daleadbull wrote:I guess I just need to man up and get over my clutch wear paranoia. It's not like I've not tried it before tho. I've tried it and experienced that scratchy resistance feel in the clutch pedal, probably cus I was burning the clutch. I'm guess I just need to release the clutch a bit quicker.
Your fear of premature clutch wear is understandable, everybody goes through it when starting out. In reality, a clutch can take a whole lot more abuse than you think. And trust me, you were not burning your clutch. If you give it more gas, release the clutch quicker. It takes practice to find the right balance for your car and driving habits, but don't worry, you will get there naturally. Don't overthink it, and just drive.
It sounds we share a similar story and progress. I'm about 5 or 6 months ahead of you in experience, but if I look back, my progress has continued over that time frame, it's just much less noticeable than that huge gain in the first few months. As experience, muscle memory, and intuition continue to build, you will find your worries decrease at the same rate. I find I'm slowly worrying less and less about hill launches, getting off the line, and looking out of the corner of my eye at how I compare to and affect surrounding cars. As a result, you begin to feel like you blend in better with surrounding traffic. And thus a positive feedback mechanism ensues.
I'm certainly not perfect. I still experiment and adjust and yearn to be smoother. So I can't give you any particular tips... the other guys are good at that. Just wanted to say welcome and keep it up!
six wrote:
Your fear of premature clutch wear is understandable, everybody goes through it when starting out. In reality, a clutch can take a whole lot more abuse than you think. And trust me, you were not burning your clutch. If you give it more gas, release the clutch quicker. It takes practice to find the right balance for your car and driving habits, but don't worry, you will get there naturally. Don't overthink it, and just drive.
Yeah, I agree. I can say from experience that the cars I've owned over the years were able to take an extreme amount of abuse without ever damaging or wearing out the clutch to the point that it needed to be replaced. Of all the cars I've owned, I'd say that my Mustangs were abused more than any of them. Hundreds of passes down the track with full poweshifts in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gear and I never killed the clutch. I broke several gearboxes, but the clutch itself survived just fine. And to be honest, there's really nothing special about the stock clutch. It's just a basic street clutch that is similar to the clutch found in most other cars. And speaking of other cars, the same is true for the other cars I've owned over the years. I always drove my cars hard. That's why I tell people that they shouldn't worry too much about clutch wear. It's much more abusive to drive a manual transmission car improperly (riding the clutch, for example) than it is to drive it hard.
looks like the other experts have answered most of your questions ( ), but i just wanted to say i'm uber jealous of your car. also, don't expect to be able to drive it (at least consistently) smoothly for a while.
ClutchFork wrote:...So I started carrying a stick of firewood with me and that became my parking brake.
rml605 wrote:Question on launching, not steal your thread OP..
What would happen if you rev your car to it's limiter at redline and then dumped the clutch? Would you blow your engine?
if you're talking about while launching, no, you won't overrev the engine since the revs will drop when you dump the clutch. now, if you have the revs high while driving along in gear and then downshift, you could overrev the engine, since you will need higher revs in the lower gear you're downshifting into
ClutchFork wrote:...So I started carrying a stick of firewood with me and that became my parking brake.
rml605 wrote:Question on launching, not steal your thread OP..
What would happen if you rev your car to it's limiter at redline and then dumped the clutch? Would you blow your engine?
if you're talking about while launching, no, you won't overrev the engine since the revs will drop when you dump the clutch. now, if you have the revs high while driving along in gear and then downshift, you could overrev the engine, since you will need higher revs in the lower gear you're downshifting into
That too...what if you redline 3rd and then shift to 2nd..
rml605 wrote:
That too...what if you redline 3rd and then shift to 2nd..
Yup, that's a mechanical over-rev. In that case, the rev limiter isn't going to help protect the engine. There's a good chance you'd do some damage to the engine, particularly in the head/valvetrain area.
I can't wait till I have my "quick" launch and launch in general perfected. I feel like this is truly my only glaring weakness at this point other than a jerky 1-2 shift or botched heal-toe from time to time.
How does everyone else launch on a regular basis? I just want to get a good idea of what is normal. For example, I almost always launch from idle (mainly due to clutch paranoia and fear of stalling)
MFan wrote:I too, launch a bit above idle (~1.2k - 1.5kRPM) - My car idles at about 900RPM.
Roughly this. Foot starts to come off brake with clutch pedal already being pressed down (paying attention to the light/roads/etc to know when to push down the clutch and start the process). Foot moves to gas pedal, starts to push that down as clutch pedal foot starts to rise off the floor. Tiny hesitation so I don't jerk the car/stall/roar the engine. Off we go!
Granted, I also shift between 2000-2300 for most shifts, so I'm not really opening the car up much...
'15 Mazda 3 iSport Hatch 6MT
'11 Ford Fiesta Hatchback SE 5MT
'14 Giant Escape City 24MT '97 Honda Civic EX 4AT - Retired @ 184,001 mi
), but i just wanted to say i'm uber jealous of your car. also, don't expect to be able to drive it (at least consistently) smoothly for a while. 
