Tune up for Summit Point-Video

[Larry Herman]

Mike, to answer your questions:

1) I prefer to downshift directly into the gear that I will use to exit the turn.  It allows me to have more time to concentrate on initial braking, which is the most critical part of the process.  Doing it properly hurts neither the clutch or the engine.  It is actually easier on them.

2) In that video, my car had a very short gearbox, and I had to shift into 3rd in the middle of the carousel, or I would run out of revs.  I found it smoother to shift into 4th before turn 7, because it would upset the car doing it between 7 & 8, and that is critical to the run up the back straight.  Also, 3rd was too short to carry through turn 8.  I have since built a trans with a little longer gears that should allow me to carry 2nd through to 7, and then 3rd all the way onto the back straight.