Down Shift or Brakes?
 

Down Shift or Brakes?
Need real opinions, tips and advice.
Thanks!

well....

ask yourself this, how much does your tranny cost, and how much can u get some pads for?

I do both - just depends on circumstances etc. but more often than not (for street driving) brakes.

Generally, there are two schools of thoughts on the subject:

- brakes are much cheaper to replace than a clutch (especially if you're not good at rev matching)

- use the motor and transmission as much as possible to control vehicle speed and assist w/ the brakes (like a lot of a/t cars do these days w/ hill descent)


if you're good w/ rev matching on a downshift, then it's more just a matter of preference I guess but you're clutch will dump earlier (since you'll be using it almost 2xs as much ;) )

I gotta agree with Djomlas
 

Brakes are alot cheaper to overhaul than a transmission/clutch. I mainly use my brakes and use rev matching on my downshifts to aid the braking situation.

Steve

Downshifting for the purpose of slowing your car is a terrible idea unless you're playing Gran Turismo.

Rev-matching on a downshift would make sense only if you were looking for more power at higher revs in a lower gear i.e. acceleration post down-shift. If you rev-match you'll be going at a similar speed at the point after the shift, only in a lower gear, which wouldn't improve on your braking scenario. In the amount of time that it would take for you to rev-match and for the engine compression to start to slow the car you could have achieved far better deceleration simply by using the brakes. If you don't rev-match you'll have short tranny life as described by the other posters and I'd still doubt whether you couldn't have achieved the same deceleration using just the brakes (particularly in a Porsche) in the same amount of time.

Not upshifting on a down-slope (which is different than downshifting) thereby using engine compression to maintain an approximate speed or to curb the car from reaching an excessive rate of speed is an accepted practice, but then again, there aren't many slopes in Florida.

SD987, I couldn't agree more. Why would you rev match on a down shift with the intention of slowing down, it won't slow you down? Rev matching is for down shifting prior to acceleration through a turn, not stopping.

Brake to stop, downshift to get in the correct gear for a turn.

I guess in some cases if you are approaching a stop light and think the light will change to green a downshift would be appropriate, but not to slow down, rather to be in the correct gear to go.