so my buddy today was talking about how its ok to shift a car with out using the clutch as long as your at the right RPM. He said with his old firebird it was around 2500 RPM.

Is this true? have any of you guys shifted without using the cluth (after first gear ofcourse), if so at what RPM can this be done at? Is if safe to do it? Seems like it would screw something up.

 

Woudnt Recomend it. Also keep in mind "Old FIrebird" and "S2000".

 

i highly recommend you not try this .. my boi tried this on a talon he borrowed from somebody and tried doin this .. heard nothin but grinds! he's like oh .. when your revving up you can do it .. *grind .. oh my bad .. when you let go of the gas .. *GRIND! .. you can decide

 

I used to do this all the time with my first car. It is just a matter of matching the engine rpm to the speed you are going. So for instance, in an S engine rpm for 30 MPH is about 6500 or so for first gear, 5000 or so for second gear etc. You can calculate pretty close the exact rpm based on gear ratios (tire diameter is a factor).

DO NOT TRY THIS IN YOUR S2k !!

If you are off just a bit with the rpm, you are forcing your synchro rings to try match rpms by slowing or speeding up the car, or slowing or speeding up the engine rpm. If you are pretty close in rpm, you will hear a crunch and it will slide into gear. The greater the crunch, the more damage to your transmission.

My first car had a V8 with a beefy transmission. After not using the clutch all the time, here is what happened:

I was going down an incline on a levy road and the car suddenly locked up. Back wheels skidded, all the lights on the dash came on. Turns out the inner race on the mainshaft bearing wore, and the 1/2 inch balls were laying in the bottom of the transmission, and rolled into the cluster gear when I went down hill.

When I drained the transmission, the oil looked like gold paint - ground up brass synchro rings.

Needless to say I had to put a new tranny in the car.

The tranny in the S is a little more fragile than the one I destroyed. Maybe you could borrow your friends car and try it out if you want to know what it is like.

 

This is a standard technique for shifting race cars with straight-cut gears and no synchro rings. Our car has synchro rings and helical cut gears. Not a good technique to use on the S2K.

 

Just to add...

Downshifting into first gear from anything less than a full stop is not a good idea.

For some reason on these cars, if you make a practice of this, your car will start to POP out of gear when in first and reverse.

I've seen 3 first gear/reverse gear issues on 3 different model years. In one case HONDA would not repair it.

 

What the heck is the point? The clutch is there for a reason

 

Just use the clutch. That's why its there.

I used to do this in my '00 Civic all of the time. I could shift up without the clutch, no problem. Unfortunately I was only 16 at the time, so I did not know how to rev-match or heel-toe, so I wasn't even thinking that downshifting without the clutch was even possible.

 

A friend of mine and I borrowed a friends focus because he had a few too many to drink. We had always argued about whether or not you could do this and we felt this was the best opportunity to try it... It did not turn out. We broke his shift cable and we had to drive the car back in 3rd gear.

 

now how about shifting and not releasing the gas pedal...good or bad...or just depends on the driver and if you do it right?