I was just reading a comment in another thread where the poster was complaining about how much time he was losing on his shifts at the dragstrip. It occured to me that, with a rev-limiter, one doesn't need to let off the gas between shifts. Is that right?

It seems to me this would lead to faster shifts, at least as far as the hand and foot mechanics of shifting go. And it would be tougher on the clutch, and probably spin the wheels a little (or a lot, depending on the gear and how much hp the car has, etc., etc.).

What do the serious drag racers do?

 

Serious drag racers use automatic transmissions.

 

Serious dragsters with manuals do what has just been stated. It's called flat shifting, and it's guaranteed to char your clutch even faster . You end up slipping the clutch at like 5.5k or higher, and, yes, it does save time. But, I never do it becuase of the wear that that causes. To each his own.

 

some shift without using the clutch

 

But the real people doing that for a living prolly dont care about their clutch. They strip everything down after a few runs anyway.

 

The MCS engine doesn't really rev up or down very quickly. Once you are able to shift quickly, there's no need to take your foot off the loud pedal while drag racing. If your shifts are too slow, then yes you could end up slipping the clutch more than is necessary. In this run, my 1->2 shift and 2->3 shift were pretty quick but my 3->4 shift was a little longer than I wanted: