Downshifting before a corner

samunited

my instructor used to tell you can hold the brake downshift release the clutch whilst this holding the brake it works but if someone brakes infront of u you risk the fact of stalling.

to be able to BGOL ( brake+ gear overlap) safety you have to to be able to undertake the manouvere in question using The System sequentially first to a reasonably high standard

BGOL is into the realms of proper advanced driving discussion not really a topic for those who think their l33t Playstation skills and a provisional licence makes them a god of driving.

Reply 21

VersaEmerge

11

it really depends how you wanna go through the corner. you wanna go through it fast? safe? like a n00b?

Reply 22

mountainmetman

14

Jez RR

OK, just this once, for all the playstation streetracers. Brake on the straight, change down to a gear that will allow you to drive the car through the bend, accelerating to maintain speed that is offset by cornering forces, using the limit point (or vanishing point) to set the optimal speed for the bend.

QTF but while this is absolutely correct I think there is a wee bit more information we can give that might help the OP a little.

You're probably getting a thunk because you're not letting the engine change speed enough on the gear change. When you change gear, especially with 3-2 and at lower speeds, you need to change the revs from what they were in one gear to the next.
(Normally I'd use my car as an example but at the moment I'm driving Landies and Berlingos and they're all a bit different :biggrin:

so these are from a 1L city car from memory)
Let's say you're doing 20 in 3rd and down shift to 2nd before the corner without changing speed, in 3rd the engine might be running at 1500 rpm, in 2nd it may be 2100, so during the gear change the engine needs to pick up from 1500 to 2100. This can be done with just the clutch (and usually a thunk) or by "blipping" or gently increasing the throttle. Note this is gently, not stamping down to make the engine scream.
Massively slowed down the procedure would be get speed right - clutch in - into neutral - gently increase rpm to target - into gear - clutch up. If you get this right the change doesn't take any longer than usual (after a bit of practice) and you end up ghosting the change.
The smaller the engine, usually the bigger the difference in required revs, which is one of the reasons it seems such a big deal when you're learning but gets less important later with bigger engines.
Hope this might help a bit.

Oh, and before anyone whines about "that's not how I/my instructor/Mikko does it" we're looking at smooth road driving here, so double declutching and fast blipping aren't necessary. Besides, read the sig.

Reply 23

kingxlr8

5

Jez RR

OK, just this once, for all the playstation streetracers. Brake on the straight, change down to a gear that will allow you to drive the car through the bend, accelerating to maintain speed that is offset by cornering forces, using the limit point (or vanishing point) to set the optimal speed for the bend.