Getting to high speeds quickly

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USO
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Getting to high speeds quickly

Post by USO »

Im fairly new to driving a manual car, ive been driving manual for about a year now and i wanted to know the best way to get to high speeds quickly without hurting my car. Is it better to shift below redline on some cars to get the maximum speed out of my car? At the moment i am driving a stock 93 honda accord coupe. I know about power shifting and all that non sense, basically it f**k up your car. I want to know the best way to get the max speed from a stop out of my car. Any thoughts?
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Post by G4M3JUNKY »

well if you arent racing then i will help you out. but if you are then i never said anything. im assuming you want to quickly go from a stop to highway speed or something. anyways just gas it until under redline. its perfectly fine (it is under the redline so its safe) just dont do it too often. even a 4 beater that revs near redline can gain speed quickly.
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Post by jomotopia »

for a hard launch rev it up a bit (3k, 5k, higher is harder) and let the clutch out real quick and floor the gas. if you completely dump the clutch you'll probably end up with a bunch of wheel spin which will be detrimental to your accelerating, so you want to release the clutch very quickly but you want to control it and slip it just a bit to keep the wheels from spinning.

for the shifts, run it up to or near redline, dump the gas and floor the clutch, bang to the next gear as quick as you can, then dump (or damn near) the clutch and floor the gas again. rinse and repeat.

i don't know the power curve on your car but some cars' power falls off before redline. the most efficient place to shift for power is where you will have more hp in the next gear than you have in the current gear.
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Post by Paolo300zx »

jomotopia wrote:for a hard launch rev it up a bit (3k, 5k, higher is harder) and let the clutch out real quick and floor the gas. if you completely dump the clutch you'll probably end up with a bunch of wheel spin which will be detrimental to your accelerating, so you want to release the clutch very quickly but you want to control it and slip it just a bit to keep the wheels from spinning.

for the shifts, run it up to or near redline, dump the gas and floor the clutch, bang to the next gear as quick as you can, then dump (or damn near) the clutch and floor the gas again. rinse and repeat.

i don't know the power curve on your car but some cars' power falls off before redline. the most efficient place to shift for power is where you will have more hp in the next gear than you have in the current gear.

i wouldnt worry too much about wheel spin. no offence of course, but you'd pretty much have to dump the clutch and try to spin the wheels in the accord. at least the one i drove in you did.
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Post by jomotopia »

Paolo300zx wrote:
jomotopia wrote:for a hard launch rev it up a bit (3k, 5k, higher is harder) and let the clutch out real quick and floor the gas. if you completely dump the clutch you'll probably end up with a bunch of wheel spin which will be detrimental to your accelerating, so you want to release the clutch very quickly but you want to control it and slip it just a bit to keep the wheels from spinning.

for the shifts, run it up to or near redline, dump the gas and floor the clutch, bang to the next gear as quick as you can, then dump (or damn near) the clutch and floor the gas again. rinse and repeat.

i don't know the power curve on your car but some cars' power falls off before redline. the most efficient place to shift for power is where you will have more hp in the next gear than you have in the current gear.

i wouldnt worry too much about wheel spin. no offence of course, but you'd pretty much have to dump the clutch and try to spin the wheels in the accord. at least the one i drove in you did.
well you're probably right. i don't have any experience with wheel spin, mine won't, i have to worry about braking an axle instead.
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Post by Paolo300zx »

jomotopia wrote:
Paolo300zx wrote:
jomotopia wrote:for a hard launch rev it up a bit (3k, 5k, higher is harder) and let the clutch out real quick and floor the gas. if you completely dump the clutch you'll probably end up with a bunch of wheel spin which will be detrimental to your accelerating, so you want to release the clutch very quickly but you want to control it and slip it just a bit to keep the wheels from spinning.

for the shifts, run it up to or near redline, dump the gas and floor the clutch, bang to the next gear as quick as you can, then dump (or damn near) the clutch and floor the gas again. rinse and repeat.

i don't know the power curve on your car but some cars' power falls off before redline. the most efficient place to shift for power is where you will have more hp in the next gear than you have in the current gear.

i wouldnt worry too much about wheel spin. no offence of course, but you'd pretty much have to dump the clutch and try to spin the wheels in the accord. at least the one i drove in you did.
well you're probably right. i don't have any experience with wheel spin, mine won't, i have to worry about braking an axle instead.

haha ya, RWD FTW! <back to topic>
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Post by USO »

Ive pretty much heard all of this before but the problem is i need this car for a while and what ive read states that wheel spin burns up your clutch and pretty much takes 10 years off your car. My accord is front wheel drive which makes wheel spin a big problem.
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Post by jomotopia »

USO wrote:Ive pretty much heard all of this before but the problem is i need this car for a while and what ive read states that wheel spin burns up your clutch and pretty much takes 10 years off your car. My accord is front wheel drive which makes wheel spin a big problem.
that's total BS. wheel spin does NOTHING to your clutch, b/c what is happening is the wheels are slipping and the clutch is not. the clutch only gets worn out when it's slipping. if you dump it quick it hardly slips at all, the tires slip which saves the tranny and axles. it will not take 10 years off your car, that's basically saying that if you do it once your car will no longer be drivable at all.

the only thing that could really happen is if you break the tranny or an axle. but with FWD, light weight, and low power, i doubt that would happen. you could burn up your clutch if you do it wrong but it's still not going to die immediately.

it WILL cause more wear and tear. if you spin the tires you'll need new tires sooner. if you slip the clutch at high rpms taking off a lot, you will need to replace the clutch sooner (like maybe at 100k miles instead of 120k miles as just a random example, depending of course on how much you do it). this is obviously not something you want to do from every redlight, but doing it every once in a while is not going to kill your car. just some extra wear, at it wears whenever you're using it.

gotta pay to play.
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Post by eaglecatcher »

wheel spin will not kill your car, only your tires, and possibly axles or differntials if you are too violent. I spin my tires, because its hard not to when I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. I guess thats a good thing, because it puts less wear on my clutch, and they've got a mondo mileage warranty, so who cares if they go bald. Of course, i've been quite thoruroughly abusing my tires over the last month, and they have yet to lose even 1/16th of an inch. I've toned it down, as I was just experimenting, but trust me, spinning your wheels, will not hurt your clutch at all. Of course, there is a video of a dude thinking hes doing aburnout in his neon I think, and hes just sitting there roasting his clutch at like 6000rpm, but thast besdie the point.

The fastest way I can take off, is when i get a small chirp from my tires. Anymore, and I'm spinning em
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