i was in my friends civic.. and its pretty quick. and i noticed he double clutches a lot. and the car just takes off. will it have the same affect on my s2000? and does it do ne damage to the car? takes in advance

 

From my understanding, double clutching was used in the earlier days for cars without synchros. I don't think it's necessary to do that now, and it won't damage the car.

 

I find that in a rear drive car, like the S2000, it makes for a smoother shift. It feels like butter putting the stick into gear(If done right).
Since there is a linkage in the Civic ,i.e. front drive car, not much of a difference will be felt in the hand.
Some think that the tranny can be notchy, and double-clutching will help that.

 

How exactly do you double clutch?

 

Double clutching while accelerating? Shouldn't be necessary unless you're powershifting and even then, you'll lose speed doubleclutching which takes away much of the advantage of powershifting (if not all). Double clutching is typically only used for downshifting by most...

 

and usually when people "powershift" it seems to put alot more stress on the drivetrain. I think.

 

isn't double clutching just pushing the clutch down once to pull it out of the gear then again to put it in the next gear?
and exactly what is powershifting?
Jason

 

Perhaps a general clarification is required?

Double clutching is generally used when entering a corner which requires a change in gear. Double clutching is the act of going from a gear, say 3rd, shifting into neutral, engaging the clutch, revving the engine AND flywheel/shaft assemblies, to match the rev which the engine will ultimately be at, once shifted into 2nd at the corner entry.

Heal/toe is the process of using your right foot to do the braking and accelerator pedal manipulation at the same time, the toe's are used for the braking, the heal for the "blipping" of the throttle. However, due to the leg room in my S, and being 6'-1", I cannot use this technique as my legs are bent at the knee while driving and will not rotate 90 degrees inward, not while keeping my knee ligaments intact anyway. You can also use a more difficult technique of "side stepping", using the left side of your foot for breaking and the right side for throttle, it helps to have wider pedals for this, especially if you have narrow feet.

Most advanced driver's use these two elements to gain 10-20% higher corner entry speeds by reducing the available traction loss due to high amount of speed variance, usually due to simple downshifting. If you ever read a hi- performance driving instruction book, they talk about the "traction plot or circle" quite often. Basically you have a definite amount of traction available, when you use more traction capability on acceleration, you lessen the amount of turning traction available, and vise versa. Proper Double clutching technique increases the amount of "turning" traction you have available, by lessening the "acceleration" (whether braking, jerking or accelerating) traction requirement. When you see someone driving very smoothly and quickly through corners, they are most likely double clutching.
Well anyway, your friend is probably just using this when racing someone after he is moving at say 40mph, revving the flywheel and drive shaft, then downshifting, it does work, but should be used in moderation, say 2k rpms over the final rpm's when the sychro's kick in, if you like you clutch intact.

Power shifting is just plain stupid if you own your car, basically not taking your foot off your accelerator in between shifts, big time clutch and tranny and synchro wear, this technique is saved fro Car and Driver (blah) tests and rental cars. Your S deserves better care than that, so practice your double clutching and heal/toe, they actually REDUCE wear and tear on you S, by reducing driveling "lash". Because of the FR chassis setup and lightweight flywheel small displacement of the S, there is no better car to learn how to do this properly, it will pay off big when your buddy in his M Coupe tries to follow you through a tight onramp, and can't imagine why you should have 3 car lengths on him by the time you see the freeway!!! Cheers!

 

cool, the guy im buying my soon to be S2K from was showing me that too, but i wasnt sure exactly what it was, now i know, i drive a wrx for right now and i guess ill start practicing the heal/toe method so when i get my s2k this weekend i should be a little more comfortable, cuz this s2k is lowered 1.5 inches and from the looks of the seller driving me around it has great handling, much better i think than my wrx. hehe and in fact my friend has a 95 M3 he eventually he won't be able to keep up at the corners haha. thanks
Jason

 

Why is there the need to engage the clutch twice? I ususally just give the accel. pedal a tap mid shift, is this not achieving the same thing as double clutching only reducing effort and time?