Lol!!

 

The '7 transmissions are particularly tight. I haven't been successful in shifting without the clutch, though I haven't tried terribly hard due to lack of any desire to blow one up.

My Subaru, on the other hand, has a transmission where the clutch is almost a nice afterthought. I drove it 60 miles back with the clutch not disengaging at all - start it in 1st, shift through the gears. I kept RPMs low, but it just slid right in when things matched up. The '7 transmission doesn't do that as well.

-=Russ=-

 

To shift fast what you do is : Push the paddle on the far left (clutch) then you take your right hand and change gears. This works amazing!!! try it

 

i think that aout sums this thread up

 

When I want to shift quickly, I pull the shifter out and hold the gas just enough to let the rev drop to a point close to where it will be when in the gear above/below, then put the clutch in and the shifter into gear.

If you practice a bit, you can get it down to a smooth motion. I haven't tried it while doing mad cornering, so I don't know how well it would work when you're trying to concentrate on holding a line or what not...

 

Use tha gaddamned CLUTCH!!!

 

Shifting without the clutch is an age old road racing technique, it just requires you to me cognisent of shaft speed and have good timing. "Speed Shifting" (The full throttle upshit) is a good way to nuke your transmission ASAP. My dad drove a VW bug from Utah to the Bay Area (California) without a clutch since his slave cylinder failed.

 

Someone said that you shift without letting up on the gas....does this even work? Also you have to shift normally with turboed cars right?

 

It will, you just make sure to actually let your right foot off just a little to keep your RPMs up, but not actually causing them to raise. I've never driven a turbo vehicle, but I imagine this tactic would work well since you'd be keeping your turbo spooled up a bit.

 

okay im confused. about somethin.. so when you shift up, have have to let the rpms drop the where it "should be" in the next gear?? why is that? maybe i've been driving wrong all alonng??? hah... well i shift pretty quick, i mean i shift faster than the needle drops, so wheni shift the need kinda speeds down to where it needs to be on my tachs... im sure the 7s tranny isnt that much different than a firebird is there? same type of physical transmission things. i can shift without clutch on his car with a bit of concentration : D

 

the point is not that you CAN shift without the clutch. you can do that on any car that I know of, or motorcycle for that matter, even the 7 I do it sometimes but due to the tight tranny it is a bit harder.

The point here is shifting very FAST. To do this you HAVE TO USE THE CLUTCH! If you don't use the clutch you have to wait for the tranny/engine to slow down much more than neccesary and you lose time.

Sidenote: When I was selling my saturn, the sportiest one they had with the flip-up headlights, I was showing the girl that the tranny was so smooth you could shift without using the clutch very very easily and her mom from the back seat (as bad as the 7 seats) blurts out "OH, IS THAT WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU RACE?!?!" I almost smacked her.

 

:p

 

[QUOTE=The point here is shifting very FAST. To do this you HAVE TO USE THE CLUTCH! If you don't use the clutch you have to wait for the tranny/engine to slow down much more than neccesary and you lose time.[/QUOTE]

THATS what I THOUGHT!!
im guessing you have to wait for the revs to match up with the flywheel speed?
its not hard at all, i just dont see how you could race this way without using the clutch.
there is a waiting period that you take to match up revs in the next gear, and you cant have any wasted time when racing right??
the way i do it is, even before i shift up to the next gear, i already put some pressure on the shifter and i put my big toe on the clutch (with left foot)
so that i can shift the shifter a bit faster and i push the clutch down with my toe and slide my foot off, to dump the clutch and i get a chirp in most gears that way too. i know im not the fastest shifter, but thats the fastest way i've seen.
aside from fabricating a new clutch petal so that you dont have to press the clutch pedal soo far down.

 

yea match the speeds is the key to getting it into another gear without the clutch

 

How about use the clutch get a good shifter so it's extra hard to miss gears and get that thing tuned on a dyno with a wideband the extra 20-30 hp you can net will save you a tranny and you will be just as fast through the 1/4

 

Use ur clutch, unless you hate synchros and wish them to die in a holy flame. If ur shifting correctly and quickly, with the clutch, then shifting without it will have no impact on ur speed.

 

im a noob at manual and the car shakes whenever i go from 1st to 2nd. why is this?

am i over reving? it doesn't shake when i go from 2-3 and 3-4

 

shifting or bucking? if ur bucking that means u let off the clutch way to fast

 

if its shaking.. that you shifted too early and your forcing it to pick up to the wrong speed in the wrong gear.

 

can nobody read what this man says? seriosuly...you guys must not understand the concept of tranny syncros

 

yea, he's got a point, the clutch is there for a reason, why not use it.

 

This original post, and the subsequent posts are 99% of the reason why I haven't bothered visiting the 2nd Gen tech section in a long time. This is the worst thing I have ever read, and God help your souls.

 

WORD.
Good icon dude, Tribute to DD, he was truly the man. (and not ONLY in the metal world.)
Matt

 

I'd rather save my syncros than save my clutch, if the clutch and flywheel are moving at the same speed I don't see much slippage going on there. I don't drive my RX-7 without the clutch but I have tryed it a little, not going too fast and a lot in the old subaru wagon.
I can shift without the clutch after I get it going, but how in the world do you start from a stop without pressing the clutch? Wouldn't the tires spin? Oh yeah and on my 85 12a RX-7 I can feel the 2nd gear syncro "spinning" as its engaging on normal full clutch usage rev matching shifts when the engine temperature is cold, when it warms up it goes away. Nobody's mentioned the transmission stabilizer rod thing? Mostly used on 3rd generations but it seems like it would help. It like mounts from the strut tower to the transmission on the passenger side and I think racing beat might sell one.

 

For everyone that's calling him a moron, it's called power shifting and has been in practice for years. Yes it will eat your synchros, yes some trannies are more difficult to do it with, yes you can generally shift faster if you do it correctly, no I don't practice it.

On a side note, before you guys start shitting on someone for being 'fast and furious' try to do some ******* research, you wont sound so sophomoric.