I believe that this would depend on the driver and the car. I might get much better 0-60 or lap times with traction control on and rev matching on. Formula 1 had traction control banned, as it was making the cars go faster with less skill involved. of course, this is not an F1 thread...

Drivers turn off aids on the track to see if they can do it better. On the street it allows for nice burn outs.

 

I think it definitely depends upon the driver. But for the most part people who race will do better without aids like traction control. I used to be into drag racing in a big way and believe me when I say that if I left traction control on by accident, my times would suffer tremendously.

I was watching the Motor Trend videos on YouTube where they raced the new Mustang 5.0 against a new M3. They let a pro race each car and they let a journalist race each car. They said the pro turned off all electronic nannies and the journalist didn't turn them off completely, but he did turn them to a mode where they would interfere less. Obviously the pro driver would have turned in slower times if he didn't turn them off, but what would have been really interesting to see is if the journalist would have been able to turn faster times if he turned them off completely.

 

Well I stand corrected. Been working on way too many allisons and eatons but not so many modern synchronized manuals. Last time I opened up a modern manual was almost 10 years ago when I opened up my DSM tans and installed double cone synchros on second and third gears. Needless to say I didn't understand much what I was looking at back then but I knew where everything went.
Yeah traction control will slow your lap times if you know what you're doing but something like synchro rev will definitely help your lap times. Case in point I remember on one of the many motorcycle track days I did, a friend of mine let me do a few laps on his kawi 600RR that came with a slipper clutch from the factory. Took me a few laps to deprogram my brain to not blip the throttle when downshifting, but once I started to let the slipper do its job I realized how much harder and deeper I could brake simply because I didn't have to worry about blipping the throttle. That kind of aid, unlike traction control WILL help you better your lap times.

 

Yeah, I agree....but I still prefer to drive a car without any aids whatsoever if I'm racing on a track. On the street, bring on the driver aids...it's all good.

 

I must agree. Nobody here is calling names or whatever, just a healthy discussion in between adults. Hey I learned something today and I'm a mechanic, sometimes you gotta swallow your pride, accept when you're wrong and move on.

 

I was watching a YouTube video where this guy was drag racing his Nissan GT-R. He used launch control to take off and then the car banged off nice quick shifts as he flew through the quarter mile.

Then I thought to myself, no matter how great a "computer" can make a car accelerate, it still seems like so much more fun and much more of a challenge to make the car perform to it's fullest potential without computer intervention.

Someone mentioned liking the GT-R earlier. There's no doubt about it that it's a nice car and an excellent performer. I remember when I first started reading about them and how disappointed I was that a manual trans wasn't even optional. I wonder if they will ever put a manual trans in the GT-R? I bet that would be an awesome combination. Kind of like the old Mitsu 3000GT, but on a double dose of steroids.

 

How does this thread get to 4 pages and still no mention of

HEEL TOE technique.

Method:
1. Left foot engage clutch
2. Right foot toes engage brakes
3. Right foot heel blips throttle while toes still engaging brakes to slow down
4. downshift
5. release clutch with rpm still high from blipped throttle to engage lower gear
6. release brakes with toes
7. step on gas to accelerate out of corner

YouTube - Heel Toe Driving Technique

 

This is another good heel toe technique video.

Shows two downshifts before entering a turn.

YouTube - Race Car Driver & His Footwork

and No, this is not only for drifting, although Kenichi Tsuchiya probably made it famous for the sport or should I say the art of drifting.

 

Heel-toe was mentioned earlier.

 

Heel & toe is fun, but you can downshift and blip the throttle without actually doing the heel & toe thing. If you're not using the brakes, then you're not heel & toeing. (is "toeing" a word? LOL)

 

^^^that vid is CRAAAAZY!! I have some serrrrious learning to do!

So do you guys "blip" your throttle evvvvery single downshift? and how much? Obviously its just a second just to up the rmps, but do you literally just tap the throttle or do you hold it steadily at times too?

I'll be honest, I haven't downshifted much at all....mainly because I didn't know enough about it...VERY intersted in learning though. I guess its all about learning the car as a whole.

 

That engine sound was sexxxyy as hell. Like the second vid with the dbl blip.

Well I never used to blip X, i floor it really fast like a fast kick lol. Does that have an effect on you engie/transmission if i floor it really fast? I'm assuming more gas is used up obvly.

I tried the DCing and that was fun. But is it necessay with our newer model cars? can't we just clutch in blip and downshif and release clutch.

 

so when you downshift, do you clutch in, shift down, just tap the throttle, then release clutch?? i just got my car, and this is my first manual car, i need helpp....

 

anyone??

 

kchu221, did you learn how to downshift/rev match?