Strange shifting behavior on the Alfa Romeo 33 stradale

[Pale_Blue_Dot]

I've just gotten back into AC after some time away, I'm glad it's still going strong, I got the full version of Content Manager and things are great until now. I have a G29 without the shifter, so for manual transmission cars I use the clutch and paddle shifters. I was driving the 33 Stradale for the first time. and I'm confused by the transmission. In the Lotus Exige V6 cup car, clutch + paddle shifter works fine, I have to use the clutch for optimum shifting, as expected. But in 33 Stradale using the clutch causes a "lurch" in the car when I let up I get an exhaust pop (or a grinding of gears, not sure which it is) and the car lurches, I cannot shift smooth, BUT, if I JUST use the paddle shifters it works fine, shifting is perfect.
I thought manual cars (like the Lotus) don't work unless I use the clutch, but the Alfa Romeo 33 only up-shifts right if I DON'T use the clutch.
I have automatic shifting and automatic clutch turned off in Content Manager (boxes are un-ticked). I have throttle blip turned on though, as I cannot heel-toe on the G29 with my current set-up. There is something I'm not realizing or thinking of here I think, or it's a bug, appreciate any help of feedback you guys can give me, thanks.

 

[Pawel Ziolkowski]

Most manual cars can shift without clutch, it's not recommended but it is quite quick. In some sport/racing cars it was even preferred to upshift without clutch.

I actually driven Stradale for ~3-4 hours recently in AC. Don't think i've ever missed a shift using H-shifter, so it's not like it has difficult transmission like some other old cars.
Best would be to go into a replay and pay attention to pedal inputs vs engine rpm - it's usually pretty easy to spot what is wrong. Likely you are too slow off the throttle pedal.
Also on some cars auto throttle blip isn't perfect so you might wan't to adjust how fast you are on and off the clutch pedal. Actually it's never even close to perfect, IMHO manual heel-toe is worth at least half a second on track. But as long as you analyze what is happening it should be possible to adjust in any car, autoblip or not.

 

[Pale_Blue_Dot]

Most manual cars can shift without clutch, it's not recommended but it is quite quick. In some sport/racing cars it was even preferred to upshift without clutch.

I actually driven Stradale for ~3-4 hours recently in AC. Don't think i've ever missed a shift using H-shifter, so it's not like it has difficult transmission like some other old cars.
Best would be to go into a replay and pay attention to pedal inputs vs engine rpm - it's usually pretty easy to spot what is wrong. Likely you are too slow off the throttle pedal.
Also on some cars auto throttle blip isn't perfect so you might wan't to adjust how fast you are on and off the clutch pedal. Actually it's never even close to perfect, IMHO manual heel-toe is worth at least half a second on track. But as long as you analyze what is happening it should be possible to adjust in any car, autoblip or not.

Thanks, you're the first reply on three forums. What I really need to do is invest in the shifter add-on, I don't think I'd have much of an issue if I had an actual shift lever in hand, as all of my real life cars have been manual. I'm having difficulty positioning my feet on the G29 pedals to heel-toe throttle blip, but I'll try to practice it more. I'm having a similar issue with the Maserati Tipo Birdcage, I should just give up trying to use the clutch until I get a shifter.

I think AC just handles manual shifts with the paddles strange, as I'm sure it was not an intended implementation. If I hold down the paddle shifter the car stays in neutral, so it seems there is some auto-clutch going on despite my attempts to use the real clutch pedal.

 

[Andy-R]

Thanks, you're the first reply on three forums. What I really need to do is invest in the shifter add-on, I don't think I'd have much of an issue if I had an actual shift lever in hand, as all of my real life cars have been manual. I'm having difficulty positioning my feet on the G29 pedals to heel-toe throttle blip, but I'll try to practice it more. I'm having a similar issue with the Maserati Tipo Birdcage, I should just give up trying to use the clutch until I get a shifter.

I think AC just handles manual shifts with the paddles strange, as I'm sure it was not an intended implementation. If I hold down the paddle shifter the car stays in neutral, so it seems there is some auto-clutch going on despite my attempts to use the real clutch pedal.

Do you have holes on the G29 pedal faces? I started out with a G27 and they did have holes so you can adjust the pedals for heel and toe.

 

[Pawel Ziolkowski]

Thanks, you're the first reply on three forums. What I really need to do is invest in the shifter add-on, I don't think I'd have much of an issue if I had an actual shift lever in hand, as all of my real life cars have been manual. I'm having difficulty positioning my feet on the G29 pedals to heel-toe throttle blip, but I'll try to practice it more. I'm having a similar issue with the Maserati Tipo Birdcage, I should just give up trying to use the clutch until I get a shifter.

I think AC just handles manual shifts with the paddles strange, as I'm sure it was not an intended implementation. If I hold down the paddle shifter the car stays in neutral, so it seems there is some auto-clutch going on despite my attempts to use the real clutch pedal.

Shifter is definitely a fun thing, but lack of physical feedback still makes it hard to naturally adjust pedalwork. I drove stick my whole life (including heel-toeing in traffic and shifting twice as often as normal people) and still had to make a solid assessment of whole shift process in telemetry a couple of times to correct my input timings in game. So there is no escaping that

There was a time when my G27 shifter broke and i was driving paddles. I didn't see anything "strange" going on there, my timings were just off and required some adjustment, again based on telemetry.
Also i think the shift on release is the normal, after all it is not supposed to switch car's gearbox to sequential, but to emulate H-shift with a substandard control method, and for that you have to have neutral between gears somewhere. Don't think there is any hidden auto-clutch thou.

As for Heel-toe, G29 pedals should have quite a few options to tinker with. For example you can rotate the pedal face around and move it to either side (there are like 6 holes for the 2 screws) also the plastic part under pedal face can be changed for depth control i think (don't remember now).
Special sports footwear is a thing, and good seating position is quite important too.

 

[Pale_Blue_Dot]

Do you have holes on the G29 pedal faces? I started out with a G27 and they did have holes so you can adjust the pedals for heel and toe.

Shifter is definitely a fun thing, but lack of physical feedback still makes it hard to naturally adjust pedalwork. I drove stick my whole life (including heel-toeing in traffic and shifting twice as often as normal people) and still had to make a solid assessment of whole shift process in telemetry a couple of times to correct my input timings in game. So there is no escaping that

There was a time when my G27 shifter broke and i was driving paddles. I didn't see anything "strange" going on there, my timings were just off and required some adjustment, again based on telemetry.
Also i think the shift on release is the normal, after all it is not supposed to switch car's gearbox to sequential, but to emulate H-shift with a substandard control method, and for that you have to have neutral between gears somewhere. Don't think there is any hidden auto-clutch thou.

As for Heel-toe, G29 pedals should have quite a few options to tinker with. For example you can rotate the pedal face around and move it to either side (there are like 6 holes for the 2 screws) also the plastic part under pedal face can be changed for depth control i think (don't remember now).
Special sports footwear is a thing, and good seating position is quite important too.

Guys, I had no idea the screws could be used for adjustments, thank you, I'm gonna play around with them. As for the auto-clutch thing I was talking about, I kind of expected if using the clutch with auto clutch turned off for you to get a gear grinding reaction if you didn't clutch and used the paddle shifters, but it looks like there is no way to stop the game from engaging the clutch itself when you shift with the paddles, which I understand for convenience, and I'll see if there is a way in the config files to turn this off.

Seating position is my biggest issue as far as heel-toe goes though, I need to invest in a real rig.
I love sim racing, as it let's me drive cars I'll never afford or drive on tracks I'll never drive, it's the "not rich person" solution, but damn, it can be an expensive hobby sometimes regardless.

 

[Andy-R]

Guys, I had no idea the screws could be used for adjustments, thank you, I'm gonna play around with them. Seating position is my biggest issue as far as that goes though, I need to invest in a real rig. I love sim racing, as it let's me drive cars I'll never afford or drive on tracks I'll never drive, it's the "not rich person" solution, but damn, it can be an expensive hobby sometimes regardless.

Compromises are definitely possible. I dont have space (or want) to have a full rig in my lounge. I use an armchair as my seat and a GT Omega Apex stand and it works very well IMO. I have to wedge something between the stand and my TV so it doesnt slide away when I brake but it is the best of both worlds, the stand packs away into a corner and works just fine when I need it for racing. Unless you have load cell pedals cranked up to some high force mode something like that does the job just fine Chair-wise I used to use a normal office type chair with the wheels taken off and didnt have any issues with that either.

 

[Pawel Ziolkowski]

As for the auto-clutch thing I was talking about, I kind of expected if using the clutch with auto clutch turned off for you to get a gear grinding reaction if you didn't clutch and used the paddle shifters, but it looks like there is no way to stop the game from engaging the clutch itself when you shift with the paddles, which I understand for convenience, and I'll see if there is a way in the config files to turn this off.

Oh, yeah sorry i was mistaken, probably mixed up in memory with LFS or something, paddle shifts on manual cars seem to use keyboard logics, so fixed shift time. Thou i still don't think it's "hidden clutch" but rather just removal of gearbox rpm shift limits, but it's semantics anyways.

There would be a way around that but it includes creating a virtual controller with 8 buttons (pretty easy) and binding the paddles to an autohotkey script that transforms them to manual gearbox operation for the virtual controller. (still easy, and online examples are available, but would take a bit of work).