How to drive faster!

[victorofhavoc]

Is this better with diesel engine? I know my car will start rolling without gas but the people in the back will honk at me. Already got smoked by a granny the other day.

Also for some background, I traded my Q60 for this GTI. Q60 was fast because I just step on the gas and AWD/400hp is fun. I miss that speed

yeah, but Q60 is totally numb and heavy . If you want a slam the gas and go fast off the line car, you picked the wrong platform...should have gotten a vette, mustang, camaro, or something.

Learning to slip the clutch properly and quickly is pretty important regardless of the fuel type. Diesel torque can help the low end, but I've driven a VW polo with its 3 cylinder 70HP engine and I could get it to 5th gear without ever touching the gas. Its also possible to slip the clutch in reverse up hill without using gas in that car, so a GTI should be zero issue.

Go to an empty parking lot and practice your clutch technique with no throttle. Once you've mastered that, start adding a bit of throttle. If you're still slipping the clutch at 2k rpm, you're just going to burn up your clutch quickly, and it sounds like you're slipping to 4k+.

 

[jimlloyd40]

I have driven all sorts of vehicles on a track, tuned dsg vws as well. The error rate goes down for novice drivers that haven't quite mastered heel toe downshifting but I'm still scratching my head to find how the advantage is negated.



Edit: Porsche pdk trans is about the only auto trans out there that I would give an advantage on. But you'd be stoned to think vw dsg even comes close to pdk in terms of performance, tuned or not.



Edit2: If you're stoned that's cool with me, just pass that blunt this way homie.

Ok. Here you go.

 

[jay745]

I drive a tuned DSG on track. I'd take a manual over it any day of the week...but the dsg is faster. I can snap down into 2nd gear on tight corners and come out with full torque in places where a manual just couldn't reach because you'd upset the weight transfer. It also keeps boost between shifts better so straights see higher speeds. Believe it or not, the tuned GTI DSG shifts faster than the dual clutch in an M4 and whatever auto is in the C7 vette. I've compared that on track with a few friends.

Would I trade my DSG for a manual? Yes....

Eh I'm not sure I know of that many corners where that would apply much, especially with an LSD and sticky rubber...downshifting shouldn't really be done mid corner anyways, there's different faster lines. You're letting the trans cover up driver mistake.

And yes you're right. The only good production auto is pdk. Vw is up there but it wasnt produced with performance in mind

 

[dtran11]

This guy made a video about the story of my life

 

[SD11]

Try match.com and find a Philipino girl who can drive a stick.....

 

[dtran11]

This is how I learned manual

He also teaches to pause the clutch at the bite point to get smooth

 

[jay745]

This guy made a video about the story of my life

I don't get why it's an issue, that guy didn't even seem like he was in boost when trying to shift. This is driver error unfortunately, you simply don't need to wait for rpms to come down and instead need to give it gas to rev match. I suspect the jerkiness from shifting in higher rpms is due to it being grannied up there without boost.

Let's meetup when the Rona is over and I'll take you for a ride in my car, and I'll go for one in yours so you can show me

 

[goodvibes]

All I can say is that wouldn't be a correct way to drive a manual.

A friend always bought sticks and never had a clutch past 40k on cars that always went at least twice that. Used to rev it up and accelerate with the gas pedal on the left(USA). Finally realized he was an auto guy about 20 years back.

 

[goodvibes]

This is how I learned manual

He also teaches to pause the clutch at the bite point to get smooth

It's fine for the learning phase but a he's describing a 3 sec shift for something you'll learn to do in less than 1/2 that time and just as smoothly which is what happened when he did it as an example without instruction. I only disagree with him about shifting on cars with more engine braking. They actually allow a quicker shift and rev matching but obviously more difficult to coordinate for the novice that's still slow on the draw.

I think what you'll find is that you'll feel that you're smoother than you actually are as you anticipate the dynamics of a quicker shift while watching a passenger's head slightly move unless your just puttering around. Fast and smooth is only so smooth with a rev hang car or you're not being fast.

I think what we're all trying to tell you is the mind set of not overusing the clutch while you acclimate. The rest will come naturally. You'll figure out how much you need per situation over a short time.

 

[goodvibes]

I don't get why it's an issue, that guy didn't even seem like he was in boost when trying to shift. This is driver error unfortunately, you simply don't need to wait for rpms to come down and instead need to give it gas to rev match. I suspect the jerkiness from shifting in higher rpms is due to it being grannied up there without boost.

Let's meetup when the Rona is over and I'll take you for a ride in my car, and I'll go for one in yours so you can show me

I think I'd end up slipping the clutch to pull down the revs here. Engine isn't making power so wear is negligible but really rev hang, pisses me off. When I test drove the stick Alltrack, it was smooth and easy but I have no idea what I did. Autopilot once I found the clutch engage point. Easy to get used to but that day, I thought the clutch could have used more effort and/or release point be closer to the floor. Shifter was a little vague as well but gears slots seemed fine.

 

[SD11]

I have driven all sorts of vehicles on a track, tuned dsg vws as well. The error rate goes down for novice drivers that haven't quite mastered heel toe downshifting but I'm still scratching my head to find how the advantage is negated.



Edit: Porsche pdk trans is about the only auto trans out there that I would give an advantage on. But you'd be stoned to think vw dsg even comes close to pdk in terms of performance, tuned or not.



Edit2: If you're stoned that's cool with me, just pass that blunt this way homie.

Uh..... is that why they use automated shifting in F1???

Funny stuff....

 

[Ital]

Make sure you move your foot completely off the clutch after the gear is engage.

are you able to do the following?
1) Get the car rolling moving slowly
2) Remove your foot from the clutch pedal, move it perhaps to the rest area
3) Floor it
4) at around 5500k rpm as fast as you can press the clutch down, put into 2nd and release the clutch and floor it

very very important when you are cruising you should move your left foot to the rest area and never keep your foot hovering over the clutch pedal as you may press it unintentionally causing premature wear

practice that and it will start to come to you naturally

 

[jay745]

Uh..... is that why they use automated shifting in F1???

Funny stuff....

Comparing production cars to f1 is a silly comparison. Laughable to even put a vw on the same chart... Do better.

 

[TheJokker]

Not true. I cant think of a single situation where the clutch would help a fwd car on good grip tracks. Anyways, dont want to hijack this thread.

When VW decided to go for the fwd record at Nürburgring they selected a GTI Clubsport S with a manual transmission.

 

[victorofhavoc]

Eh I'm not sure I know of that many corners where that would apply much, especially with an LSD and sticky rubber...downshifting shouldn't really be done mid corner anyways, there's different faster lines. You're letting the trans cover up driver mistake.

And yes you're right. The only good production auto is pdk. Vw is up there but it wasnt produced with performance in mind

Tight, technical hairpins exist, and the DSG allows the extra downshift in the braking zone where a manual would just be a touch slower and upset your balance into the turn in. You absolutely NEVER want to shift a manual car right before the turn in, while on a DSG it happens so quickly you can afford that time.

Not sure what you're going on about, but I never mentioned anything about mid corner shifting . You're also assuming I'm making shifting mistakes... I've been doing this a while, I know where to shift .