I've had my car for 4 mos. now and I've only mis-shifted once, and thats because I was distracted.

 

That's what she said, but I had to show her what's up

 

When do racers, and not truckers, ever do that in modern times? What you just described sounds like double clutching, which is a waste of time as your car probably should have a synchronizer.


The only real solution is to just be careful...as Aliiin stated (I'm that old roommate of his ) the way you hold the shifter is one of the key factors in many misshifts. palm it from top, don't grip it like a pistol, hence the "pistol grip".

 

Professional race car drivers still double clutch. Although many experienced drivers just heel-toe on down shifts. Synchro-mesh makes these techniques unnecessary for daily driving but they are still used on tracks.
See: Gary Sheehan

more double clutch downshifting

to the OP: Like most people said, just keep practicing. The only 'safety' feature of the transmission is the fact that it should be a lot harder to downshift into the wrong gear because the engine speed and wheel speed are so different, putting more strain on your synchros.

 

Why would double clutching be used on the tracks? Like...what benefits wold that yield on a synchromeshed car?

 

what i do sometimes which might be wierd, is pistol grip it (kinda) but upside down, so holding a pistol upside down with the otherside of your palm pointing towards the driver side door. i dont know but its fun and havent had any mis shifting with that, although i dont drive a manual, just my friends.

 

Here's what you need

Attachment 79348

shouldnt cost much lol

 

Having the clutch in is not the same as being in neutral. While the clutch pedal is depressed (clutch disengaged) the input shaft is not engaged and thus not being sped up as you blip the throttle. Double clutching allows you to engage the input shaft, rev match the input side of the transmission as well as the engine so that it will match the gear speed selected for the downshift. Synchros make this whole process unnecessary, but on a track one is usually operating on the limits of tire grip where overcoming the inertia of the transmission components could upset the chassis by forcing the synchros to resolve the speed difference. This also puts less strain on the transmission and is particularly useful for non sequential downshifts such as 4th to 2nd as well as for downshifting into 1st on a hairpin for example. Most of the time though, heel/toe is sufficient because the synchros work well and the input shaft is not as massive as the clutch/flywheel assembly.
I also believe some track cars eliminate synchros to reduce drive train power loss, in which case double clutching becomes a necessity.

This is my understanding, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Most harcore track cars use either dog gears or a hydraulic tranny, neither of which require double clutching.

Double clutching is a thing of the past, only required with older cars or cars with blown synchros.

 

What the? But Vin Diesel said not double-clutching when you should is what caused Paul Walker to lose the first race in The Fast and The Furious... So double-clutching FTW!!

 

LOL! can't wait for part 4 to come out!!! I think there's going to be some G's in there..

 

I right understand all of that. But I guess it just seems very negligible in terms of time saving. The time reduction you get from getting the input shaft up to speed subtracted by the time to shift it into neutral, blipping, and putting it into gear just seems to be almost nil, but I'm assuming the car has a competent synchromesh as you have said.

 

.. is it possible to convert a normal booted shifter to a gated shifter?
Gated shifters look awesome, but I've heard they can be somewhat cumbersome or slower than normal ones.

 

There is no time savings to be gained from double clutching. There's also no time lost from double clutching. The only reason I do it is because it significantly reduces synchro wear for very little extra effort and no lost time. Mechanical empathy for the car without sacrificing performance is a long term win. It increases transmission rebuild intervals, which reduces costs and allows resources to work on development rather than maintenance. Also, a part that is less stressed has less chance of breaking during a race, and finishing races is half the battle.

Gary Sheehan
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.garysheehan.com

 

There's no such thing as the "gates locking out"

The resistance you feel trying to go into the wrong gear comes from the collars not wanting to engage due to a large difference in rotational velocity. The syncros will try to reconcile that difference to allow the gear to engage (the stick to slip into the "gate"), but if the difference is too large you will feel a lot of resistance as the synchros are not magical.