Heel-and-toe downshifting multiple gears; skip or row?

Heel-and-toe downshifting multiple gears; skip or row?

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Discussion

Nomes

Original Poster:

48 posts

182 months

Sunday 19th February 2017
quotequote all
Hi guys

I am fairly happy with the process of heel-and-toe downshifting and am now using it routinely. There is one thing that I have read conflicting views on and was hoping you guys may be able to give clearer information on. When downshifting multiple gears (e.g. 4th to 2nd), is it better to do so as one motion or better to blip down into 3rd and then again into 2nd?

Just to provide a bit of context to my question, I understand that if you are really going for it (e.g. on a racetrack) and are almost at redline in 4th, downshifting into 2nd in one go is very risky in terms of damage to engine or locking up wheels, and so it makes sense to row down to 2nd via 3rd. My question pertains more to on-road driving where you may be in the middle of the rev range in 4th, and then want to change down into 2nd. In that situation, I would currently use a fairly large blip of the throttle in the latter part of the braking zone and go into 2nd. Is there any potential problem with this? I also have a stretch of dual-carriageway nearby which is punctuated by a well-sighted roundabout, and I usually need to get from 6th (at 70mph) to 2nd (around 20mph). In this situation I blip down into 4th and then into 2nd. Would anyone advocate rowing down through each gear here?

Thanks in advance