Clutch-in Braking For Better Performance?

[mooty]

what do you mean by clutch-in braking?

[Trackrat]

Makes sense off the top of my head- you are only braking the car, not car and all the moving parts of the drivetrain (additional inertial/rotating masses).

Hmmmmm

[FTS]

Originally Posted by mooty

what do you mean by clutch-in braking?

As I understand the technicals behind the argument, which is an "if I understand it" ; when the gear is engaged, there is torque being transferred to driven wheels, which counter acts the braking force, at least that is the argument. So, as soon as you hit the brakes, you should also depress the clutch in to disengage the drive, so all you have is the braking force and it is supposed to be more efficient in dispersing the forward energy of the car. The other side of the coin is that when you don't transfer torque, the differential needs to be strong and aggressive to balance the car, preferably a 2-way LSD, not even a 1.5-way. But I am not sure of the technical merits, but at least I should be able to measure the results in couple of weeks

[mooty]

if i have to down shift in that braking sequence, then as soon as i am on the brk, i floor the clutch, then heel toe to the gear i want.

if i am only braking without downshifting, which suggest not a very hard braking effort, i will not use the cltuch at all. i would think that if i used clutch for the short light braking effort, i would have to rematch rev with throttle blips as i let out the clutch. seems too much work.

[Gator Bite]

The momentum of the car is far greater than the rotational momentum of the drive train compoments and engine. In fact, the engine (with your foot off the throttle) will slow down a lot faster than you can slow the car with the brakes.

One variable that is changing is that this added friction is changing your brake bias by effectively adding breaking to the rear wheels. If your car can benefit from more front bias, clutching while braking will help. If it can benefit from more rear bias, it will hurt.

[Trackrat]

Originally Posted by Gator Bite

The momentum of the car is far greater than the rotational momentum of the drive train compoments and engine. In fact, the engine (with your foot off the throttle) will slow down a lot faster than you can slow the car with the brakes.

One variable that is changing is that this added friction is changing your brake bias by effectively adding breaking to the rear wheels. If your car can benefit from more front bias, clutching while braking will help. If it can benefit from more rear bias, it will hurt.

Yep, makes sense. Thanks for pointing out.

[FTS]

Is that theory? See, part of the discussion is exactly that: theory vs. factual data. I know I am too analytical sometimes, but that is the reason I want to capture data to prove to me first one way or another without the butt sensors' confusing me. Most of the time, our theories and body sensors say opposing things to us