When shifting down, I’ve noticed high powered cars like the S & R class become more stable before entering corners when I rev match / power shift.
Do you power shift or rev match when shifting down with clutch?
Yes. This is pretty standard stuff in racing. if you don’t you’ll just end up with the weight of the car over the front (due to the wheels dragging the engine) and oversteer like your in a drift competition.
also when making small adjustments to speed its a good tip to keep some throttle on for the same reason.
PS i call it “throttle blip”
Always.
I don’t notice any difference on downshifts from rev matching, but I get my downshifts done before turn in. I imagine rev matching would keep the car more stable if you’re downshifting and already turning in.
I’m a little confused by the terminology you’re using. I consider power shifting to be shifting while staying on the throttle - typically upshifts, because you’re generally not on the throttle for downshifts, you’re on the brake. I consider rev matching to be blipping the throttle with clutch in, momentarily to get engine speed up to gear speed before putting in gear and releasing clutch. Thus, it’s not a power shift, because the actual shift does not occur while still on throttle. The throttle is simply blipped while the clutch is in.
So, no, I don’t power shift or rev match in higher classes. I run mostly simulation damage and modern GT cars, and up shifting without letting off the throttle sometimes causes transmission damage and longer shifts (grinding). On the other side, rev matching on down shifts didn’t seem to offer me any improvement.
Caveat, I use a wheel and pedal set up. So my clutch pedal isn’t a button… on/off… it’s analog… so I can sync engine/gear speed easily enough with the clutch pedal and may not have noticed any change from blipping / heel-toe shifting as a result. In a real car, I imagine this might cause more clutch/synchro wear, but Forza doesn’t care.
^^
Thanks for your input DvlzAdvc8
Yes at times.
I use an H Shifter with a clutch. As already stated above in full SIM DAMAGE, u gotta watch it a bit in the longer races and I have had to do an extra pitstop once or twice when I got a little ambitious with my calculations.
I blip the throttle when shifting down in any car. Locking up the rear can be a problem when I have 40-45% brake bias towards the front.
Ok, this has actually been a big problem for me with non-racecars using manual w/ clutch… Whenever I’m shifting down going into a turn, as I shift into second gear the car immediately loses grip and I start sliding. Is blipping the solution for this?
Yeah mate, because you are downshifting and using manual with clutch the revs often fall much lower than they would be when the clutch is fully released. This causes the rear wheels to partially lock up or atleast slow down because of the difference in engine and wheel speed. Basically the same as slightly applying the handbrake whilst braking.
I asked a very similar question in the racers’ lounge. This will be mostly redundant, but:
The short answer is blipping/rev-matching on downshifts keeps the rear of the car from winding up, which can cause RWD cars especially to step out.
Lifting on upshifts is apparently slower than flat-shifting/powershifting (devlz was correct in saying a powershift can only be performed on an upshift). With a controller, flat shifting in and of itself causes zero gearbox damage; imperfect timing and missed buttons may change this. Wheel setups are apparently different.
I can’t confirm that lifting the throttle when shifting (manual w/ clutch) is slower. My lap times appear consistent. However, in our league races, I’ve noted transmission damage during replays for everyone power shifting ever since FM5, along with the annoying grinding sound getting into gear (which lasts longer the higher the damage percentage rises). Monitoring it live however gives me mixed results. Sometimes I’ve seen damage, sometimes not.
Now, perhaps replay telemetry is lying… (it sometimes does!), but the grinding sound can often be heard live (worse in certain cars). The only way I’ve found to make it go away is lifting prior to putting it in gear. There is no change to my clutch pedal timing that will make the grinding sound go away if I’m still power shifting. In testing for our last race, a 40 lap race at Dubai Full, I confirmed that no matter how I change my clutch timing, I was getting transmission damage while power shifting.
I never considered whether it would be different for a controller, but I’m going to go back and do some tests.
Lifting on up-shifts is slower but its not about the speed its about the ferocity of the shift and stability of the car, if you care accelerating heavily around a corner and flat shift this can cause the car to jerk and destabilize it, where as if you let off 5, 10 - 20% etc… and then re-apply it slower (not instantly back to 100%) this is smoother and keeps the car more stable. its all situation dependent. on a straight flat shift, in some corners you can too, but others you may lift a little and some you lift a lot.
I was holding the throttle for far too long while shifting down. Wrong!
I’ve learned from your comments here that Blipping the throttle when shifting down is the correct way to rev match.
FYI, in real life, I have only driven automatic cars 
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Everything that I’ve learned about racing or race cars is from Forza Motorsport 6 & 7.
I appreciate everyone’s helpful comments here.
Thanks again.
downshifting incorrectly causes wheel hop, wheel lockup and etc.
I rev match all the time, and power shift certain cars. It’s all about keeping the car stable.
So I thoroughly tested brake balance and pressure last night Big_Red1500.
Here’s the methodology I used to test:
-The test car was a stock 2014 Corvette C7.R with only upgraded brakes for tuning.
-Test performed at the Mojave Test Track
-The red/orange and white barriers along the start finish straight were used to measure braking distance; these barriers are approximately equal to the width of the car.
-Each brake test was performed after 1 lap of the track
-Each brake test was from a steady 100 mph on the start/finish straight to 0.
-The braking point was the end of one of the hangars.
-With the car at a complete stop, photo mode was used to count how many barriers the nose of the car had passed (passed the start of the barrier) by the time the car stopped.
-Each setting was tested 10 times
-Each brake attempt was attempted to be performed right at the edge of wheel lock up (so some limited lock up did occur but was avoided).
*It is understood that slight variation in speed or braking point may affect distance, but this variation introduced by the driver (me) should apply to each setting
*Braking distance numbers achieved (in barriers) are conservative, as measurement is limited by full barrier lengths. So if the nose barely crossed the beginning of the next barrier, that barrier counts.
*I am not necessarily the fastest driver, nor best on the brakes, but I am one of the most consistent people I know in terms of lap times.
Settings Tested: (1 setting tested at a time, all other settings default)
-Balance 50
-Balance 40
-Balance 60
-Pressure 100
-Pressure 80
-Pressure 120
Results (I won’t post all the data, since it’s 60 runs):
The range of all stopping distances was 25-30 (measured in barriers) 1 barrier = ~ 81 inches (the width of the car); so the difference from the best stop to the worst was 33.75 ft.
The mean stopping distance was 27.8 barriers.
The best distance (25) was achieved with Balance 50, Pressure 120. The worst distance of this set up was 28.
The worst distance (30) was achieved with Balance 40, Pressure 100. The best distance of this set up was 27.
All settings had stops within 27-29.
Balance 50 mean 27.1
Balance 40 mean 28.7
Balance 60 mean 27.4
Conclusions:
The simulated numbers for braking distance when changing brake balance or brake pressure are garbage. The best simulated 100-0 mph distance number was for the Balance 40 setting (rear bias). The real results showed exactly the opposite: that this was the worst performing setting. Each setting showed about 13 ft (about 2 barriers) of variability pretty evenly distributed, which likely is the limit of the driver’s consistency and the accuracy of counting barrier lengths. The 25 achieved with Pressure 120 was an outlier and the only 25 barrier distance achieved. Dropping that, shows all 3 pressure settings achieve very similar distances, with all other stops occurring within 2 barriers of each other.
Brake pressure doesn’t appear to affect braking distance. I was able to achieve virtually the same distances regardless of pressure if we drop the 1 outlier. This appears to be up to driver preference and ability to avoid lockup.
Brake balance does affect braking distance, and though the simulated numbers are garbage, the track performance appears to be closer to what you’d expect from a real car. Rear bias (Balance 40) makes the rear wheels lock up first and makes the car unstable under braking. During the test of this setting, it was difficult to avoid locking the rear wheels and avoid the rear end stepping out. It’s mean performance was worse than the mean performance of Balance 50 by . Front bias (Balance 60) performed marginally worse than Balance 50, but not by much.
The purpose of brake balance is to ensure that front and rear wheels lock up at close to the same time. I believe my testing shows that the default setting is appropriate to the stock car in this regard. You’d likely only need to change this setting if you alter front or rear grip via build changes affecting the weight balance of the car, tire size, etc - with the goal being to get back to a slight front bias (stability with near simultaneous lock up). Anything else you do is handling preference (you can cause oversteer/understeer), but other settings are probably better places to do this.
Balance 60 (front bias) achieved similar numbers to Balance 50 probably because the front lock was easier to control (stable) and/or avoid in the first place.
So ignore the simulated numbers, go to telemetry, brake hard and see which tires lock up first. The best distance will come the closer you are to simultaneous lock up, but you probably want a slight front bias after that for stability. When I did this, I noted that the stock settings were locking up the fronts a little early. I played with brake balance 49 and 48 and saw marginal improvement without instability.
Power-shift, no. Rev-match/heel-toe, yes absolutely. It is a must. Stable breaking, no inertia-induced oversteer and irl keeps the clutch in good shape.
I personally love how some cars are different than others. Some are easier to rev-match, some to shift. It’s the whole uniqueness and why I leave my cars stock.
I use clutch/H-shifter for manual cars and paddles for cars that have them. I also personally love switching the shifter left or right depending if the car is RHD or LHD.