F1 shifting

No need to let go of the Gas pedal, otherwise ur gonna get massive head jerks. Enjoy ur F1.....

 

I found the exact opposite with my car. If I want to rev it high, and not bang the shifts very hard, I'll accelerate with 3/4 throttle to about 6.5-7k RPM, then slightly (basically curl the toes up) lift off the gas, shift up and reapply throttle. I get silky smooth shifts while accelerating quickly, hearing the scream of the engine, while not feeling like I'm beating on the car. Sometimes, on the other hand, if I gradually accelerate to about 6K RPM and hold the throttle when I shift, it will bang into gear. I figured that the car doesn't really know that I don't want to beat on it.
As you drive it more, you will learn to communicate with the computer and will be able to get it to react the way you want, by using different throttle inputs and timing of the shifts. Don't worry, you can't really harm it no matter how you drive it. It's just how you want to balance speed and comfort.

For quickest times, hold the throttle down and paddle the gears!

 

No need to lift.

the computer does it all.

In fact, you'll just confuse the system. Really.

 

Owners manual clearly says not to let off the gas. At all.

 

Just leave your foot exactly were you put it and hit the paddles. The car does it all.

 

I was adviced by the dealer on normal driving to release a bit the gas pedal to avoid extra stress to the clutch

 

Makes no difference to clutch wear whatsoever....

 

To take advantage of the fastest shift you need to keep your foot planted, no advantage over a manual if you treat it like one

John.

 

Unfortunately, many of us know much more than any of our dealers.

 

+1

 

To go fast, no need to lift the gas pedal, and just let the car do its thing. For normal street driving, lifting or modulating the gas will make gear transitions smoother based my experience.

 

When slowing to a stop with an F1 do you 1) sequentially downshift 2) let it automatically downshift or 3) shift into neutral?

The reason I ask is because it seems that there is less wear on the transmission if you avoid the downshifts, that rev matching is unnecessary in that case and that the stop is "smoother." When coming to a complete stop just shift back into first gear and you're all set to go. This avoids forgetting to shift into first on takeoff if you leave it in neutral. Also I have noticed that if I leave it in neutral at a stop then I have to keep my foot on the brake otherwise if I lift off it will not allow me to choose first gear. The only drawback that I can see from this technique is that sometimes when slowing to a stop the traffic actually starts moving before you come to a complete stop. In that case shifting out of neutral will generally put you in a higher gear that you would have chosen for that particular speed.

 

Like's been said before the manual and advice is to keep your right foot still and pull the up paddle. My car is a 2000 car with original TCU and there is no doubt I can produce a smoother shift with a slight feather of the throttle.
From 3 to 4 my car slips the clutch back in when changing at about 6k with foot down which from a wear perspective does not feel good. With a feather, the re-engagement feels a lot cleaner and mechanically more sympathetic. As I've learned to drive the car I can get pretty seamless shifts at all revs but the most satisfying changes are the sport mode high rev changes which are a lot faster.

Whilst I'm on topic I genuinely cannot see the point of changing to a CS TCU. Sure it will be quicker but for 99% of the time I find mine fine. It is only the mid-throttle take off I'd choose to improve.
Before I bought the car I read just about everything on the F1 versus manual, looked for a manual, bought an early F1 and expected it to be virtually undriveable based on what I'd read! The reality could not be farther from the truth. Maybe because of my driving style/needs are not full on or track focused but I'd say to anyone looking drive the car and see for yourself.

 

Mike, the problem with the earlier tcu is its lack of adjustment. As the clutch wear increases there isn't a way to "close the gap" by adjusting the bite point. This has the unfortunate effect of wearing the clutch faster, most noticeable by slower shifts even in sports mode. This usually begins to occur at around the 60% wear point. People like the strad tcu not only for its fast shifts, but it's improved internal map dynamics, which vastly increase clutch life.

 

Cheers Eddie,

Probably explains the difference or advantages better than I've seen before. Mine was about 20% worn 1500 miles ago so I may feel differently in the coming months/years. First clutch lasted 24k in the car which seems pretty good although you have to know how it's been driven and I don't. It could have been 15 k of motorway miles!.....M

 

Your absolutely right, motorway miles means a happier clutch! 24k from a clutch with the earlier tcu is good, they obviously set it right at change time. It's not all doom and gloom for the earlier tcu though, once the changes get sluggish take it to someone who knows the system and doesn't just want to sell you a clutch, and they can fudge around with a setting known as the clutch thickness index to get the best out of the remaining clutch life.

 

I usually select neutral, but not until the car in rolling pretty slowly. Generally, that means downshifting to 3rd and then pulling N just before the F1 takes over. If the light turns green while I'm rolling in N, that's when the fun begins. Pull into gear; as you note, it'll be too high by 1 or 2 gears, so just follow up with a quick 1 or 2 down pulls, and off you go.

 

Eddie,

I've looked into this but cannot find the answer. Do you (anyone) know which TCU was the first one to introduce the manual PIS setting?.......M

 

Fitted to 2002 model year onwards.

 

How difficult would it be for someone just to produce a piece of software to allow clutch set-up via a laptop and OBD cable? To a non-softare engineer it seems it would be easy to write something just to read and write a couple of parameters, but I guess if it was it would have been done already. Is it no one has tried or are the issues with encryption etc?

 

Interesting, in my F430 I can select neutral and re-engage gear at ANY speed. The gearbox ECU justs pics an appropriate gear for the speed I'm doing. I wonder if this is a 360 / f430 difference?

 

Also in the 430 not sure about 360 in this situation if you flick the down paddle instead of the up paddle it'll pick the lowest gear for the speed so you don't find yourself in too high a gear.

John.

 

The 355 does the same thing.

 

Nope. And anyway, even if it was readily available an untrained user would quickly destroy a very expensive gearbox. It's not a DIY job, unfortunately, sometimes you have to pay money to somebody who fixes these things for a living to use their twenty grands worth of diagnostic equipment and years of expertise to fix your car for you....