'Crunchy' gear change

I'm in the middle of my training, and it's not causing me any problems - it's all about planning and timing. Changing down to accelerate when overtaking is fine so long as you do it /before you start the manouver/. And you're right, occasions for /safe/ overtaking are becoming more and more rare, which is why they also teach patience.

Changing down when braking is also fine - as long as you're not changing direction as well, the thinking being that this gives front wheel drive cars too much to do: brake, change direction, and react to possible changes in engine speed to the front wheels as you change gear. Since mine is RWD, I get more leeway :->

Cheers,

James Dore wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.ox.ac.uk:

Well, in most circumstances, I find that I meed to drop 2 gears to get a level of acceleration that is adequate for safe overtaking. If I do this, move out (before accelerating, of course ;-), then floor it, I find that I'm hitting the rev limiter about half way through the manouver. OK, you could just drop one gear, but in my case this does not provide adequate acceleration and although my car is no flying machine, it isn't slower than average. That's why I think it's a silly rule.

What you describe is fair comment. However, the bloke who taught me would

*not* let me brake & change gear simultaneously, even when travelling in a straight line. This meant that I had to brake, then release the brake, then change down and let the clutch back in, all before beginning to make the turn. If you do it this way, you'll find you have to brake a *lot* earlier and harder. IMO, the car wasn't comfortable with it, because the engine was trying to push the car on and I was standing on the brakes, trying to slow it enough to leave me enough time to do the gear change with no brakes. That's my second biggest annoyance with IAM principles, don't get me started on the wheel shuffling!