I usually use my clutch to slow down. I thought this thread was about downshifting to slow down, not to speed up. My bad.

 

No worries. But sincerely, you should use your brakes to slow down. Using the friction on the clutch disk is very inefficient as well as costly over time (clutch wear). If you want engine braking to have some control (coming down a long hill), by all means, blip the throttle, rev-match and get in that lower gear, but dont just ease the clutch out without rev-matching.

If you are coming to a complete stop, just use the brakes. Downshifting is not needed at that point (unless you are timing for a green light...but you usually dont want to be the first guy shooting through the intersection anyways).

 

You might do what 99% of other American drivers do. Downshift without blipping the throttle (i.e., rev-matching). Hence...why I asked.

 

99%? I expect that from non-sport car drivers, but not Porsche drivers!

 

Even if you drive a big rig theres no need to double clutch (if you know how to shift)unless you are taking your CDL road test.........they make you do it.

 

Yeah, when I'm coming to a complete stop, I throw it in neutral and use the brakes, but yeah sometimes I use the friction when just slowing down----prolly not a good idea like you say. It's just a bad habit, because I rarely take my foot off the clutch (even when its not depressed, my foot just kinda hovers over it haha), and I rarely rest it on the dead pedal.

 

Ok, question for you single clutch rev-matchers... I find that when I double clutch and am letting the clutch out on the final step to engage the lower gear I can get off it real fast because of the blip. However when I single clutch rev-match I feel myself having to take longer to disengage through the sweet spot because I'm doing a combination of blip and clutch work. I understand that this may be due to inexperience but my question is that of technique.

So do you clutch in > drop a gear > rev/blip while clutch is moving off point of engagement OR do you clutch in > drop a gear > rev/blip > get off the clutch? And I realize you can combine steps as in dropping a gear and blipping simultaneously. When I double clutch I do the latter, almost dumping the clutch when I am finally getting off because I don't need to "equalize" clutch and throttle, but when I single clutch I am doing much more disengaging the clutch while blipping the throttle.

Just curious. I know it's hard to interpret this but I hope some know what I mean. And the better you are the less you probably even notice the order of things.

 

When you single clutch you want to blip just before letting the clutch back out, otherwise your blip de revs too much.

tw

 

To break down what I meant... When you upshift you have to smooth out the shift by equalizing the clutch and the throttle, so do you do the same thing when you downshift AFTER you blip or do you just blip and let the clutch out and it should be smooth?

 

The only reason to heel toe is to go fast or faster through a corner. Its simply an efficient way to select an appropriate lower gear to properly power out of a corner.

If you are compression braking than you are not really doing it properly and I agree with everyone that if you just want to slow down, use the pedal in the middle.

Besides its fun and a cool technique to try and master.

 

clutch in
down shift & blip throttle
clutch out

its not rocket science

 

Yeah..i learnt driving in an Alfa, that explains a lot

 

doesn't make a difference what you learned driving in
i learned to drive stick in an original mini

 

I also have an aluminum flywheel in my S4.. it's noisy at low rpm's but makes rev matching very easy.

 

I was told by a driving instructor that the reason for rev-matching was to get into the appropriate (lower) gear without "unsettling" the car. This, of course, is very important when setting up for a corner.

As I don't get to the track near as much as I like, I heal-toe downshift every gear at 90%+ of all red lights. It's great practice and it's fun to hear the Europipe burble.