How much do you use engine brakes?

[landrovered]

I had the same bad habit when I first started driving my Porsche, I would downshift and use the engine and not the brakes, I did this until I learned not to.

1. Brakes are made to slow the car and are on all four wheels and have complicated antilock systems to make sure they work properly as much of the time as possible.

2. Slowing the car with downshifting causes extra wear on the clutch and only slows the two rear wheels.

3. If you are driving at or near the limit of adhesion and downshift too hard it can destabilize the car and make you spin. This is the reason for heel and toe downshifting, to avoid this happening.

4. Porsche and all the other manufacturers have gone to great lengths to eliminate engine braking in its dual clutch and sequential (racing) transmissions by building in automatic throttle blips to avoid engine braking during downshifts.

5. Brake pads are cheaper to replace than clutches

6. Proper use of rpms and gear selection to slow the car on a long hill is perfectly acceptable and is mandatory on large trucks but this is not slowing the car coming up to a stop sign or intersection.

7. If you cant heel and toe you can at least rev match to smooth your shifting down to a lower gear and then apply the brakes to slow the car.

8. Brakes stop ... clutch disengages the engine from the drivetrain