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Originally Posted by shakran
double clutching:
you're in first gear, ready to go to second (or vice versa)
Clutch in, start shifting. As the shifter passes through neutral, clutch out, then blip the throttle to match the engine revs to the revs it will be doing in whatever gear you're going to, clutch back in, put it in gear, and clutch back out.
The only clutch component you're wearing on is the spring, which generally lasts a LOT longer than the friction material anyway. Because you're rev matching, you're not really wearing out the friction material because it's not spinning against something that's going a different speed.
If you do this correctly then the only place you're really causing any wear at all on the transmission/clutch is when you're starting out in 1st gear, since you have to slip the clutch a bit there.
btw NG, you can downshift to 2nd at 45 and still be smooth as silk, if you properly match the engine revs to the tranny revs.
In fact, if you wanna be technical about it, if you get good enough at rev matching you can shift without the clutch at all. If the engine is going at EXACTLY the RPM it will be going in the new gear, the shifter will slip right in without needing the clutch. It's a handy trick to know, especially when the clutch cable decides to break on you 50 miles from the middle of nowhere.
A lot of semi drivers do this to save wear on the clutch - that's why when they shift gears as they're getting going you hear a long pause between gears - they're waiting for the engine RPM to drop to that of the new gear.
Note that when you're learning how to do this you're going to crunch the gears a LOT, so do it on a car you don't care about  |
I've shifted without a clutch (yep, cable had broken), but I sure wouldn't recommend it. There's a reason there's a clutch pedal.
It might save wear on the pedal, it's not great for the tranny if you're just playing.
When starting out driving a clutch, matching 'revs' isn't going to come naturally,( I really don't know about tranny 'revs', I drive by RPM's) hence following the RPM's, attuning yourself to the car's performance and practice, practice practice. I know my car can be driven two different ways: normal or speed-shifting. The speed shifting, for highway driving, allows the gears to go much higher so I can hit about 50 in 2nd before having to shift again to 3rd.
My previous cars, VW's and a Plymouth Colt, had spring-based clutches; my present car, a PT, has a hydraulic clutch-much much smoother, easier on the foot and easier to keep the car still when balancing the clutch and gas on hills, another method he should practice a great deal. Get it right and he won't roll at all.
You know you're doing it all right when a passenger in the car doesn't know until later that you were driving a stick.