Quote:
Originally Posted by orionredwing
Q: On a HARD brake (not slamming the brakes), how many of you guys unintentionally leave your car in neutral because you have the clutch depressed, even though you have moved your shifter to the lower gear?
....just thought I'd start a new Q: in the spirit of the thread.
As I slow down, I usually downshift to go with it, but when I brake hard, I usually have the clutch depressed and end up in neutral. That's because when I brake hard, it's a natural feeling to keep both feet depressed in the same direction (left foot clutch, right foot brake). Your attention is also typically diverted by the traffic situation which caused you to brake hard in the first place.
Except for that, it's all good. I had put 95K miles on my Prelude on my original clutch b4 I sold the car, and the clutch was still good. No slips at all, despite aggressive driving / downshifting, etc. Of course, that car didn't have much torque, so it was easier on the clutch, but still, 95K miles on the original clutch shows I didn't have too many bad shifting habits  |
You should never slam the brakes. The brakes should be squeezed. With practice you can learn to "threshold" brake (brake hard but still not lock the brakes). If this is done well you can outperform ABS. If you are turning while braking you will have to "give back" some brakes to allow the car to turn. At the exteme these techniques can be used to "rotate" the car and point it into a turn. The clutch should only be depressed when you are changing gears and then only for a very short time. You want to minimize the amount of time that the engine is not coupled to the drive wheels.
Skip Barber racing (
www.skipbarber.com) has a book and a video called "Going Faster" that explains these techniques very clearly.
http://store.nexternal.com/shared/St...unt2=118369698