Stick shifting in AC

[Tomas Torasen]

Hello guys!

I've been playing around with the stick shifter on my G27 lately. Just for fun. It's been going fine on some tracks until I came to spa with two hard braking zones. I know from using the paddles, to be fast in those corners you need to use the gearing, one gear at a time to slow down the car as fast as possible, all the while pumping the brake and throttle blipping on the down shifts.

But with a stick, theres no way of having three feet, not even mentioning coordinating all those things at once.
Yes, heel and toe would work but would be amazingly difficult and probably very easy to mess up and not as effective as using the paddle shifters.

So if one would not learn heel and toe, how are you guys braking and downshifting for hair pins? Just braking and down shifting to the final gear right at the end? Going one gear at a time, releasing the brake pedal every time would be greatly ineffective and increase braking distance.

 

[Radu Oros]

You can quickly change between 6-5-4-3-2 with the manual shift. Most of the time you don't need to wait for the revs, for example the Lotus 98t has manual transmission, but the action of manual down shifting can be as fast as paddle down shifting. You don't need to release the brake pedal, but you might need to blip the throttle with heel on every down shift, and as well press and release the clutch on every gear change. These three are fast actions - clutch, throttle blip, manual stick; while the brake pedal is a more constant action. Eventually you'll find your own technique for it and be fast without spinning the car.

 

[Tomas Torasen]

But without heel and toe.. if I release the throttle I will lock the tires braking, if I release the brake I will not brake (self explanatory), if I dont touch the clutch it wont change gears.

Or am I missing something?

 

[Tomas Torasen]

On a bynote I noticed when checking "use seperate shifter" in controller settings, I need the clutch to change gears. Using just the paddles as before, even on pro mode, I dont need the clutch. Does some auto clutch kick in without me knowing it when using paddles? Also using the paddles now afterwards the shifting itself feels delayed compared to using the stick and clutch.

 

[Radu Oros]

Yea not using a separate shifter you won't need clutch to change gears with the paddles. There is a game balance in the shifting for who isn't using the correct hardware for the car, so that who are using the correct hardware (clutch and manual shifter, or sequential for GT2 cars) won't be at disadvantage compared to the simple action of using the paddles behind the steering wheel.

 

[Glaurung]

Heel and toe is not always mandatory.
Not using it you can take advantage of the oversteering behaviour in corner entry, it's a good aid with understeery cars, but of course you have to control the revs, so first brake then press the clutch and downshift.
However, when the braking is not so strong, and a small deceleration is needed, then the heel&toe operation is generally the best option.

 

[St3fan]

I feel AC (along with GSC, GTR2, Race07, and LFS) is a lot easier to shift into gear with an H shifter for me. When I play Iracing, PCars, and Grid Autosports, it is a lot harder for me to get the car into a lower gear, especially the 2nd gear.

In terms of heel-and-toe, the problem I'm having in AC is that, if ABS is turned of, I feel it very hard for me to brake nicely with my stock G27 pedals. AC locks up the tires a lot easier than other sims for me.

 

[Glaurung]

In order to drastically simplify heel&toe with G27 the GTEYE mod of the brake spring is available.

 

[Tomas Torasen]

Braking is indeed difficult in AC, until you get the hang of it. Its a pumping and throttle blipping that is needed. When you get the hang of it you will have no lock ups.
I use a fanatec club sport pedal set though. A G25/27 pedal set would indeed be very difficult without the resistance there.

The stick shifter on the G27 that I use are probably not a very good choice when trying to stick shift either feels like a floppy piece of plastic that could brake any second.

 

[Tim Meuris]

Braking is indeed difficult in AC, until you get the hang of it. Its a pumping and throttle blipping that is needed. When you get the hang of it you will have no lock ups.
I use a fanatec club sport pedal set though. A G25/27 pedal set would indeed be very difficult without the resistance there.

you mean that braking without abs is difficult? or with abs as well?

 

[Tomas Torasen]

you mean that braking without abs is difficult? or with abs as well?

Yes without ABS, in certain cars I might add. Like with the Ferrari GT2 for example. I just took the Miura for a drive, that one is very easy.

 

[Getrag]

Yeah I ran one of the club races recently I was driving the BMW E90 and in an effort to make it as real as possible I was struggling with the heel toe, and I ended up sideways on every lap somewhere because of the easy lock up like St3fan said.

I did find it helped If I waited a bit longer to initiate downshifts, so that if I accidently engaged the clutch to early I would get less weight transfer bobbing going on and it kept the car more stable.

If heel toe in the end works the best I'd like to learn how to do it better myself. But dang it is tricky to do right. that's for sure. (for me at least)