Hello all,
First time poster on these forums and have not made my official introduction yet (but I will!). I am a weekend track days car enthusiast, and make it out to maybe 6-8 trackday weekends a year, as well as the frequent Sunday morning group drives through the canyons. My track car is a customized Lotus Exige.
I recently picked up a '11 WRX sedan and just love it! I am having trouble with smooth upshifts though and wondering if those with more experience than I could shed some light. In my Lotus, smooth upshifts was a breeze. I'm not sure if it was because it was a 6-speed with closer gear ratios or lighter flywheel or what. But I could basically redline upshift in every gear lightning quick and get super smooth upshifts. Just simple accelerate, foot off gas, clutch in, shift, clutch out, accelerate, all as fast as I could and upshifts were always butter smooth. When just driving around town and shifting at a much lower rpm, I would have to wait a bit for the revs to drop when going from 1st to 2nd to ensure a smooth upshift. I never partially let the clutch out and apply light gas ever (basically slipping the clutch).
The WRX 5 speed tranny though, is a completely different beast. I thought I'd figure it out relatively quickly, but now and I'm realizing there is something I'm probably just not doing right. Normal driving around town is pretty easy to keep upshifts smooth, since it's never a race, and waiting for the revs to drop to get a smooth upshift is never a problem. The problem comes when I want to drive a little quicker, and want to do some quick upshifts....
The revs on this car drop incredibly slow! In 1st gear, if I shift at 4k rpm, I've found that I need to pop the clutch out between 2.6-2.9k rpm to get a smooth upshift. That's almost half the revs dropping! Anything else and the car jerks. A car that violently jerks under hard acceleration is a recipe for disaster if control is the goal. Of course if I let the clutch out nice and slow and apply a little gas things get smooth, but that wastes even more time on a track, let alone not great for clutch longevity.The drop in revs takes a good full second to happen, totally unacceptable if fast gear changing in the key. I don't remember how much I need to let the revs drop from 2 to 3, and 3-4, but they are very slow as well.
I am hoping that I am totally missing or not getting something, and there is a way to upshift quickly and smoothly without slipping the daylights out of the clutch. Thanks for reading, and looking forward to becoming a contributing member to these forums.
First time poster on these forums and have not made my official introduction yet (but I will!). I am a weekend track days car enthusiast, and make it out to maybe 6-8 trackday weekends a year, as well as the frequent Sunday morning group drives through the canyons. My track car is a customized Lotus Exige.
I recently picked up a '11 WRX sedan and just love it! I am having trouble with smooth upshifts though and wondering if those with more experience than I could shed some light. In my Lotus, smooth upshifts was a breeze. I'm not sure if it was because it was a 6-speed with closer gear ratios or lighter flywheel or what. But I could basically redline upshift in every gear lightning quick and get super smooth upshifts. Just simple accelerate, foot off gas, clutch in, shift, clutch out, accelerate, all as fast as I could and upshifts were always butter smooth. When just driving around town and shifting at a much lower rpm, I would have to wait a bit for the revs to drop when going from 1st to 2nd to ensure a smooth upshift. I never partially let the clutch out and apply light gas ever (basically slipping the clutch).
The WRX 5 speed tranny though, is a completely different beast. I thought I'd figure it out relatively quickly, but now and I'm realizing there is something I'm probably just not doing right. Normal driving around town is pretty easy to keep upshifts smooth, since it's never a race, and waiting for the revs to drop to get a smooth upshift is never a problem. The problem comes when I want to drive a little quicker, and want to do some quick upshifts....
The revs on this car drop incredibly slow! In 1st gear, if I shift at 4k rpm, I've found that I need to pop the clutch out between 2.6-2.9k rpm to get a smooth upshift. That's almost half the revs dropping! Anything else and the car jerks. A car that violently jerks under hard acceleration is a recipe for disaster if control is the goal. Of course if I let the clutch out nice and slow and apply a little gas things get smooth, but that wastes even more time on a track, let alone not great for clutch longevity.The drop in revs takes a good full second to happen, totally unacceptable if fast gear changing in the key. I don't remember how much I need to let the revs drop from 2 to 3, and 3-4, but they are very slow as well.
I am hoping that I am totally missing or not getting something, and there is a way to upshift quickly and smoothly without slipping the daylights out of the clutch. Thanks for reading, and looking forward to becoming a contributing member to these forums.