you blip the throttle while downshifting to match your revs. purpose is to have smooth downshifts or w/ heel toe downshifts. especially needed w/ race clutches...

thank you very much...

It is kind of fun to do it around town occasionally.

im still a little unclear on how to do it..i wish they had some video or instruction manual :laugh: ...as far as driving a manual everyone says im ok...but being a perfectionist im always pissed off or worried that i shift all wrong or do things in down shifting im not supposed to do...but i have no idea what to compare it to so i dont know...i guess ill find out over time....plus it doesnt help that i learned with the good old 1g extreamly loose shifter ...

i rev match EVERY time i downshift... otherwise just putting it in a lower gear and letting off the clutch will make your car jerk like no tomorrow...

i.e., on a 5th to 3rd gear downshift at 70 mph i'll clutch-rev to ~5500-clutch... this way i'll slide into 3rd gear real nice and be ready for a nice highway run

Ya i'm confused also on the rev matching, i mean i know what it is and i've seen people do it also in drifting videos and road courses they heel toe it for around corner downshifting.

But can someone explain WHAT is going on when u rev match? like whats happening with the engine when u do that as opposed to what is happening when u dont.

Normally when i downshift if i'm high rpms in that gear iw ill just let the clutch out slow so the rpms dont shoot up really fast from shifting into a lower gear. Im sure thats bad for the clutch, can someone clarify a better technique for my downshifting and explain it to me thoroughly plzzzzzz.

In a nutshell when you downshift your transmission speeds up and so your engine therefore has to also. So by rev matching your doing the work that your transmission would have to do. That's what syncro's are for, they match the engine speed to the transmission speed so by rev matching you'll be prolonging syncro/clutch life. This isn't a super detail explination but I hope it helps.

There is a video of a guy demonstrating it in this link. I think it's video #8.

http://www.standardshift.com/videos.html

yes, that helps me understand why its important, im just unsure about how to do it..... ...im sorry to be so inquisitive about it though...

ohh ok...thank yu very much for the video link....

Generation1JeY said:

Ya i'm confused also on the rev matching, i mean i know what it is and i've seen people do it also in drifting videos and road courses they heel toe it for around corner downshifting.

But can someone explain WHAT is going on when u rev match? like whats happening with the engine when u do that as opposed to what is happening when u dont.

Normally when i downshift if i'm high rpms in that gear iw ill just let the clutch out slow so the rpms dont shoot up really fast from shifting into a lower gear. Im sure thats bad for the clutch, can someone clarify a better technique for my downshifting and explain it to me thoroughly plzzzzzz.

Click to expand...

I'm sure when you try your version of the downshift you can feel the car hesitating a little and possibly shifting weight forward. Either way you're still damaging parts without rev matching.
I'll try to explain it as well as I can...
To go 40 mph in 4th gear you'll be at about 2000 RPM, to go 40 mph in 2nd gear you'll be at about 4000-4500 (?) RPM. The reason for this is obviously the gearing. If you're going 40 in 5th and you clutch, shift to second (probably noticing it'll be a little harder to get in than normal shifting) and dump or even just let off the clutch slowly, you'll notice the engine "revs itself" up to the speed it needs. This is because while you shift and manipulate the clutch and what not your engine speed is falling or maybe staying the same (depending on how fast you shift) while your wheels/drivetrain is still moving at more or less the same speed. Due to the change of gearing after you shift, the transmission will be moving at a greater speed, and thus the engine will need to go to a higher RPM to match this extra speed.
But if you rev match, you can avert this shock because the engine will already be moving at the same speed as the transmission when you release the clutch, making for a smoother transmission and a lot less damage.

If you just let off the clutch slowly, you're killing your synchros, which have to work really hard to compensate for this, and thus will spit on you then die eventually

Sorry if that isn't clear, hard to think straight after not sleeping for a while.

Rev-matching while braking is where the term "heel and toe" braking came from. It's because to match revs you need to be pressing two pedals (the clutch and the gas), but doing that while braking is tricky. Heel-and-toe means you mash the brake pedal with your right foot, but while you're on the brakes, you roll part of your right foot over to the gas pedal to get the RPMs up so they're correct for your downshift. This is very helpful when you're at the road race track.

--Dan
Mach V

I rarely ever rev match. If so I just tap the throttle to get the rpm's going. Been doing it for years with no tranny problems.

It has become so ingrained in my driving that it would take mental effort not to rev match or heel toe. I have gotten to the point where 95 percent on up and downshifts someone listining would never know when I let the clutch out.
It was explained pretty well but I thouht I would just add that you want to learn the rpm change between gears. If you are in third gear and your rpms are 2,000 and in second they are 3,000 then at that speed shifting from third to second rev the motor up to 3,000 as you slide it into gear, as you let the clutch out the RPMs should stay within a couple hunderd RPMs of where you have set it with the accelerator. Next you just have to get a feel for how much it changes at every speed in every gear which just takes paying attention and a little time. If you read this thread they talk about ways to shift to be nicer to your car.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146696

I have trained myself to shift the way I want and do so all the time because in a performance situation I want the automatic program to know one way of doing things.
Next step is left foot braking but I have had a much harder time picking that up. It may also have to do with spending so much time programing myself to brake the way I do now.