Search found 53 matches

by shiftmate
Sat May 14, 2016 5:48 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Learned something new
Replies: 1
Views: 3394

Learned something new

My downshifts are pretty slow, as I'll: clutch in downshift blip throttle clutch out all in sequence. I just watched this video and I realized that I could be blipping the throttle much earlier - simultaneous with the clutch being disengaged. At 3m30s mark (easier to see if you slow video to 1/4 spe...
by shiftmate
Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:17 am
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Family Stunned After Car Drifts Down Hill, Hits/Kills Woman
Replies: 33
Views: 9058

Family Stunned After Car Drifts Down Hill, Hits/Kills Woman

Reminder to park it in gear. http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2014/02/26/family-stunned-after-car-drifts-down-hill-hits-kills-73-year-old-woman/ Investigators say David Adam Garman, 23, parked his car with the emergency brake on but left it in neutral. It rolled down the hill, apparently picking up spe...
by shiftmate
Sat Oct 05, 2013 4:29 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Doubleclutch downshifting
Replies: 29
Views: 6990

Re: Doubleclutch downshifting

THC, thinking some more about your suggestion to just hold the throttle down, I guess that would work just fine. Since the drive shaft and wheels are decoupled from the input and intermediate shafts, the difference in load on the engine between clutch engaged and clutch disengaged is probably neglig...
by shiftmate
Sat Oct 05, 2013 4:18 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Doubleclutch downshifting
Replies: 29
Views: 6990

Re: Doubleclutch downshifting

If you're not doing it for acceleration and don't intend to get back on the accelerator at least enough for neutral throttle to avoid engine braking, you're doing it for engine braking. In that case your clutch can do the job of raising the engine speed by a few RPM, if you don't want to do a secon...
by shiftmate
Sat Oct 05, 2013 2:04 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Doubleclutch downshifting
Replies: 29
Views: 6990

Re: Doubleclutch downshifting

There's one issue. If you're blipping, you will typically need two blips...One for the double-clutch and another for the rev-match. The engine speed just falls too quickly in most vehicles for one blip to be sufficient without badly overrevving the double-clutch or badly underrevving the rev-match....
by shiftmate
Sat Oct 05, 2013 1:49 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Doubleclutch downshifting
Replies: 29
Views: 6990

Re: Doubleclutch downshifting

^What he said. If your blip is perfect for the synchronizer, it'll be too low by the time you dump the clutch unless you're really fast (which, with practice, you can be). However, since you already need to get back on the accelerator anyway (you're doing this for the sake of accelerating, right?),...
by shiftmate
Sat Oct 05, 2013 10:39 am
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Doubleclutch downshifting
Replies: 29
Views: 6990

Re: Doubleclutch downshifting

Or you could hold it instead of blipping it. Good point. If you do decide to speed stuff up and stick with blipping, remember that the parts that you need to rush are the parts after the blip. That's a pretty simple set of movements; slap clutch pedal to the floor, move shifter one notch (hand shou...
by shiftmate
Sat Oct 05, 2013 8:32 am
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Doubleclutch downshifting
Replies: 29
Views: 6990

Re: Doubleclutch downshifting

Now that I understand the doubleclutch downshift, I've been trying to implement it more often and one of the things I'm discovering is that I need to be a little quicker about it because if I do it slowly, after blipping the throttle in neutral and downshifting, the engine speed will drop quickly en...
by shiftmate
Wed Oct 02, 2013 8:16 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Doubleclutch downshifting
Replies: 29
Views: 6990

Re: Doubleclutch downshifting

Thanks THC! I executed my first DC downshift into 1st gear today. It was really slowly executed, but it felt great to have the shifter slip easily into 1st gear at 5+ mph! Without DC downshifting, I'd have to wait until the car slowed to ~1-2mph for the shifter to slip into 1st gear, even with singl...
by shiftmate
Wed Oct 02, 2013 1:02 am
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Doubleclutch downshifting
Replies: 29
Views: 6990

Doubleclutch downshifting

I wanted to see if my understanding of doubleclutch downshifting is clear. I'll reference the picture below to minimize confusion as to terminology. http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/transmission-simple.gif 1. As I understand it, the purpose of doubleclutch (DC) shifting in unsynchronized transmissions i...
by shiftmate
Sun Sep 29, 2013 5:01 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Bump Starting (push start)
Replies: 51
Views: 17289

Re: Bump Starting (push start)

I push start in 2nd gear, and like THC said, as soon as the engine fires up, clutch pedal in so that you don't stall if you need to brake (assuming you don't have a clear path in front of you to accelerate away) or don't have long enough/sufficient enough gradient to keep the car rolling fast enough...
by shiftmate
Sun Sep 29, 2013 4:39 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Scared about slowing down and speeding up.
Replies: 46
Views: 10015

Re: Scared about slowing down and speeding up.

Sounds like you are getting over your fears of slipping the clutch. As THC noted, slipping is what the clutch is designed to do. As for rolling 2nd gear launches, at very low speed, you can slip the clutch for longer and launch this way, but if I get to crawl speed, say 1-3mph, I prefer to give a li...
by shiftmate
Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:10 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: 1>2 shift
Replies: 73
Views: 21486

Re: 1>2 shift

4. Accept going "VROOOOM!" (by holding a gear and then shifting at higher speed): " When I try to shift faster the RPMs are too high {...} (It sounds like VRRROOOOOM @ 3500rpm and I’m going like 10mph lol). " Oh, I see. The rev drop (to the level appropriate for 2nd gear) will b...
by shiftmate
Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:12 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: Why can't I shift into R while rolling backwards?
Replies: 8
Views: 2790

Why can't I shift into R while rolling backwards?

I wanted to back up a bit, and was facing uphill, so I released the parking brake and started rolling backwards. I wanted to speed it up a little, so I clutched in and tried shifting into R and felt gears grinding. :?
by shiftmate
Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:01 pm
Forum: Manual Driving Tips
Topic: 1>2 shift
Replies: 73
Views: 21486

Re: 1>2 shift

I've got about 8k miles of manual driving under my belt and still feel like a newbie on my 1-2 shift. Same experience as the OP: either I lurch forward a little because the revs were a little too high for 2nd gear at my current speed, or I feel like the car is decelerating a lot before I can get int...