re: double clutch

[David <dave@domain.elided>]

The short explanation:
Double clutching helps weak synchronizers, straight cut/racing gears and old
non-sychro transmissions engage without crunching. Otherwise you'll have to
quickly match gear speed/engine RPM by ear, which takes longer to learn
(probably after you've launched the gears into an adjoining state) and is
less reliable than double clutching.

Alfas traditionally have weak 2nd gear synchros which are balky until the
transmission fluids warms (or downright impossible below 0 degrees
Fahrenheit). Fred DiMatteo once went into a long discussion of why this is
so and how it was not a fault. For me, I learned in the 1970s to go from
first-to-third until everything warmed a bit in cold weather (an Alfetta GT
was my daily driver for over ten years).

Dave Hammond
AROC-Detroit
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