Is manual clutch slower?

[TheTechnobear]

My personal preference is to drive cars as they are in real life...
i.e. With H-shifter + clutch , or paddles as appropriate.

I've done this since the start...

I have no problem with doing this, but I'm slower with manual clutch.
I put this down to 2 things
A) bad timing = neutral, so I'm 'conservative' when letting revs fall to avoid missing.
B) auto clutch, seems to be optimal even appears to blip throttle!
( I'm ignoring the fact of course, auto clutch also makes left foot braking easier too)

Questions:
- Is anyone faster or at least equal to auto clutch ?
- Also, it appears to me some cars disable clutch e.g. Academy 350z , is this correct... Hadnt noticed it before !?
- h shifter with auto clutch, seems at least as quick as paddles - true for others?


Currently, this means I just use clutch for fun... Which is fine, but wondering if I just need to work at it more

 

[Rhino_WJB]

I share your preference where shifting is concerned: using the method in-game which closest reflects the real car.

Similarly, my lap times are slower when using manual clutch. The two points you make are very true, though there is another quite important one.

There is considerably more "thinking time" required when shifting manually. Participate in a 4-5 lap race, and complete the first 2-3 with clutch. Switch to paddles only for the remainder. I find personally that driving with paddles is much easier and can concentrate more on the braking points and control input. I notice a big difference when down-shifting. When using manual clutch, I tend to heal-toe, which is much harder to maintain smaller ranges of input, given your feet are busier. With paddles, I can brake quite smoothly and the range of control input is much tighter.

I'm not even going to mention the "N" issue. It *really* annoys me. GT5 is the only title for me where missing gears happens regularly and costs a mountain of time.

 

[phil bell]

With practice you'll get it.As for me I find the difference in times for most car's with or without(paddles,etc) h shifter to be minimal.

 

[TheTechnobear]

@rhino , yeah your probably right.. esp. about. heel n toe which I find requires more concentration.
( and yeah N issue bugs me too, but I discount as I'm slower even on 'good' laps... but as I said, I think this makes me conservative)

@Phil, ok I'm surprised.. any tips? And do you heel n toe on downshifts?
How do you manage to not misshift, as I find the timing varies with every car, and changes with setup...

Any thoughts on how tunning and setups help?

Personally I always upgrade the transmission and clutch options, and I'm thinking now with adjustable transmission there may be some possibilities there.
( basically manual clutch needs revs to drop quickly)