Heh I coast since my exhaust is pretty damn loud.

Is it possible to do faster braking with engine braking?

Thanks in advance.

 

Not if you like your engine.

 

I don't think you can brake and stop the car any faster with engine braking because the tires usually lose traction before your brake pads do and engine braking will not give your tires more grip.

I only shift into neutral and free wheel the car when theres a red light or stopped car in front. But it is safer to control the car's speed with the engine and gears and not just rely on the brakes.

 

i just started driving manual about 2 months ago.
why do racers do heel toe? does it slow the car down faster? or is it to keep the revs to what they want it to be (instead of a gear higher)?

 

No, and sorta. Heel toe allows someone to slow down while rev matching.

 

Heel Toe allows you to keep control of your car when braking and down shifting. If you are fast and you down-shift, you will lock the wheels and something bad will happen (you usually brake because there's a corner coming)

Plus, It prevents damaging the synchros (if you lock wheels, imagine what happens in your tranny & gearbox )

when you down-shift with heel toe your rpm will be higher, so you will be going faster.

Your car is made for heel toe, the ergonomy is very good. It will add a little more fun when driving.

 

I do that same thing, neutral -- coast, theres so many traffic lights and so much traffic in orlando, if you can get through an intersection to get hit by someone, then its gotta be fate. just coast, "Brainiac" did a thing on what wastes more gas as well and it came out that gunning it all out got the car less times around the track by like 5 or 6 then just getting it up to x speed and letting it die down to x speed then accel back up, it was something like 16 laps or something. Anyways, point is it wouldn't harm your car to do so.

 

first off, racers don't have to heel toe downshift. Weekend warriors heel toe downshift in order to control the car better. being in gear while braking will help keep the car stable when entering a corner. If you enter a corner and need to shift to accelerate out of the corner you will be changing the grip on the wheels and could lose control. the reason I sace racers don't use heel and toe is because they don't have to. a racecar is a whole different machine than a street car on the track.

More theory, be wary of reading on.

When slowing for a corner, you want to have as much control over the car as possible. If you know you will have to downshift to get accel at the exit you would want to do so as smoothly as possible. If you A) mash the brake and push the clutch, shift down and drop the clutch, the car will react violently. If you B) roll onto the brake while blipping the throttle, switch gears and release clutch all at the same time, and do it properly, you won't even feel the shift and the attitude of the car will not have changed at all. That is why people use heel and toe driving.

For the most part, on the road you want to always be in gear. The only time you should be out of gear is sitting at a stoplight to reduce wear on the thowout bearing. the scenario above is very likely to happen at some point in your driving career. Although it might not be a car coming from a side street. There are many scenarios I have been through that I can reinforce car control with. Take my word for it, you want to ALWAYS be in COMPLETE control over your car, wear or not. If you aren't prepared to react to anything you are contributing to the problem on the roads. Look ahead, be prepared for anything, always have an escape route planned.

-Daniel

 

and, like someone already said, if you were that concerned about gas why did you buy a sporty car? not just an evo, my car gets only 22 or so mpg. if you want to save gas coast everywhere or buy another car.

 

I usually downshift from 5th to 4th while rev matching and apply the brakes while in 4th to stay in gear. By the time I'm doing 15-20mph and know that I'm going to stop for sure, I put it in neutral and brake.

 

simply stated, if you aren't totally comfortable with rev matching/downshifting then def. just stick to shifting into neutral when approaching a light and just brake. Practice rev matching until it becomes second nature. After some practice you will get used to how much more revs you need to be in the correct rev range when downshifting

 

you should never put your clutch in neutral when slowing down unless you already in second gear or going very slow. remember when your car is in gear it also help your power steering and your car will be much more in controll

 

I wouldn't recommend putting the transmission in neutral. Disengaging the clutch is fine, but keep the car in gear so that you're able to maneuver the machine in an emergency situation.

 

^ agree with keeping it in gear and clutch disengaged, but one question. how do you know what rpm is needed for each gear i.e in downshifting. someone said earlier that you wouldnt have to use you clutch to downshift if you had the rpm matched for the desired gear you wanted to go in. but i dont understand how to find the rpm matches for the gears......someone help

 

I believe if you read your owners manual it says in most states dropping your car into neutral is "illegal". My guess.......its for these safety reasons. But how easy is it to reverse when you are about to get t-boned by some jackass who cuts a turn too short when your sitting at a light facing the opposite direction in 1st gear.