>>Notice that race car drivers use engine braking power all the time by switching to lower gears before entering curves, thus saving track time and valuable brake component life.

its easier to control the car through a turn at a lower gear and be
ready to punch out the exit than to clumsly shift to a lower gear
while exiting a turn and disrupt center of gravity and weight of the
car as if it was a AT car with the driver not knowing how/when to
downshift before the turn.

downshifting before the turn is not so much just to save the brakes,
but to control weight distribution of the car through the turn.



_________________
03MCS IB/Blk: 123, Aerokit, R90 17x7, Anthr + Leather, TK5 16x7, 6CDMP3, etc.

 

>>You should always attempt to keep the engine and transmission fully engaged as long as possible, otherwise you have less control of the car - freewheeling to a stop light or around a corner is a BAD thing to be doing. This means you should be downshifting until you are going slow enough to depress the clutch and come to a complete stop.

This is so true ... Specially if you need to make an emergency manuver as a result of Lord Butthead cutting you off

Cheers

 

WOW ! I've been gone all day to an All-MINI Track Day at the Texas World Speedway and came home this evening to such a big bunch of very helpful comments from so many people.

Thank you everyone !

Joe

 

Ok here's the explanation cause I see no one posted it yet on this thread.
Matching Revs
To avoid excess stress and wear on the clutch, you want to match revs when you downshift. For example, say you're going 50mph in the right lane on a highway behind slow moving traffic in 4th gear at 3k RPMs (all numbers here are just examples). You need to pull out in the left lane and get up to 70mph. Well we all know the MINI isn't loaded with power at 3k RPMs (unless you have the 19% pulley

 

No prob. i was just bord today sitting home infront of the pc
cause it was snowing pretty bad here in chicago. first REAL snow
fall this winter. hope some of the info helps.

 

The point that I was trying to make before is that it is dangerous to allow a car to "free-wheel" without the transmission engaged, specially when coasting to a full stop. This also puts excessive wear on the brakes.

 

>>>>Notice that race car drivers use engine braking power all the time by switching to lower gears before entering curves, thus saving track time and valuable brake component life.
>>
>>The notion of engine braking in order to be competitive in modern racing is a myth, with the possible exception of endurance racing in which a driver might be looking to save wear on brake components. But in any other competitive form of racing, if you're not using the brakes exclusively to slow down, then you're just going to be slow. Modern brakes stop a car SO much more quickly than engine braking ever could. Any race driver using the engine to slow down isn't using the brakes enough, and his lap times will be right out of a bad dream.
>>

This simply isn't true in any form of showroom stock racing - the stock brakes on most vehicles simply are NOT enough to slow the car down by themselves. Showroom stock cars are heavy, and even with aftermarket calipers, rotors, pads, etc. you're still going to have to use SOME engine braking to get the car to WHOA! when you want it to...

If you're driving fast on a road course in ANY stock vehicle like a MINI, the brakes will completely go away at some point - and then you have to be creative about finding a way to slow down to make a corner - engine braking, e-brake, etc. Even with aftermarket brakes, the likelihood is that the brakes will, at some point, go away... MINI's, while not that heavy compared to other performance cars, are still pretty heavy...

Also, whether or not to use engine braking really depends on the corner.

Things that ARE important is to ensure you're:

A. Not unsettling the car during hard braking with a bad downshift.
B. Not unsettling the car during trail braking with a bad downshift.
C. In the proper gear to get maximum acceleration at the corner exit.

 

While the benefits of heal & toeing really depend on the corner and how fast you are trying to get through it, it really has little to do with the question.

I've always lived under the rule of "clutches are more expensive than brakes and any amount of use will cause wear." Thus, I don't engine-brake unless it's a long hill and even then I've discovered the gearing in my car doesn't allow for really effective engine-braking (always either too fast or too slow). Engine-braking with my van with it's horrible brakes and automatic trans is a necessity, so I'm familiar with when I need to do it. And I'd like to believe the 232k miles I got out of the original clutch in my old Acura is worth something. The only other clutch I've replaced was due to a leaking rear main seal on a Toyota p/u which got oil on the friction plate - actual wear on the clutch was minimal.

Coasting to a stop with the clutch depressed will wear out the throw-out bearing. Your foot should only be on the clutch when changing gears, never otherwise.

If you want to have fun matching revs, shift without the clutch. My Toyota p/u suffered from cronic clutch MC failure so I got pretty good at that. Does put additional wear on the syncros, but does wonders for saving the clutch.

 

i think its much cheaper to replace the clutch than your syncros.

 

the only wear the clutch will get is from normal use under engine braking..no more wear, prolly less then upshifting...not engine braking for the worry of ruining the clutch is not in my opinion a valid reason....same logic then applies for why drive when you don't have to..as it uses it the clutch...if you match RPMs your clutch will not wear out any sooner...now if you just release the clutch slowly slipping it to get the rpms to match without heel&toe'ing then you will get more wear.

 

>>This simply isn't true in any form of showroom stock racing - the stock brakes on most vehicles simply are NOT enough to slow the car down by themselves. Showroom stock cars are heavy, and even with aftermarket calipers, rotors, pads, etc. you're still going to have to use SOME engine braking to get the car to WHOA! when you want it to...

I wasn't really referring to showroom stock racing, which I admittedly should have been more clear about. I was referring to RACE cars, not stock vehicles (or slightly modified stock vehicles) driven on a road course. I'm talking about thoroughbred touring cars, formula cars, etc in which engine braking isn't a factor. Sure, if the brakes are fading or aren't up to the task, then engine braking is an alternative. Don't expect to be fast though. But barring a problem, you won't find a good driver using engine braking in real race cars, or even in shifter karts.

 

well even in those situations while the gain from engine braking might be very small it still does matter...and they still do it, for the big reason of keeping the car settled and having immediate acceleration after the apex.

 

>>Ok here's the explanation cause I see no one posted it yet on this thread.
>>Matching Revs...
>>Hope this helps!

Greatgro it did indeed. Thanks very much for the info and advice. I'll be giving it a go.

Ken