Re: shifting

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

I can't imagine downshifting on a track without matching revs, that seems 
completely nuts.  But then again, I think it's completely nuts to do so on 
the street, and I feel the same way about holding the clutch in at traffic 
lights, etc, so maybe I'm just anal.  But on a track, I would think such a 
downshift would throw you off the road!
So I think I should point out that while we've been arguing the relative 
merits of synchromesh vs. double-clutching to match the speeds of the two 
shafts in the gearbox, no one has suggested that we shouldn't match revs 
(e.g. heel & toe) prior to clutch engagement (although that's how I 
initially misread Fred's first post on the topic).  Anyone who fails to do 
so and induces the "WHOOSH" that Tess refers to doesn't know how to drive, 
and shouldn't be on the road, much less the track, IMHO.  (And if they have 
such a huge clutch budget they can just give that to me when we take their 
license(s) away!)
Perhaps this misunderstanding is why we've gotten into the pointless 
discussion of clutch wear.  As several people have pointed out, wear on the 
friction surfaces is negligible whether you use the synchros or you double 
clutch to effect smooth engagement of the next gear.  I'm tempted to 
suggest that when you double-clutch, the throwout bearing and hydraulics 
actually get less wear, because rather than holding the clutch down 
(throwout bearing in use, hydraulics holding pressure) for the whole shift, 
you give them a break in mid-shift, so they're stressed for less total time.


--On Thursday, August 8, 2002 6:22 PM +0000 alfa-digest 
<owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided> wrote:


> I haven't been to Summit Point, but for me, Pacific Raceways (formerly
> SIR) in Seattle and Bremerton Raceway in Bremerton differ a lot from PIR
> down in Portland (as an example). I used left-foot braking a lot at PIR
> when I drove a 911 there; there's also pretty much no place where an
> instructor will tell you to sequential downshift -- at least no
> instructor that I ever had. It's been a while since I've been there but
> I do remember tight turns or squiggles (can't remember exactly) leading
> onto the front straight which allow a good quick downshift however you
> want to do it, as long as it's not sequential. And I wanted to be
> smooth to carry as much speed as I could going into the front straight.
> At PR and Bremerton, some people sequential downshift going downhill into
> 3a/3b and sometimes into the Indy turn (turn 2), but I think these are
> usually the Novices. At higher speed I think it upsets the car too much.
> There are those who go downhill into 3a in NEUTRAL to save what they
> believe to be the balance of the car. Especially SOVREN drivers -- you
> can watch a race from 3a and hear the engine noise coming down the
> stright, through turn 2 and up over the crest and down toward 3a, then
> all  of a sudden, there's no engine noise and you hear squealing brakes
> instead. I cringe when I'm working a turn at a track day and I hear
> someone blasting down the straight, sequentially downshifting into turn
> 2. You can see the car lurch upwards, hear the engine go WHOOM, see the
> car lurch again, hear the engine go WHOOM again, and it seems like way
> too  much is going on, it can't be good for the car or the driver.
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