DDC practice!

[BertBert]

A bit of a well worn topic, but I had the occasion to need a different gearchange technique over the weekend on a 72 Dino that I was touring round the cotswolds in (great roads too).

The synchros needed a lot of help and the gearchange needed to be slowed down a lot. It was much harder to fit the gearchanges in after the braking so I was heal n toe'ing a lot more as well.

Apart from some practice to get the timing right, the only issue I had was that I was blipping with the clutch up to help the synchros, but by the time I had the clutch down and changed into the relevant gear, I had lost the engine revs I needed to help the rev-matching for the smoothness of clutch engagement.

As I was overlapping quite a lot (lots of downhill) and needing a LOT of brake pressure, I couldn't hold the revs up to help the synchros and help the rev-match IYSWIM? The best I could do was a blip.

Any thoughts?

Bert

[mph999]

You need to blip a bit higher, that way, the revs drop to the right place by the time you get the clutch back down.

Martin

[R_U_LOCAL]

My (fairly limited) experience with older Ferrari gearboxes is that they're notchy at best and recalcitrant at worst. They seem to respond best to a quick, positive gearchange, rather than a slow, lingering change.

This isn't my natural style, but I strongly believe that a driver should drive round issues like this rather than expect the car to bend to their ways.

I was quite surprised at how much of a rev is required to get a Ferrari to change down smoothly, but it's very satisfying when you get it right.

[BertBert]

Thanks for the thoughts.

The gearbox on the dino was at the recalcitrant end! Being slow and careful with a big blip did work. It also had the effect of allowing you to feel if it wasn't going to work and not bang through into gear IYSWIM.

I did manage to get few "scruff of the neck" gearchanges in. However, about half of my attempted faster ones worked well with a big grin and half ended with big graunches and a grimace (esp from Mrs B).

So in the end I settled (mostly) for a slower technique that worked predictably and smoothly, but I had to be extra vigilant on getting the clutch up smoothly.

Been having some excellent fun...964GT3RS thursday evening, dino all weekend, caterham today, what a lucky boy.

Ahhh, Rover 25 tomorrow.

Bert

[Yung Man]

Redline MT90 gearbox oil, I am now running it in my third car and nothing beats it, you can virtually gaurantee smoother changes.

Forget all that rev matching malarkey.