360 Questions and suggestions...

Hey All, I Just took delivery of my new 360 F1 (see holy crap post) and have a couple questions...Would also be open to any and all suggestions/tips from other owners too.

1. When driving your F1 shifting cars what gear /RPM do you usually drive in at say
30-40 mph?
40-50 mph?

2. When coming to a stop do you manually downshift or let the auto mode downshift & do you usually hit nuetral before you stop (i am hitting nuetral at about 25-30 mph before stopping and rolling to a stop).

3. When at a stop do you put it in nuetral or leave it in 1st gear?

4. Do you usually start from a dead stop in 1st or 2nd gear? (1st seems so short and jumpy sometimes).

How do you resist the urge to drive at 140 mph everywhere??? haha just kidding

I am sure I will have many more questions so i hope you guys dont get tired of me too fast...

 

Some of the answers are..... What do you do when drive a 3 pedal car?

1. Just cruising..... 4K. Going for it...... 8500
2. Manually downshift. Neutral just before stopped.
3. Neutral
4. 1st


Who resists?

 

It depends...

Plus I believe you have an 01 if so you may want to check if you have the upgraded TCU.
In terms of gear at various speeds I am happy to run at 3000 rpm in normal round town driving, makes a bit more noise(yay) but saves on shifts. In terms of coming up to lights or say stopped traffic, I normally just throw it into neutral, I am hoping that is saves the clutch at the expense of cheaper brake pads(unless I want to make noise then I will chan ge down). Hey maybe they are just expensive noise makers after all!

 

As a relative noob to driving the 360 F1 (6 months), I'm looking forward to reading the responses here. I didn't want to be the "dumb blonde" asking The one I'm driving is a '00 with an upgraded TCU. I've found a lot of great advice just searching here but not all of my questions have been answered, so ask away burner42!

Per advice from folks here and my mechanic after replacing the clutch last week, I almost always drop it into nuetral coming up to a light, rather than downshifting manually. The question I have is while you're rolling up to the light in nuetral and the light changes before you've come to a stop, do you upshift (which sometimes throws it into too high of gear for the speed) or hit the down shift? My mechanic said try both and see what works better. I've tried both once with the same result, too high of gear. Strange.

 

No hard limits for RPMs at particular speeds, but 3,000 to 4,000 seems reasonable under most circumstances. Since factory recommends staying under 4,000 before engine oil (not coolant) is warm, it's a good habit to develop and serves equally with car cold or warm.

Again, no set "rules" for slowing down and people do it many different ways with no significant affect on the car. The '02 and later TCU double rev matches all downshifts so there is little or no wear to the syncro rings or the clutch by doing so. Shifting to neutral at some point while stopping is fairly common but raises the issue brought up by sk8rpatty below. I personally use a mixture of both techniques by keeping it in an appropriate gear for surrounding traffic until I'm down to 10-15 mph (usually in 3rd) and it's apparent I'm really going to stop, then drop to neutral.

It's done both ways and there is no advantage to the car regardless. When the car is stopped, the clutch is fully disengaged and the constant contact throwout bearing is spinning regardless of being in gear or not so there's absolutely no difference to the car. It may be more of a safety issue since it's easier and faster to get the car moving in case of emergency when it's already in gear. I always shift to 1st immediately after stopping.

Most people use 1st since starting from stopped is where virtually all clutch wear occurs and it's easier on the clutch to use 1st. That "bucking" in 1st gear is common with beginners and is easily remedied with a little more throttle after full clutch engagement.

Surely you jest! None of us has *ever* done anything like that ;-)

Using the right (upshift) paddle typically results in at least one gear too high for most of us but the left (downshift) paddle should get one gear lower (i.e., better but still high for rapid acceleration). If that's not what your car is doing, you may need to have something checked. If you just want to get with the program more vigorously, hit the downshift paddle twice and be ready for it….

 

Thanks for the responses, That is pretty much what I have been doing as far as shifting/rpms and nuetral at lights.

Patty, I have learned that it is better to ask questions, even if you think you know the answers... I have been surprised with some answers in the past...I'll play the stoopid blonde here, no problem ;-)

Give me a day or two, I am sure I will have more questions!

 

i used to put into neutral, but.....
I have been told by the dealer tech "NOT to shift into neutral". He said:

"Why you wanta confusa the car?!!"

I will downshift into second, if I am slowing down for a light, but then I let the car shift into first, when it feels like it. And it stays in first while waiting for the light to change. I am told that having your foot on the brake actually disengages the clutch, so you are not harming anything by remaining in first. Plus you get a faster getaway, once the light does change.

 

Good point! However I like the idea of you being the stoopid blonde. ;-)

Looks like we've now started the whole "to neutral or not to neutral" debate.

"Why you wanta confusa the car?!!" LOL with the Italian accent, it's gotta be right! I was doing exactly what you are describing, lukek, about 50% of the time, but after writing the big $$$$ check for a new clutch I'm a little paranoid and using neutral most of the time now. I'm interested to hear other opinions here...

 

Thanks for your excellent response and not telling us "stoopid blondes" to go search.

 

This is a very interesting thread. I agree with Sk8r that the "neutral/in gear" debate doesn't need to get rehashed. So maybe I can ask the question a different way:

What should one avoid doing in the 360 if one wishes to maximize clutch life?

The biggest one I have heard is never reverse uphill and minimize the amount of time using reverse. I am sure there are others. Camdom, Luke, SK8? anyone else wish to share their thoughts?

Thanks,

LUKE: the "confusa the car" comment had me laughing...

 

I like dumb blondes, especially when they're sailing around in a 360.

Is that bad?

 

These are certainly important but seldom major issues since we don't typically spend a lot of time driving our 360s around backwards.

By far the most important factor in 360 F1 clutch life is driver technique starting from stopped which, of course, we do constantly. Basic technique is supremely simple. Foot moves directly from brake to gas and initiates steadily increasing pressure. If the PIS is set properly, clutch contact is felt instantly and car begins to move. Then the *rate* of downward peddle movement is briefly slowed to encourage full clutch engagement, followed by resumption of steadily increasing downward peddle movment.

The whole operation should result in full clutch engagement in approximately one car length, seldom more than 1-1/2. If you're consistenly taking two or more car lengths to get full clutch engagement, the car needs adjusting (e.g., setting correct PIS) or you're doing it wrong and burning up your clutch unnecessarily.

 

Nope! Just like I don't see anything wrong with playing the dumb blonde when it works in my favor. haha.

I was driving around yesterday and a couple guys pulled up along side and took my picture. LOL I don't know if I'll ever get used to that.

 

i just got my 99 F1 recently, and the first "big money" mod was the new TCU. Got one from a 2003 Coupe, just over a grand from a local Italian car salvage yard. I was not comfortable with sending my TCU to Romania to have it reflashed. Having a spare as a paper weight is nice, too.

I also do not think my PIS was not adjusted to my liking. The clutch would catch on tip in, but would then slip, before it bit again for real. It meant take-offs... in granny or hooligan mode, nothing in between.
I am hoping that the new TCU and better set PIS would remedy this.

Just from reading this board for a while....I would say that clutch life factors are:

-reversing uphill (you can smell the dead presidents burning when you do that)
-older program TCU
-obvious things like tracking the car, jack rabbit driving
-probably heat (challenge grill and the hill engineering heat sink for the F1 pump are on my car)
-wife, who happens to blond...has not driven the car yet. Not a known wear factor. She was happy for me to get the Ferrari, particularly after the wife tax payment cleared the driveway (a new Merc GL550 for her).

But in the end....I am mentally prepared for 20K clutch intervals. Still less damage to the wallet, and less wear on the system than, say.... crack cocaine?
I plan to drive the pi$% out of mine.

 

I love it! I had to agree to get the wife a new car too! She has had her eye on a Range Rover for awhile... guess whats in the garage now in addition to the Ferrari?

 

"It is, what it is"

BTW /offtopic
the rover is prettier, and better in the rough stuff than the GL Merc, but my chief family officer wanted 3 rows, which the big range rover does not offer.