Assume you’re running manual w/clutch, you’re in 6th at the end of a straight, and you intend to take the next corner in 3rd.
When do you downshift? All 3 right away as soon as you start braking? Space out the 3 along the braking zone? All 3 at once toward the end of the braking zone?
Do you blip the throttle?
Are these answers different depending on FWD/RWD/AWD, or decel diff settings, or any attribute of the specific car? Does trail braking change the answer?
Thanks.
Me personally for awd and Rwd I downshift in this instance to 4th as quick as possible to help with braking. To keep the car from losing grip though I will wait .5 a second before shifting into my exit gear to make sure that my rpm are in the desired range to limit corner entry oversteer. That’s more for a trail braking going into the corner. The more straight brake corners I will downshift as fast as possible to minimize braking distance.
Thanks! Do you blip the throttle?
Short answer… usually no. If I’m bliping the throttle it normally means I broke to early and aggressively so that blip is to get me to the corner lol.
I do not throttle blip because I’m running out of brain agility to do so using the controller. Brake, clutch hold, downshift, blip, clutch release . . . that’s a lot of button presses.
Yesterday I was just cruising around in 1st gear without the clutch and noticed that sudden clutch release without throttle blip has quite a significant impact. Could also justify why I have to move the brake bias so far back for RWDs. Maybe I’ll switch back to no clutch shifting and see if I can feel the difference . . .
I down shift as eairly as possible (all separate and not all 3 in one clutch) (as I start braking)
Yes always
Yes, AWD allows you to downshift more aggressively because Downshifting too much locks up the drivable wheels/diff and AWD has more diffs/tyers.
I always blip the throttle, rev matches the rpms, with my diff decel at 60% it keeps the car very stable. If I don’t blip it can get squirrelly, but u don’t have to have diff setting like mine, then u could get by without blipping…
Depends on how quickly I need to slow down. Varies depending on corner. If it’s a sharp basic corner then yea I’ll try my best to get deep into the brake zone and I downshift very quickly. If it’s a corner like corner 1 of indy gp it depends on the gearing and what works so as not to lose momentum.
Always. Learned it in FM3 and it’s muscle memory now. I highly recommend it for rwd cars because it keeps the rear in check. May not be needed if you run TCS or rwd cars with understeer.
Car will determine braking. I have cars that on one corner I can brake late and downshift rapidly and be ok. Other times my car gets upset like on that left hander after the long back stretch on bathurst and I have to be a tad conservative.
Rev matching with clutch is important for the most part. If you run low diff settings so the diff is more open then it won’t harm you as much when the diff is trying to match the speed of the rpms and the more open it is just one tire will lock up. Rwd will tend to oversteer without rev match and Awd will under steer without rev match. I believe the Fwd will also under steer if failed to rev match. Car setup can vary and also assists will make it act a little different too with differential settings making the biggest change and downforce may be a close second.