What is the proper way to shift gears? I heard from some people that you need to blip the gas when going from first to second, and from others that you only slowly release the clutch and give it no gas. Every time i do it the car shudders back and forth. Help! Thanks
If you have a manual F430, it has a very light flywheel. The revs drop quickly when getting off the throttle while shifting. During low-to-medium rpm shifts/normal acceleration, I often give the throttle a light blip before reengaging the clutch. This keeps the rpms from dropping too much and lessens the jerking/shuttering. During higher acceleration/higher rpm shifts, blipping the throttle isn't really necessary since shifting gears at those speeds is normally performed quickly enough that the rpm drop is negligible. I don't think 360's have as light a flywheel as the 430's, but it's likely still fairly light, and the same principles apply.
360 and 430 are probably quite similar as far as the drop in revs due to light rotational mass- essentially you are trying to get the flywheel going as close to the same speed as it needs to be to engage the next gear. Because of the lighter flywheel (and maybe even the flat crank design/light rotational mass in the engine) the motor loses momentum when lifting off the throttle...the upside is the quick acceleration of the motor speed when you call for it with acceleration or heel/toe rev matching for downshifts. Anyway, you can bring the revs up either via a blip before engaging the clutch after an upshift, or mentally trying to "calibrate" your right foot to get on the gas a little earlier as your left foot is coming off the clutch than you would with another type of car. If you think of it and really try to get the timing right you can do it with just a little bit of practice. Try going up to a normal shift speed (3-4K or whatnot) and upshift by the sound, don't even look at the tach. After doing it a couple of times you'll get the hang of it. The goal is to get it to be a smooth transition to engagement..even when you get the hang of it and shifting is second nature, it requires a little bit more concentration "in the back of my mind" than when driving other stick shift cars like my daily driver BMW (every stick car is different of course- the BMW is very smooth, but has a much heavier flywheel) Now here is the good part....once you get the hang of it (you will!), the benefit of the light flywheel is amazing. Once I got used to it I could do perfect heel and toe downshifts- because you can increase the speed of the motor more quickly with the light flywheel, when downshifting I could just feather the gas pedal with the side of my foot while braking to get the revs up and roughly matched to where they needed to be for a downshift like no other car I've driven. In addition, with full throttle redline or near redline acceleration I find that I can shift very fast to the next gear and the revs are naturally perfectly matched up for the next upsift- it's like the engineers designed the car to be perfectly calibrated for full acceleration/race conditions. All of this engagement of the driver is the reason I find the stick 360 to be so enjoyable to drive- mastering or at least getting more used to the light flywheel is well worth the effort. Careful letting your friends or those unfamiliar drive the car- you have to give them a rundown of how to conceptualize the effects of the ligher flywheel or there will be a lot of clutch burning and/or bobbing of heads in the car Good luck with it- you'll get it! -Andrew
... a small video clip referencing the OPs question, I was actually testing the " open valves " on a CS exhaust, but it should give an idea of 3 pedal " fun ". " http://youtu.be/bX2Cg6sTCX0 "
Great advice Andrew, I was always monitoring the RPM trying to learn where in the range am I getting the smoothest possible shift, I then learned that my ear is a much better tach to follow. When it sounds right, it is time to shift
Folks, someone raised an interesting question over in the 458 section and I was wondering if the same principal can be applied on the 430: If I "hold" the left paddle down during aggressive down shifts will the box keep going down on the gears automatically as soon as the RPM's allow it? In other words, Instead of shifting individually down the box can I just hold down the left paddle and watch it simultaneously downshift?
