Another transmission post

Mark forwarded an email to me from a pro, I believe an ALMS guy, the core of which is:

Some people do the blip between each gear going down through the box. A few very good drivers, bump the box into neutral at the beginning of hard braking, and having noted during practice what gear will be used next at the end of this straight, will gently rev the engine to that change speed and slip into that gear (1st for example) At the correct distance from the corner, and leave that corner with no fuss or mangled gears.

This method eliminates the possibility of 3 bad downshifts during very hard braking. And replaces that with one downshift. What could be easier than one downshift done very close to the apex?

So, if you can do this and the competitors cannot, you will be better under braking everywhere.

Some people never learn to downshift properly, and use the clutch during downshifts. This shortens dog ring life, because the lost connection between the engine and the trans, the trans parts decelerate during the downshift when they should have been accelerated to match the ground speed. The shift is then done with a huge difference between the dog ring face and the gear face. A very bad thing.

Engagement should be at close to zero difference in face speeds. Reving the engine on the downshift while using the clutch does (or can) match the engine RPM to the new ground speed so as not to upset the rear wheels when the clutch is engaged again, however, the shift alone with mismatched face speeds will add a braking load to the drive wheels that is not being managed by the driver.

Update: it was a Grand Am guy, I should have read more carefully...