Learning how to shift?

[flobefall]

Heyo!

So, to keep this short: Until know I played simcade titels like Codemasters' franchises and used to play with an automatic gearbox.
Now I own both ACs and rFactor2 so I guess it's time to learn to play with 'real conditions' and although I'm really used to play racing games with a wheel and without any other assistances I'm a real noob when it's about to drive with a manual gearbox.
Soo... Do you have any advices how to learn shift? I mean... shifting up is easy as I can hear the engine and see the dashboard's light, but how about shifting down in corners, how to find the right gear?
Is there something like >the< method or would I need to learn it for every corner and every car?

Thanks in advance!

[Kirby]

i would start with sequential, it can help you get the basics. you need to learn at which rpm to downshift so you don't hit the limiter too hard, but not too late or you the engine brake is too weak

[Kirby]

plus. there are probably tutorials on youtube on getting up to speed on how to shift manually

[TrustN1FX]

I just started using the g920 wheel with the H-Shifter. I had the same exact issue. My suggestion is down shift before you get into the turn. You'll bleed off excess speed but still have control over the car. The tigher the turn, the more you need to shift down. You don't have to shift down 1 gear at a a time. For example, if you are in 5th, you can technically shift down to 2nd.

[ling.speed]

For cars with lots of gears - get into a rythm, and do not give into temptation of spamming downshift faster when you want to stop faster, that will only cause problems. In most cases you can start downshifting as you press the brakes. At most speeds the downshift rythm should be roughly the same. The moment you stop braking hard you stop downshifting.

Also if you want to train when (and why) to downshift, cars with not a lot of gears (4-5) can be pretty good as every effect of shifting is exaggerated, so it should be easy to decide for yourself when a shift was good / useful or not.

In general you can treat downshifts as dynamic brake balance changers - the higher the revs you have when downshifting, the more rear balance it will be. (so it's important to know what your BB is and what you need at given point to judge when to shift).
You can also increase cars turning ability when coasting with timely downshift too.

Also do not try to learn on F1 cars... And make sure you use blip/clutch assist (some modern race cars have it built in but they need quick shifting which is harder to learn)

[Chunibyou Kuroi boro]

Originally posted by ƒℓσ.яуαη𝟡𝟙𝟙:

Heyo!

So, to keep this short: Until know I played simcade titels like Codemasters' franchises and used to play with an automatic gearbox.
Now I own both ACs and rFactor2 so I guess it's time to learn to play with 'real conditions' and although I'm really used to play racing games with a wheel and without any other assistances I'm a real noob when it's about to drive with a manual gearbox.
Soo... Do you have any advices how to learn shift? I mean... shifting up is easy as I can hear the engine and see the dashboard's light, but how about shifting down in corners, how to find the right gear?
Is there something like >the< method or would I need to learn it for every corner and every car?

Thanks in advance!

if we're talking H pattern shifters it's 99% muscle memory in terms of finding the gear, my advice is to just get used to the pattern. As for when to shift, half way down the rev range is where I aim for and just before entering the corner, it let's me stay up in the revs and i can shift up sooner after the corner. But that's more of a personal thing. keep in mind rev matching, someone above did mention you can skip gears when using an H pattern shifter, but you have to be mindful of how much the rev's will jump when skipping gears.

[Mr Deap]

I'll be honest. You will learn to shift gear much faster in arcade racing games. The problem with simracing is that it goes as the same speed at real life. Compared to arcade games, you'll lap slower & change gears less often. In fact, you get the muscle memory by doing it often. Thus simracing is not a good ground to learn shifting as a tool, unless you want to be a professional beginner forever.

[clairvoyantwolf]

Put very simply when shifting down for a corner you want to exit the corner in the gear where the speed of the car will be at or near peak torque. As for when to downshift the "half" method is the simplest. Wherein halfway from the braking point to the corner downshift. Half from that point to the corner downshift again...and so on. Works for almost every car ever made. Keep in mind it doesn't really matter how fast you downshift, you slow the car with brakes and not the transmission, just make sure you are in the proper gear before turn in.

[Chunibyou Kuroi boro]

Originally posted by clairvoyantwolf:

Put very simply when shifting down for a corner you want to exit the corner in the gear where the speed of the car will be at or near peak torque. As for when to downshift the "half" method is the simplest. Wherein halfway from the braking point to the corner downshift. Half from that point to the corner downshift again...and so on. Works for almost every car ever made. Keep in mind it doesn't really matter how fast you downshift, you slow the car with brakes and not the transmission, just make sure you are in the proper gear before turn in.

Technically you can actually slow the car with the transmission through coasting. though it's not the fastest technique on a track, it is probably the smoothest.

[clairvoyantwolf]

Originally posted by Chunibyou Kuroi boro:

Originally posted by clairvoyantwolf:

Put very simply when shifting down for a corner you want to exit the corner in the gear where the speed of the car will be at or near peak torque. As for when to downshift the "half" method is the simplest. Wherein halfway from the braking point to the corner downshift. Half from that point to the corner downshift again...and so on. Works for almost every car ever made. Keep in mind it doesn't really matter how fast you downshift, you slow the car with brakes and not the transmission, just make sure you are in the proper gear before turn in.

Technically you can actually slow the car with the transmission through coasting. though it's not the fastest technique on a track, it is probably the smoothest.

Brakes are cheaper than transmissions. You "can" slow the car with the transmission (technically the engine), but with regards to real life driving technique a mistake can become very expensive.

[Chunibyou Kuroi boro]

Originally posted by clairvoyantwolf:

Originally posted by Chunibyou Kuroi boro:

Technically you can actually slow the car with the transmission through coasting. though it's not the fastest technique on a track, it is probably the smoothest.

Brakes are cheaper than transmissions. You "can" slow the car with the transmission (technically the engine), but with regards to real life driving technique a mistake can become very expensive.

very true, engine breaking is always a compromise.