got my Poopra, the engine had some issues (it still does); the car loved to bog down at about 1500rpm, so i had to launch the car at about 2500-3000rpm to keep it from stuttering. my dad taught me that e-brake method; it's pretty useful, but somewhat tricky (for me at least). usually for shifting from first to second and second to third, i let the clutch out a little slower (not as slow as to be riding it), but for shifting from third to fourth and fourth to fifth, i was taught to clutch quickly.

-Evan

[oldschool85]

what is rev-matching????i never heard of it butta maybe ive done it before with out noticing. What do all you 7m guys launch at?

charlie

[quick]

rev-match: used when downshifting. purpose is to downshift without upsetting the car. procedure:
1. You are driving along in a given gear and want to downshift for whatever reason (e.g. get back into powerband).
2. Press clutch in. Shift car to neutral.
3. Let clutch out with car in neutral. Notice that the revs drop.
4. Blip throttle to get revs into range such that when engine is put back into gear it does not lurch in any way.
5. Press clutch in again and shift to lower gear. Let clutch out.

This is all done quite quickly, but you can do it slowly at first.

[oldschool85]

isnt that the same as double-clutching???

[wingnut]

yes hes basicly saying heel toe rev matching are same thing i think

i never understood the whole go into nutral thing if i gotta do it and i dont cuz i have all sycroed gears ide just hit the break push clutch inrev and thro it in gear

but with turboed cars u can use left foot breaking

this is so u can keep on the gas and have the boost for exiting the turn rather than getting lag this is what the quattro guys did back in the day :roll:

[quick]

You don't have to rev-match when you double-clutch.

It goes like this (additive):
-double clutch
-rev match
-heel and toe

You're right that left foot braking will spool the turbo through a corner.

[CST]

actually if you give it a little extra power when you double clutch you can get a little extra jump when you enter the gear. Probably not great on your clutch but it works.