> Is double clutching advisable? I recently bought a
> 1968 Jaguar E-type coupe in extremely good condition
> and I noticed that the brakes and the accelerator are
> very close together. I assume this was done to aid
> double clutching. The two pedals are so close that if
> you're wearing wide shoes they brush against the pedal.
> I'd like to utilize all the sports car feature of this
> car to the fullest and double clutching seems to offer
> great promise. So can someone explain to me how you
> double clutch? I think I know what it is but I just want
> find out for sure before I grind the hell out of the transmission.
> Should I try this out on a rental car first?
>
> Best Wishes
> Zahid
>
The pedals being so close together is very good for heal-toe; you
can double clutch just about anything.
Heal-toe is when you're trying to slow down for a corner, and need
to gear down. To help you gear down smoothly you simply rotate your
right foot so that you blip the throttle while you're braking. When
you blip the throttle you can let the clutch out. This technique is
great for getting around corners smoothly and quickly. It takes a
bit of practice to not change your braking pressure while you're
blipping (and figuring out how much to blip). I've found that
hard sole running shoes give much better feal than softer soled shoes
(especially avoid the ones with thick treads on them!).
Double clutching is when you're moving from one gear to another
(I've usually found problems going from 2nd to 3rd) and the gear
box doesn't want to shift as fast as you want. You'll hear something
like a "chunk" or maybe even hear the synchros spin (I can really
hear my synchros spin when I downshift to first). To shift faster you
put the gear box into neutral, release the clutch and blip the throttle
so that you hit the same basic RPM as you would in the final gear. After
this put the car into the gear you want as a normal shift.
These two things can be merged together if you want. I usually don't
bother with double-clutching, but the heal-toe is very usefull.
Later,
Martine
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