Two Guys Rally

How To Double Clutch [ April 6th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Performing the Double Clutch

1. Clutch in
2. Shift gear selector to Neutral
3. Clutch out
4. ‘Blip’ throttle
5. Clutch in
6. Shift gear selector to lower gear
7. Clutch out

The hardest part of those 7 steps is figuring out how much to raise the engine revs in step 5. It all depends on how fast you’re going and your transmission’s gearing. In my WRX I’ve noticed it is about 2-2.5k RPM increase during a downshift.

Don’t worry about how quickly you’re double clutching, speed comes with practice what matters is smoothness.

Why Double Clutch?

Double clutching was once a required technique. It was used to sync the engine and transmission speed. In older cars without double clutching you were unable to shift (you even had to double clutch to up shift). However, in new transmissions synchromesh gears do most of that work. While the synchromesh gears reduce the need for double clutching, they don’t handle the large changes in speed that go with down shifts very well. Double clutching makes the downshifts smoother and saves wear on the transmission by reducing the amount of work done by the synchromesh units. So go out and practice a double clutch down shift (in a safe place), it’ll save you precious money on your transmission.

Here’s the video version: How To Double Clutch: The Video.

The Beginning of It All [ April 6th, 2008 ] By:Mark Ozimek

As I look out the window on this glorious Sunday morning, I think to myself, “What a beautiful day for driving”. The air is still brisk, good for putting more oxygen into each cylinder. The sun is shining, great for making road surface irregularities noticeable. There is nothing that requires my immediate attention, allowing me to go out and spend some time enjoying the underwhelming glory of my nose heavy, front wheel drive, five cylinder turbo Volvo (note: that’s not to say that I don’t love driving that car), wishing that my dream can be realized sooner than later. A dream of having a car dedicated for rallying, with a team and infrastructure to back it up.

In the upcoming weeks, months and years, Charles and I will be chronicling our progress towards achieving our goals. We start with humble beginnings; engineering backgrounds and a passion for motor sports. The base for everything will be this website. It will be our way of getting involved with the rally community, planning our race attendance, making a list of changes that we need to make to our car, posting tips for other aspiring drivers on things ranging from advice on how to drive fast without wearing down parts quickly to the politics involved with managing a team.

We have a lot to get done, and even more to understand. With every solution comes a whole new set of problems that need fixing. I hope this keeps me busy for a long time to come.