New brake pads a 1/8 the price of a new clutch. Unless you absolutely have to, use your brakes!

 

No idea who he is. Better call the p-car snob police to come take mine away.

All these years owning, appreciating, and modding Porsches - who knew I had no business driving one being so Derek Bell clueless.

 

No need to be concerned with PDK....

 

There's really no need to downshift to assist braking in traffic. Downshift while
decelerating to keep the car in the powerband if you're looking to accelerate out of the turn. Every upshift or downshift you make is one less in the machinery's lifecycle.

It's always cheaper to replace brake pads than clutches or motors..

 

I believe that PDK will burn through clutches eventually, too. But I don't think you can protect from that much with your driving style.

 

I always use brake to slow and match gear to speed. I will use engine brake on long descents.

 

Right on bro', I was going to say I don't know who he is, nor do I care, so I'm getting ready to post up my car on Craigslist I can also cite just as many "experts" as that guy that will disagree with his advice on driving style.

I think it's a given that brake pads are easier to replace and cheaper too if you have to pay someone to do it for you. However, when you start replacing worn out and warped rotors at the same time the economics even out quite a bit. Not to mention how it feels when you step on the brakes and the pedal feels like a rotten plum because you've have over heated the brakes coming down a 6% grade.

That said, I have driven manual shift cars as well as heavy duty diesel trucks all of my life, typically putting over 200,000 miles on each vehicle before trading them off. Lots of those miles are while towing either race car trailers or commercial heavy loads, so you are putting maximum strain on the drivetrain and clutch. Using the driving style I described in my previous post, I have NEVER replaced a clutch in one of those vehicles but I have put 3-4 sets of pads and rotors on them.

So yes, you can wear a clutch out if you slip it a lot and generally abuse it because you don't know how to use it correctly. But downshifting to slow down, if done correctly, will not shorten the life of your clutch in any measurable way.

Interesting note: The most common clutch related failure (under normal non-racing use) is not the pressure plate or disc going bad, but the throw out bearing wearing out. Typically that happens when folks do a lot of stop n go driving in traffic and they keep the clutch depressed while waiting to go or while sitting at a light. When the TO bearing goes you have to disassemble the car the same as if you were replacing the clutch, so wisely most people choose to go ahead and replace the disc and pressure plate at the same time. That may give the impression that a lot more clutches are being replaced for failure than is really occuring. If you want to make your TO bearing last longer, get in the habit of flipping the car into neutral while sitting at lights and take you r foot off of the clutch pedal.

 

Derek Bell won two World Sportscar Championship titles in 1985-86, the 24 Hours of Daytona three times in 1986-87 and 1989 and Le Mans five times in 1975, 1981, 1982, 1986 and 1987, mostly teamed with Jacky Ickx in one of the Porsche 936 and Porsche 956/Porsche 962 models. Ickx/Bell is nowadays considered as one of the most famous pairings in motorsport history. Bell is one of the most successful Porsche racing drivers of all time.

 

Yep. PDK will perform a rev-matched downshift.

 

Two ways I use to tell if revs are properly matched:

- When you enter the lower gear, the car doesn't "jerk" at all (you just hear the lovely sound of a perfect downshift)

- When you enter the lower gear, the tach needle doesn't move (relative to your blipped revs)

 

Great info...

My advice on the track is to go with smoothness and sound of the shift and don't look at the tach. On the street you can use the tach.

Proper heel toeing was one of the hardest things for me to learn.

Before i could heel/toe or when I would miss the rev match on the track going from about 130 to 70 in turn 1 of NJMP thunderbolt I would get the most horrible squeal from the tranny to go along with the jerk. A constant reminder of failure.


It took allot of work to get it down smoothly but now I get lovely sound you mention and it makes it all worth while.

 

I heard something akin to the above on Car Talk years ago and it's made me reconsider downshifting to slow the car ever since.

I think the key point is that there is no absolute right/wrong answer, it's situational. I would still regularly downshift to slow down if I thought I was entering a low traction area or in other similar circumstances, but I try not to do it too much based on the above.

 

my practice is to put the car in the right gear. this is especially important when driving downhill or entering into a curve. 911 will oversteer on you if you are hard on the brakes in high gear.

so shift into a lower gear that matches the speed. don't drive in 6th and rely on your brakes alone when taking that freeway exit. shift before a curve or ramp so you'll stay in proper rev.

this is why F1 and PDK is superior to stick in the hands of your AVERAGE driver who doesn't know how to rev match and double clutch. not everyone should buy a stick shift, myself included....