So I was driving my car, downshifting. And suddenly friend of mine screamed, “You are going to ruin your transmission driving like this”.

In order to downshift I rev match by depressing the clutch, then selecting new gear, bringing up RPM to what they have to be and then while I am still on gas at I let the clutch go. I have been driving like this for 3 years now. And now he is telling me that it is not right.

Any comments?

 

I think your friend needs schooled on manual transmissions!

 

As long as your matching the revs its no problem, it's the only way to go at the track.

 

Your friend eats glue.

/thread

 

Heyyyyy....I like glue. It holds me together sometimes!!!

 

You and your friend are both wrong actually.

Both you and your friend will wear your syncros by rev matching that way. In order to properly rev match a downshift to put no wear on your syncros you should:

1. Press in the clutch
2. Select neutral
3. Release the clutch
4. Blip the throttle
5. Press in the clutch
6. Select the gear
7. Release the clutch

You can do this within a fraction of a second with some practice. I taught my girlfriend to do this over a year ago and its made her downshifting much smoother.

Your way is better than his because its smoother, however you're still causing your syncros to do some work. If you do your method while braking, its not as bad (many road racers will do this because its the fastest way to slow down). Of course true road racers only care about their tranny lasting for the race they're currently in.

 

I thought it was pointless to double clutch with our tranny?

 

Its "pointless" if you don't care about your syncros. They're designed to rev match for you. They'll wear out and your gears will start to grind at 75k+ miles of driving. So if you don't expect to keep your car longer than that, it won't really matter.

 

How about you just don't downshift and use your brakes. I believe a new pair of pads is slightly cheaper than a transmission/clutch/syncro.

 

Hehe... I wonder if I could have double clutched racing that cammed evo and saved my 5th gear Stupid T-56 synchros...grrrrr

 

Wrong. Clutch is pressed in only once, new gear selected, throttle blip, released. That's what I do road racing.

 

+1 I don't see the point in downshifting on a regular basis

 

Did you pull this info from your favorite F&F website?

 

I don't do it much on the street. Usually only when racing. Sometimes on off ramps.

 

Downshifting is fun, sounds good and smoothness. And i'm going to call bs on the double clutching.

 

Step 3 isn't necessary, you can keep the clutch depressed...start braking, press in clutch, roll your ankle over, which blips the gas, down shift to second or whatever gear you want, and then hit the gas and let the clutch out...it's simple.

 

Actually, shouldn't you blip the throttle to rev match before selecting the new gear? guess it doesn't matter that much as long as the revs are match before the clutch is released...

+1 on double clutching being unneccessary; that's what synchros are FOR. As long as you rev match, you'll get nice, long life out of the synchros.

As for the OP's explained method, he describes it as "bringing up RPM to what they have to be and then while I am still on gas at I let the clutch go". You should really just blip the throttle and release it, then let out the clutch and re-apply the throttle simultaneously as the RPMs drop to the target range. Takes practice, but it'll make for quicker, smoother downshifts going into a corner.

 

So, which is it?

Is double-clutching necessary?
What I've always done (no 350Z yet... but eventually ) is...

Clutch in
Select lower gear
Blip throttle
Clutch out


Unless I was downshifting for the sake of going faster, in which case my old Celica was perfect... the RPM's would jump if you were at full throttle before hitting the clutch (releasing the throttle of course).
I'm sure it wasn't because I suck, as most Celica owners reported the "problem" - but, in reallity, that jump in RPM put you spot-on for the next gear down.. no rev-matching needed. Just full throttle in current gear, downshift, and jump on the throttle. It was perfect

 

there is absolutely no point to double clutching.


1 - clutch in
2 - out of gear
3 - pop the throttle some
4 - shift into lower gear
5 - release clutch


gd people acting like they know **** or something.

 

I usually make sure that the shifter is fully in the gate before I blip the throttle to prevent grindage and lock out.

Clutch in, shift, blip, release clutch.

I'll try and find some in-car videos of when I was racing at Carolina Motorsports Park two weeks ago.