As I read through alot of these post on the forums I see people say "If they are a good driver they will catch the STI" or something along those lines. I assume you all are talking about shifting in and out of gear. My question is this, what do you mean by being "Good". How do you define it? My friend was telling me that I granny shift. He was trying to explain to me that after the launch you want to keep your foot on the gas while you are shifting to get the most out of the gears catching. Something like that. I was just wondering what your take on this was.

-W

 

Well if your shifting is really slow and you stayed on the gas you'd just end up bouncing off the limiter durring your shift. Otherwise you could keep at least partial throttle durring the shift to keep rpms from dropping. *shrug*

I'd define "good" as being able to get off the line more than just catching your shifts tho. Even an average driver won't lose too much time on a shift vs a fantastic one (tenths or possibly hundredths of a second?). But someone who doesn't know what the hell they are doing could instead sit on the line roasting their tires and lose a full second or two. [sm=icon_beat.gif]

 

Yea. What he said. I find myself having to backpeddle to keep traction.

 

What your friend is talking about is power shifting. And its great to improve your shifting times and so forth. And, oh yea, its a good way to tear the ***t out of your drivetrain in just a few months. Its fine for every once in a while.......but DO NOT continuously powershift your car or you will be in the transmission shop sooner rather than later.
BTW, tell your friend that you'll stop "granny shifting" when you have a few extra thousand to plop down on a new clutch and/or tranny. I just know too many ppl who do this cuz they think its the best way to shift.......then they wonder why their cars start spittin out rotors at 4500 rpms.

 

I have to agree. Focus on a good launch and let off the gas during shifts, speed shifting with the gas to the floor is almost as bad as holding on the gas and throwing an auto in gear: you are forcing the metal of the drivetrain to do the clutches job.

[sm=noooo.gif]


Smoke the clutch a little between shifts if you want to accelerate faster/smother. Clutches are much cheaper than driveshafts and differentials... Besides, you do not have to hurt the car to out-accelerate 90% of the cars on the road anyway.

 

OOOOOR....you could buy an AUTO, flash the computer, and have it shift when it really should instead of whats best for gas mileage.....then you don't have to worry about human error....perfect shifts every time

 

The best way to shift IMO, is not to power shift as that puts a lot of stress on a number of components and a missed shift can bounce you off of the rev limiter, or worse. A "Good" shift should be quick enough that your engine doesnt have time to wind down between gears, fast is good, but keeping your tranny for 200000 miles is much, much better.

 

Yea i mean i could care less what he thinks about how i shift. I had my old 00 Gt vert and i didnthave to replace the clutchuntil about 130k miles. I was more curious about how you consider a good shift.

-W

 

A good shift is one that successfully moves you from one gear to the next highest gear without missing it or stalling the engine. That's pretty much it.

 

What about double... shifting... or whatever its called. When I race I dont hold the throttle down just because rpms climb too high, no way to catch it if I shift at 5500 rpm. So instead I goose the throttle right im shifting out of gear, and the rpms hold until I let the clutch out again. I cant think of any reasons why this would be different (or much different) race wise, and it seems like it would be easier on the drive train