:iagree: In C5's I cant do the traditional heel to toe downshifting because of how the pedals are set. I do it half/half.
Heres the reason C5s dont work to well with heal-toe.



Its hard to tuch with the heal on the gas pedal when its setup like that.


This is from a BMW and this way is how you can do heal-toe the traditional way.


Either way its possible to do "heal-toe" downshifting, you just do it differently on different types of pedals

 

95 percent of the time :smash:

 

It has been my habit for many years to downshift and use the engine to assist braking.

However, considering the ease and low cost of C5 brakes vs. clutch (yeeeoooooowwww!!!) I decided to revisit this habit.

Also discovered that I can significantly improve my MPG by exclusively using the brakes to slow down the car and coming to a stop with the clutch out of gear.

Just put the DIC on instant fuel economy and you'll see why. If you are coasting or braking with the clutch out, the MPG reading will hit phenominally higher numbers than if you do the same with the clutch engaged. This adds up over the course of normal driving and can bump up your MPG a fair bit over time.

 

:lol: fuel economy in that truck and trailer is non existant!! I was really talking about other vehicles (that I own) and fuel economy... not the ones pictured in my sig... ;)

But if you really want to know what a setup like that cost... you would need to write a check for almost 200K to have all of that stuff... and everything I bought was brand new and custom ordered... no used/factory :bs for me.

VR :cheers:



[Modified by vetterdstr, 5:28 PM 2/6/2004]

 

It seems the gods of stock options have not smiled so fortunately upon me. :cry

Oh well, one of these days. :D

 

That's what's nice about the MN6, it's called driver participation. I shift up or down one gear at a time or sometimes I'll skip gears, or sometimes I'll hold one gear, or sometimes I down shift, or sometimes I don't.

It's all about what's happening around me and what I want to do with the car. Of course it takes skill and practice but that's what driving a vette is all about.

Tom

 

In any performance / competitive driving (road course) downshifting is NOT optional. In order to have the engine in the fat part of the torque curve to exit a corner, one or more downshifts will have to be made. The technique used to accomplish this involves using the throttle and clutch and brakes in a synchronous manner. The method for doing this has as its goal, to keep the car balanced by matching the engine speed with the rotating machinery behind the clutch. Too little engine speed and the weight bias shifts forward upsetting the car, too much and the car squats upsetting the balance. Induced imbalances can lead to loss of control and at least costs time.

I attended Bragg-Smith a couple of years ago and heard the philosophy they teach, basically that keeping the car balanced at all times leads to the fastest lap times. More importantly, I was there at the relative end of the duty cycle for the cars. Most that I drove had about 17-20K on the clock. I never observed a clutch or trans. issue. I am sure that all the attendees over that year were not as polished as I :rolleyes: .

Double clutching was not taught. But the staff assured us that the 6-speed trans. was completely up to a one or two gear downshift just rolling on the throttle to match the revolutions.

 

:iagree: :thumbs: :iagree:
Finally............a voice of reason in the DOWNSHIFT WARS :lol:
My sentiments exactly

 

:yesnod: :iagree:

 

:withstupid:

 

I have always heard that brakes are cheaper than motors. I do not down shift unless I am driving an old truck with marginal brakes. Sid.

 

I am new to Vettes but this should apply across all types of cars. Yes you should downshift...No you should not downshift then engine brake to scrub speed. It will wear your clutch lining more quickly and like most others have stated...which would you rather replace, brake pads or clutches? I have not looked at the rear mounted tranny on these cars yet, but it can not be a 1/2 hour job :banghead:

 

I downshift sometimes, but try to minimize added shock to the tranny/transaxle if possible. :steering:

 

If your goal is to slow down, well... brakes are designed to do just that. Engines are not.


I only use engine braking if I'm driving down a steep mountain road and want to control my speed.

 

Thats exactly what I do COBrein. You took the words right out of my mouth.

 

I used to downshift to slow down all the time. But various posts on here indicated that it was a lot of wear on the trans/clutch. So I have stopped doing this and now use the brakes.

 

:iagree: completely.

 

sometimes; but not too drastically...... :thumbs:

 

What is heel toeing?