Heel Toe?

[Miguel - Newera]

DJexor Wrote:

Miguel - Newera Wrote:Personally, I do it always, when driving a manual car. It's become 2nd nature - I hate the new paddle shift transmissions that do this for you!

yeah and I hate those new cars too!! Stupid things dont react quick enough. You heel the throttle and you have to wait for half a second before it finally reaches higher RPMs... Heavy flywheel probably ? but well.. thats why i love the AE86! Its just so much fun to learn these techniques in an AE86

A few weeks ago, I was offered the chance to drive the latest Jap Performance cars by a Journalist friend who lives out here. These included the Evo X SST, Lexus IS-F and the R35 GT-R (I could have refused, but would you refuse - HELL No!! - We had a great day out with those press cars! )

Fantastic performance. The Evo was of course seriously fast, and the IS-F & GT-R being Japan's highest power production cars (417 bhp and 480 bhp) could hardly be called unexciting! Each were excellent cars in their own right, but their transmissions bugged me - leaving me wondering if they'd make manal models for the more capable drivers who wanted to do some of the work!
These transmissions would decide if it was "appropriate" to change down, sometimes refusing to, because doing so would take the gear down close to (But not at!) the red line. So If say I was changing down for a corner, just as I was about to apply the brakes - sometimes the car would refuse to change down - giving me a little audiable warning to tell me "no".. The IS-F was particularly errant, then the SST Evo X. The GT-R is the only one that worked pretty good, although at slow speeds the transmission was a bit un-smooth.
Then the other bugbear was that none of these can allow you to change down from say 7th gear to 4th (Say you were cruising at low rpm on the highway, and a fast car went past..... NNnnnnnnnnnneeeeough!!! = Red flag to a bull scenario). In Manual mode, they required you to change down sequentially for the gear desired. If in Auto mode on the IS-F it would do it for you... If you want to kick the clutch to get the back end out, or to make the turbo's spool quicker (Not that the GT-R or Evo X have any significant lag, mind...), or just to be a bit of a hooligan, you can't. Clutch? What clutch - it's electronically controlled, sir!
With all the other electronic trickery, such as anti yaw, traction control, etc. even more drivability was taken away from the driver too.
I couldn't help thinking that for people who really want to drive these cars, something's lacking.

Give me a nice light raw car where I have to change gears myself, can slide it if I want and have to do the job of traction control with my foot! All this electronic stuff is only great for people who never went to the trouble of learning how to drive and want to look like they know. Personally, I preferred to switch the GT-R to R mode suspension and gearbox mode, with traction control completely off... Only then, could I enjoy making the rear end do some of the steering with the throttle! - That was more like it...

Guess the raw nature and the emotion it leaves you with, after a good hard drive is one of the reasons I'd choose my AE86 to a new GT-R..