Hi guys, I thought I'd come and share a question that's bothering me. I'm halfway through my IAM Advanced Driving course and there's something I'm stuck on...

How the hell do I make downshifting smoother?

Let's say I'm approaching a corner on a 60mph twisty road and I've slowed down to 40 in 4th ready to take it. I always used to stay in 4th on this bend BUT now I want to take this corner in 3rd because I'll have better control over putting the power down. The thing is, when I downshift from 4th to 3rd you can still feel it even though I blip the throttle. Is there a way to do this smoothly eg do I need more/less revs when blipping etc etc..?

It would be great if anyone could share their wisdom, thanks

Is heel and toeing acceptable for advance driving? I'd assume they'd want you to let the clutch out slowly, which isn't as good as heel and toeing but is still fine for normal driving and a lot easier to do smoothly in everyday driving.

without seeing what you are doing, it is impossible to say if you need more or less throttle when rev-matching. if i had to guess though, i'd say you probably aren't giving it enough throttle. you typically want to over-shoot the target rpm by a little, say 500-1000rpm depending on how quickly your car revs, so that when you let off the throttle, shift, and let off the clutch, the rpms have fallen to where you actually want it. if you only rev to your target rpm, when you shift and let out the clutch, the rpms will have fallen to below where you actually wanted it.

Thanks guys, heel-toe is a bitch to get right so don't think there's enough time to nail it before my test. I'll try letting the clutch out slower and play with varying amounts of throttle.

There's no real way to get a perfect downshifting in my opinion. You gotta practice a bit and one day you will feel it right. Personally I release the gaz and wait to be at half of RPM I was then I downshift. If I'm in 4th @ 3000rpm, I will release the gaz, wait around 1500, clutch, downshift and slowly release the clutch. It works ok for me.

Quote from Riders Motion :

There's no real way to get a perfect downshifting in my opinion. You gotta practice a bit and one day you will feel it right. Personally I release the gaz and wait to be at half of RPM I was then I downshift. If I'm in 4th @ 3000rpm, I will release the gaz, wait around 1500, clutch, downshift and slowly release the clutch. It works ok for me.

Surely you mean upshifting? why would you wait for revs to fall when you're downshifting?

Quote from wark :

Surely you mean upshifting? why would you wait for revs to fall when you're downshifting?

Because if I wasn't waiting for them to go down, the car would probably hit the rev limiter when I downshift...

Quote from Riders Motion :

Because if I wasn't waiting for them to go down, the car would probably hit the rev limiter when I downshift...

I get it. I think I read that wrong. You clutch-in after the revs fall... just a weird way to word it, that's all. I still doubt your rev limiter is that close to 3k...

I downshift like this http://youtube.com/watch?v=21HwiUsEmLU

The fundamental purpose of downshifting is to increase revs.

Quote from TiJay :

Hi guys, I thought I'd come and share a question that's bothering me. I'm halfway through my IAM Advanced Driving course and there's something I'm stuck on...

How the hell do I make downshifting smoother?

Let's say I'm approaching a corner on a 60mph twisty road and I've slowed down to 40 in 4th ready to take it. I always used to stay in 4th on this bend BUT now I want to take this corner in 3rd because I'll have better control over putting the power down. The thing is, when I downshift from 4th to 3rd you can still feel it even though I blip the throttle. Is there a way to do this smoothly eg do I need more/less revs when blipping etc etc..?

It would be great if anyone could share their wisdom, thanks

1. After you've settled the car down to 40, roll off brake.

2. Move both feet to the right:
2a. left-foot to the clutch and depress
2b. right-foot to the accelerator

3. Match throttle and change gear:
3a. Depress the accelerator almost to the same amount as though you were already driving in 3rd (this is the hard part)
3b. As you depress the accelerator, shift the gear lever to 3rd

4. Release the clutch pedal quickly but not abruptly.

If you can get it right, you should be shifting the gear lever at the same time as matching the throttle (steps 2 and 3 should be nearly simultaneous). When you come off the clutch, the revs should be at the appropriate point.

Keep in mind that smooth is fast, so don't hurry it. You should be at a distance away from the turn-in point of the corner, as to allow enough time for gear change. A good, smooth, mechanically sympathetic gear change will take around 1.5 seconds +/- 0.5 second. Take your time.

Nice Advice there , i'm a learner also so I guess I can benefit from this thread. Apparently I downshift differently than I do in LFS, instead of kicking the throttle to match RPMS, I gradually depress the throttle pedal while releasing the clutch into the lower gear. This works for me during driving lessons . On one of my lessons I had to drive another student home and he had to look to see if I changed gears or not , I fealt accomplished.

Quote from wark :

I get it. I think I read that wrong. You clutch-in after the revs fall... just a weird way to word it, that's all. I still doubt your rev limiter is that close to 3k...

I downshift like this http://youtube.com/watch?v=21HwiUsEmLU

The fundamental purpose of downshifting is to increase revs.

The rev limiter isn't at 3k, I just shift at that point because mum's RSX make some ****ing noise otherwise and I dont want to stress her when driving. I might shift in the 5-6 or 7k when I can drive alone actually.

Quote from Ricerguy :

Nice Advice there , i'm a learner also so I guess I can benefit from this thread. Apparently I downshift differently than I do in LFS, instead of kicking the throttle to match RPMS, I gradually depress the throttle pedal while releasing the clutch into the lower gear. This works for me during driving lessons . On one of my lessons I had to drive another student home and he had to look to see if I changed gears or not , I fealt accomplished.

Just be careful that you are not dragging the clutch. "Dragging" the clutch means you are releasing the clutch pedal slowly to drag the revs up/down, instead of matching the revs with the accelerator first and then releasing the clutch pedal.

If you drag the clutch, you will cause it to wear prematurely.

Remember that your revs should match first, before you release the clutch pedal.

Practice practice practice. Its a matter of learning your car and knowing the revs you need to blip to for any situation.

When I had my BWM Mini Cooper I could downshift 1 or 2 gears directly at most speeds while keeping balance.

Depends on your engine as well, how fast reacting it is etc

Depends on a car too. I have a ford sierra nowadays and I just can't be smooth on shifts with it, unless I drive it really roughly (and that requires high, illegal speeds). It has an odd clutch with 1 inch bite at the top and 4 inch empty travel at the bottom. There's also something wrong with either the spark or injection at little amounts of gas.

Sounds like your clutch plates might be wearing a bit thin

when i downshift agressively i use H&T (took me nearly 6 months to practice it!) or just keep my foot on the throttle to bring the revs up when i will be using engine braking mostly.