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Doin this while drag racing, good idea or not?

4K views 26 replies 16 participants last post by  TLFerrill 
#1 ·
I'm planning on going back to the strip again tomorrow and I was thinking about this technique to improve my times a little bit; While flooring the gas in 2nd or even 3rd gear, giving a quick kick to the clutch. Does that help at all?
 
#4 ·
Power shift...is that what the question is?
I didn't quite get that interpretation from the OP, since shifting gears was never mentioned.
Doh! [?|]
 
#6 ·
I like the hold and stomp method.... hold down the gas and stomp the clutch.
 
#7 ·
No no no, it's not power shifting. Let's assume I'm drag racing, I launch the car... shift into second and when I'm abround 5k rpm I give a little kick of to the clutch pedal while still flooring the gas. Yes, I stop accelerating for a lil bit, but then I get this "burst" of acceleration... I don't know how to explain it, I'm pretty sure it's been done before and there's a name for it, I just don't know it.
 
#8 ·
oh i know what you're saying. to give you a kick in the pants like you are changing gears again in between gears. ive done this on the street before when i launch from a roll with great success but ive never tried what you are suggesting on a strip. why dont you try it and see how it works out. i think it will slow you down but ive been wrong God only knows how many times in the past. like looking at a duratec engine in a focus for the first time and saying WTF! the header is made out of plastic! oh fuuuunny
 
#18 ·
Yeah, something like that. I'm going to try it once or twice next week and see what happens.

If your talking about double clutching aka power shifting as I think it was referred to here, then in a drag race I would say no it won't help more than likely hurt your times. By NOT accelerating if even for an instant the suspension as well as other key factors will "relax" and this is not a good thing when talking forward acceleration across a specific distance ie 1/4 mile. Anything that prohibits forward acceleration will show in your time slips, this includes lifting or clutching. Unless the power increase at the higher RPM that it "jumps" to after taping the clutch while accelerating under WOT is sufficient enough to cover the lack of power during the pedal depress duration as well as having the capability to produce more power than the original rpm curve, then NO this is not beneficial to your drag times.
You also might want to find out where your car makes the most power, at what rpm does it start and where does it end. If you go playing around in your power band area and don't know what your doing, then you will suffer tremendous losses while drag racing.
Nope I'm not talking about double clutching, and I could be wrong, but you are the first person that I heard that calls double clutching and powershifting the same thing (IIRC they are two very different driving techniques). And I would like to re-quote you on this;
" Anything that prohibits forward acceleration will show in your time slips, this includes lifting or clutching. Unless the power increase at the higher RPM that it "jumps" to after taping the clutch while accelerating under WOT is sufficient enough to cover the lack of power during the pedal depress duration as well as having the capability to produce more power than the original rpm curve, then NO this is not beneficial to your drag times."
^^^Your explanation is kind of what I was looking for. I'm going to PM to see if you can explain me this more in detail.

Thanks, that's the most helpful post so far. If you ever run for president, count with my vote[clap]
 
#10 ·
If your talking about double clutching aka power shifting as I think it was referred to here, then in a drag race I would say no it won't help more than likely hurt your times. By NOT accelerating if even for an instant the suspension as well as other key factors will "relax" and this is not a good thing when talking forward acceleration across a specific distance ie 1/4 mile. Anything that prohibits forward acceleration will show in your time slips, this includes lifting or clutching. Unless the power increase at the higher RPM that it "jumps" to after taping the clutch while accelerating under WOT is sufficient enough to cover the lack of power during the pedal depress duration as well as having the capability to produce more power than the original rpm curve, then NO this is not beneficial to your drag times.

You also might want to find out where your car makes the most power, at what rpm does it start and where does it end. If you go playing around in your power band area and don't know what your doing, then you will suffer tremendous losses while drag racing.
 
#13 ·
He's just talking about kicking the clutch while climbing the revs, no shifting.

Kinda pointless, you're kinda just essentially braking the engine with the clutch back down to where you were. I'm sure you can apply some conservation of energy principles to show that it's not doing anything but I'm too lazy lol. Thinking about it though...

You're burning fuel to accelerate a spinning mass with no real load. That energy is basically stored as a rotational inertia and nothing more.

So when you engage the clutch back, the only energy you gain is the small amount from the increased inertia with a lot of loss of energy to heat via friction in the clutch assembly. Whereas if the clutch was engaged this whole time, you're sending the power from the gas directly to the wheels and not losing any energy to heat through the clutch.
 
#21 ·
I don't think it will. Seems like there would be a big loss in efficiency. You're burning off power slipping the clutch. And I don't think the energy stored rotating the crankshaft assembly will be anything near the energy that otherwise would have been transmitted to the wheels.
 
#22 ·
I'm sure depending on where you are in the country everything is called something different. I wasn't sure exactly what you were referring to so I listed both shifting methods.
they are different. However either or will slow your cars forward progress. I could get more technical on my answer but it involves complex math
 
#25 ·
why would he need a tow truck to pick up pieces of his transmission? this isnt any rougher on the car then shifting gears hard and its very doubtful that doing this just a handful of times would burn the clutch enough to leave him stranded. you would have to pull the e-brake and sit and slip the clutch for several minutes to do that much damage.
 
#26 ·
Ya I see, i mean hear.. honda's and acura's do this all the time at the drags. It wont do anything to make you faster. All your doing is stopping the car from accellerating and the boost or kick of power you feel is just the car starting to accelerate again. Only time this helps you is if your rear wheel drive going into a turn, pop the clutch, tug the e brake and DRIFT that sh!t. It is pointless on a drag race!
 
#27 ·
double clutching is when you have to shift from 1st to neutral to second to neutral to third and so on in old old cars with unsyncronized clutches. i've also heard truckers have to do it sometimes uphill but they may not be true. Also a good method to use if your clutch is completely gone to make it to the garage. i think the powershifting confusion came from f&f, but that conversation has been had way too many times.

ya, clutch-kicking would be an interesting thing to try though. i guess if your car was so underpowered or heavy that the energy gain of letting it free-rev for that second and going the next second was greater than letting the car rev in gear for two seconds this would make sense. possible i suppose.
 
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