Anyone Master Downshift Rev-Matching
 

Hello,

Hope everyone is well. I'm finding it very difficult to master the downshift rev-match on the Boxster and it's driving me nuts. Of course the higher the gears, it's a bit better. For example coming from 6 to 5, or max 5 to 4. But the lower gears 4 to 3, or 3 to 2, the revs have to be very precise and accurate or you miss the hole purpose of rev matching. Sometimes I get them right, sometimes I over rev, and sometimes not enough. Is it me, or is the Porsche hard to master the downshift rev match. Anyone have any tips for me? Watched a few videos on youtube, simply in concept, very hard to execute in real life.

Sometimes it's a thing of beauty... seamless downshift with perfect execution. Sometimes... not so much. My blip target is 4k rpm (needle straight up) which is usually very close to where I need it. I read somewhere that Porsche designed it that way so it would be easy to see in peripheral vision. I don't know if it's true but it works. Also I aim to get the shift done and clutch out in a straight line. Then if you botch it and unsettle the car it doesn't send you into the weeds. Practice practice...

Its tricky downshifting 3 to 2 and it needs higher revs than I first anticipated but do hit the sweet spot every now and then.

The other gears seem much easier to down shift smoothly and I don't bother down shifting 2 to 1 unless I need to stop in a hurry.

I find letting the clutch out a bit slower tends to smooth the transition from 3 to 2 giving a nicer deceleration.

I'm still learning as I've only had the Boxster S for a few weeks.

I don't know if I can help much. 40 plus years of motorcycling and 18 years of truck driving it just come natural to me. You usually don't need a huge rev up. Just a nice blip of about 1000 rpm or so should do it. If you are having trouble try doing the double clutch way. Pull it out of gear - clutch out, give it the blip-then clutch in and into gear. You will have to practice and it will be different at different speeds and also if you are skipping gears. Just try and see what works best in your car.

Practice, practice, practice. The secret is training your brain to know just how big of a blip to use.

Remember when you first started driving a stick shift and you had no idea what gear to use? You'd be driving down the street at 40mph and then brake and turn for a corner and you were never sure whether to be in 3rd or 2nd. How did you figure this out? Simple - experience! You drove around a lot and eventually your brain figured out what gear was right for any given speed and maneuver. Now you don't ever give it a second thought and gear selection just comes completely natural.

The same is true for rev-matching. Do it at every opportunity every time you drive and pretty soon, you'll be a pro.

I was well into my second season of driving before that 3-2 heel-toe downshift under braking started to feel like it was supposed to. It also took a while to get the 1-2 upshift to be as seamless as I wanted it to be. I've had motorcycles and stickshift cars before, but I have to say that this car has been the most difficult to master when it comes to shifting gears.

You get there the same way you get to Carnegie Hall....

yeah, as per the others the 3-2 is a bit tougher than the other gears as you have to rev a bit higher (less overlap than in the other ratios i suppose).

i use the edge of my foot not the heel, so wider shoes benefit me. in normal driving the brake pedal can seem much higher than the gas making the blips difficult, but on the track with the brakes mashed down the gas pedal lines-up nicely.

I'd say the Boxster is really nicely set up for heel and toe. It's doesn't get much easier, that's for sure. New 991 might actually be even easier, but I digress.

That's not to say it's actually easy. As above, practice, practice, practice. Rev match every downshift, even when you're just pootling around town.

I hated the stock Boxster pedal arrangement for heel-and-toe so I installed a Rennline pedal kit which extends and lifts the accelerator pedal to be more even with the brake pedal. This improved my rev matching by an order of magnitude. Click here for a DIY and some pics: http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/28895-rennline-pedal-install-guide.html

I think part of my problem is the transfer time from one higher gear to the lower gear on the stick lever. So even if my rev is enough, as the RPM starts to drop, but the time I take the gear out of the previous gear and go lower, I've lost some of the rev that I've given the car. I don't know, I'd really like to master rev matching on this car. It really bothers me when I have uneven shifts.

Maybe you are just blipping too early. You don't need to rev-match until your gear is chosen and you are just about to release the clutch. The object is to match revs to the new gear so when the clutch is released, wheels/clutch/engine rpm are all in harmony. Try to blip just before clutch release.

This is my process:

1. Rev
2. Clutch in
3. Gear out - From Higher
4. Gear In - to lower
5. Release clutch

I start losing RPM from step 2 to 5, unless I give it a big one.

You could try:

Clutch in
Gear out - From Higher
Gear In - to lower
Rev
Release clutch

^^^ I gotta try that!

I have good luck with
clutch in
gear out and ready to go into the next gear
rev
when the rev matches the car speed for the new gear,
the shifter fells like it is wanting to get engaged
shift into next lower gear
let out the clutch
and then massage the throttle or excessive engine braking is going to happen

To preserve the synchros, you need to blip when you are in neutral, then quickly downshift. Don't wait to blip until you have gone to the lower gear. YTo will save wear on the clutch if you blip after you have selected the new gear, but if you blip in neutral, you will also save the synchro.

Have I mastered rev matching? No, even though I had to learn how to double clutch downshift because I had Italian cars, that had horrible synchros,I still don't get it perfect every time.

When I first started rev matching, what worked for me is to blip in neutral and quickly select the lower gear, but then take it easy a little. Instead of just popping the clutch, I let it out a little and get a feel for whether I have over reved or under reved. If I over reved, the car will accelerate and I push the clutch in a little to slow down the acceleration caused by over reving.. If I under reved, then the car will brake, and I hit the throttle to compensate,

After much practice, you will get an instinctive feel for how much to blip and when to release the clutch.

+1 Good advice.

I don't find this car as easy to heel and toe as my MR2 or Miata. Sometimes I get it right, and sometimes I don't. I may eventually put a pedal set in it, but I'm trying to get used to the stock pedal arrangement. Not all of it is the pedals, though. The shifter feel and clutch engagement seem kind of hit-or-miss.

I find it always works much better if I just crack the throttle a tad before I let the clutch out when heel/toe downshifting. That way, if I didn't match the revs perfectly, the car isn't upset by too much engine braking, since the throttle is open.

No. You have to blip the throttle in neutral BEFORE you select the lower gear if you want to save the synchro.