New Manual Driver - Launching Questions

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theholycow
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Re: New Manual Driver - Launching Questions

Post by theholycow »

daleadbull wrote:
theholycow wrote:I knew the clutch was completely hooked up when the car stopped accelerating (given that RPM is held constant). Your car may vary.
What do you mean stopped accelerating?
I mean it reaches a steady speed and does not accelerate.

Car is going 0mph. I begin to engage clutch and pause while it's grabbing. Car is going 1mph. 2mph. 3mph. 4mph. 4mph. 4mph. Oh, it's not accelerating anymore, must be fully hooked up...now I can finish up my clutch work.

Of course, it takes longer to read that than for all of that to happen, and it's not a bunch of separate events; that's just the way to describe it. It's not like I was driving down the road at 4mph for a half mile trying to decide if the clutch is hooked up.
Lets say you take the "feel" out of the equation. Just by looking at the tach alone, How do you know its fully hooked up, when the tach dips then comes back up again?
That's approximately right...though with a perfect steady-RPM launch (if you're into that sort of thing) you won't see any movement at the tach.
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daleadbull
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Re: New Manual Driver - Launching Questions

Post by daleadbull »

theholycow wrote:That's approximately right...though with a perfect steady-RPM launch (if you're into that sort of thing) you won't see any movement at the tach.
Is that even possible? Doesn't the tach always dip as the clutch engages when launching no matter how you launch? I've seen videos of people do a perfect hard launch, even then the RPMs drop as the torque is transferred from the engine to the tires and the tires get traction.

I don't really look at my tach when I launch so I'm not sure.
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theholycow
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Re: New Manual Driver - Launching Questions

Post by theholycow »

With practice you can get pretty close by seesawing the pedals just right.
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Re: New Manual Driver - Launching Questions

Post by Squint »

theholycow wrote:With practice you can get pretty close by seesawing the pedals just right.
Alternatively, you could just have a broken/jumpy tach like in the 02 Altima I drove yesterday. It would skip around, so I could have had perfect launches and the tach wouldn't have told me :lol: :lol:

But yeah, normally there is just a small drop once you get a lot of practice, if any. Some of it depends on your vehicle and your driving style.
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Re: New Manual Driver - Launching Questions

Post by daleadbull »

My left foot just refuses to come off from the friction point smoothly while launching. I either leave it at the friction point too long and burn clutch/bog or I take it off too abruptly and jerk or even stall. Any tips for me?
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Shadow
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Re: New Manual Driver - Launching Questions

Post by Shadow »

daleadbull wrote:My left foot just refuses to come off from the friction point smoothly while launching. I either leave it at the friction point too long and burn clutch/bog or I take it off too abruptly and jerk or even stall. Any tips for me?
Practice.

Practice.

Practice.

That's really all the advice you need. Train your left leg and it will soon become more muscle memory than anything else. Trust me, you won't even need to make a conscious effort after a while.
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