Handy to know if you ever need it
You never know. Who knows, you might suddenly find yourself in a situation that looks suspiciously like the opening scenes of a bad horror film; somewhere along a deserted forest road with a broken clutch pedal. If you listen carefully, you can already hear the chainsaw in the distance. The rules of horror movies dictate that you have no phone coverage. Or you hurt your left foot and limp back to the car with your last strength. How do you get home then? The good news is: it is possible to shift gears without a clutch in a car with a manual transmission.
Also read: This is what you should do when your tank is almost empty
Incidentally, the clutch pedal is no lie from the big bad car conglomerates with the aim of smearing you clutch plates and expensive maintenance. We would recommend that you continue to use the clutch pedal in your car so that you don’t let your transmission spit. We certainly do not advise, if you really feel the need, to practice in a rental car on holiday (wink, wink).
Accelerating and braking without clutch
Accelerating without clutch is particularly easy. Make sure the engine is not running and put the gearbox in first gear. Check if the road in front of you is clear and start the engine (so you don’t have to press the clutch). The car will start moving on the starter motor and the combustion engine will take over the movement. Congratulations, you have completed your first meters without a clutch pedal. Coming to a stop is also easy: take the car out of gear and let it coast to a stop. After this you can switch off the car, select the first gear and accelerate again with the key.
Upshift without clutch
This is already a bit more difficult. You roll, but you don’t want to drive home at 6,000 rpm – that’s asking for even more trouble. Shifting to a higher gear without a clutch is very easy. Hold it in first gear (or whatever gear you’re in) and let go of the throttle. Pull the lever very lightly in the direction it needs to go, but don’t pull hard enough to take it out of gear. At some point you will feel that the resistance decreases and at that moment you can shift it to the next gear without difficulty. So you have to do it purely by feel – listen to the car.
Shifting down a gear without clutch
This is the trickiest move of clutchless shifting. To downshift, you need to step on the throttle to get the revs up – rev matching. Simply put, you have to take it out of gear, give it a little throttle and put the stick in a lower gear. How many revs you need to be depends on your gearbox. This is often slightly more than 500 revolutions per minute. You will notice how many turns you need. Here, too, you will notice – just like when upshifting – that the resistance decreases when you are at the correct speed, as above. The first few times you are guaranteed to hear a screeching sound.
An example
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