>
> I heard Click and Clack advise some yuppie puppie Porsche owner
> to save his clutch and use those breaks. Me, I think if you
> like to drive, as opposed to using your car as an appliance,
> you're more apt to downshift ALOT and minimize break usage.
>
> I frankly drive a stick because I like the feeling of banging
> down a gear and taking a nice (fast) line at that freeway exit.
I always advise people that they should use brakes instead of downshifting.
If you press in the clutch, match revs, and downshift a gear, and let the
engine do the braking, there is of course no wear on the clutch and it is
fun to boot. But, many people think that engine braking means that you
don't match revs when downshifting and let the clutch cause the engine to
rev up to the new speed (which actually is rather more effective at slowing
you down than matching revs and downshifting). This causes a lot of wear
on the clutch. Also, I'm not sure if its true anymore, but through the
'70's and early '80's some of the emission stuff caused engine braking to
not work very well. I had a '78 Toyota for a while that had a special
doohickey in the emissions system that was supposed to give you back some
of the engine braking.
Joe
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