What is power shifting?

Hey, i read a forum on auto's and sticks and i saw something about power shifting. I know it has something to do with shifting but is it a special way to shift or what?

It's with a manual tranny. As an example: You're in 2nd gear, then while you have the clutch in to shift into 3rd you gas it, then shift; so when you shift into 3rd you're at a higher rpm. If I'm wrong on that explanation I appoligise and someone will correct me. But it's a great way to beat the piss out of your motor and tranny, and not worth the problems as far as I'm concerned

sounds like a good way to ruin an engine and a clutch.

It's pretty much shifting without letting go of the gas. It's what you do to got from 18's to 17's.

It's with a manual tranny. As an example: You're in 2nd gear, then while you have the clutch in to shift into 3rd you gas it, then shift; so when you shift into 3rd you're at a higher rpm. If I'm wrong on that explanation I appoligise and someone will correct me. But it's a great way to beat the piss out of your motor and tranny, and not worth the problems as far as I'm concerned

thats called double-clutching

hmmm... I though double clutching was for down shifting. Like when you're in a higher gear, push in the clutch and move it to neutral, let the clutch out and rev it up, push in the clutch and shift into the lower gear. Where with power shifting you don't put it in neutral and and do it while upshifting. Maybe I'm wrong though.

yor right, double clutching is for down shifting. Just like heel/toe shifting only without using the brake. So anyone that thinks of F&F they should do their reading.

DOH - misread it. yeah, thought he was talkin about downshifting

Power shifting - It could be shifting fast or hard or shifting without letting off the gas. I would not attempt this if your a new driver get used to your car first. Sometime's it's not always good to do this for instance I can powershift from 1st to 2nd gear and roast the tire's this would not be good in a race due to loss of traction. Now if I would wait a tenth of a second or just shift easier into gear the tire's will chirp but the car will immediately go instead of having to wait for the tire's to catch traction.

Downshifting - you double clutch it to rev match so it will go into gear easier. Plus if done right it'll sound cool.

I do not reccomend this either but you can shift gears without the clutch by rev matching upshifting and downshifting. I learned this on a beater car just messing around. Not my car.

powershifting in my circles is when you shift without using the clutch. at certain points in the rev range the gears will mesh together perfectly and the tranny will actually go into the desired gear without grinding. but this is extremely difficult to do correctly and very easy to f*ck up. you wont know at what rpm either until you try it and that would put immense amounts of wear on the tranny. although it might be slightly faster it is totally not worth the risk.

You don't need to double-clutch your Hondas! It's not gonna help. That's why all of our cars have synchros, so we don't need to double-clutch! Just because Vin Diesel says you should do it doesn't mean you should, and it will hurt your engine!

I agree with 01CivicEX, we have synchros for a reason. And you can match downshift without double-clutching. They're Hondas, not Peterbuilt trucks.

powershifting in my circles is when you shift without using the clutch. at certain points in the rev range the gears will mesh together perfectly and the tranny will actually go into the desired gear without grinding.

thats if you rev match in neutral(in between the gears). in some cars, like my dad's truck(a toyota t100) you cant even move the shifter without pressing the clutch. i havent tried this in my civic, and dont plan on doing it, so cant say for sure about hondas.

Thanks everyone. I dont think i want to try it. I have only been driving stick for about a year.

this is a reply to the preveios Peterbuilt Truck coment. It's funny because when I were watching The fast and the Furious a.k.a The fast and the Flaming (which was the biggest wast of my life so far to date) I asked my dad what doubble shifting was and he told me that it was something they did with farm vehicles and that Vin Deisel was a moron.

in a car i drove once i tried that no clutch shifting and it was surprisingly easy and im not sure why. what i would do is rev up a gear and when in was in the top of the rpm range id pop it out of gear without pressing the clutch and then move it toward the next gear applying a light amount of pressure. the gears wouldn't grind for some reason and when the rpm match just right the light amount of pressure poped it into gear. kind of odd but worked well when my left leg was messed up

still not good for the car.... i blew up 4th gear in my prior car doing that (91 Camaro)

Double clutching is for upshifting and downshifting. It's when you press the clutch in twice per shift. When upshifting you need to slow the engine down so it's speed will match the speed of the higher gear you're going into. You let the clutch out in neutral with low engine RPM to get the system in sync. When downshifting you need to speed the engine up so it's speed will match the speed of the lower gear you're going into. You let the clutch out in neutral with higher engine RPM to get the system in sync. Basically, for every road speed there is an RPM for every gear, the lower the gear the higher the RPM. Double clutching does not hurt anything. It's mainly used in vehicles with crappy or no syncros. Once you get good at double clutching you can shift without a clutch. You just pop it out of gear match the RPM and gently pull on the shift lever until it pops into the next gear. Double clutching is a slower shift that a regular single clutch shift. Power shifting is applying power before the shift is complete. You let the syncros do the work and the clutch will slip until the engine slows down or the car speeds up. It's harder on the car but faster for accelerating. Hope this helps!

BTW When I was a teen I was driving my '76 Civic and the clutch cable broke. I drove it straight to the garage without a clutch by clutchless shifting (and killing the engine with the key at a red light then starting with the starter, no clutch, at the green)

I would have to say that I've never in all the reading and racing that I have done heard of double clutching for an upshift. I think its was skip where I was told its only for downshifting and they would prefer Toe/heel shifting so you can brake into the corner. It would be nice to learn if it gave me that little advantage. As for the double clutching being only used for truck and farm equipment, I think it is fine with your civic. I've had to rebuild for old and shitty syncro's I don't want to do it again. I have better things to spend my money on, so why not save that little bit of wear.

Yeah, the double clutch upshift doesn't make sense in a racing situation, as it's a slow shift. You usually only use the double clutch upshift when the vehicle doesn't have syncros (like a big rig). The heel/toe downshift is a great double clutch shift for racing that lets you apply the brake as you rev the engine up. It lets you brake while you shift and drops the RPM that you need to be at for the lower gear down. Cheers!

The heel/toe downshift is a great double clutch shift for racing that lets you apply the brake as you rev the engine up. It lets you brake while you shift and drops the RPM that you need to be at for the lower gear down. Cheers!

to drop your gears while brake is applied just press clutch down! heel toe is not for just droping gears; its rev matching the gears to create a smooth transistion. you actually raise the rev it for the lower gear(by the time you probally get to the lower gear your rev might be too low) its easier to rev match it by lettin the revs go from a high rpm to a low one then from a low rpm to a high one(which would at like brakes). .if you were not to heel-toe, but just drop it 2 gears down, you will most likely break traction, and in a rwd car that would be how you would initiate the downshift drift(i think thats what its called).

You don't need to double-clutch on anything with synchros, most moderns day cars have transmissions with synchros so you can upshift WITHOUT double clutching. I thought I made it clear in my previous post, but I guess the noobs did'nt read through the whole thread.

darc tangent acknowledged that(maybe indirectly but he did in a way). im explaining the concept of the heel-toe; just for smooth transition, as rapid change in speed at the wheels will cause loss of traction(whether speeding up or slowing down).

Nah dude, I was talkin to the guy who was talkin about double-clutching, you know what you're tralkin about, the OTHER noob is a little lost :lol2:

Nah dude, I was talkin to the guy who was talkin about double-clutching, you know what you're tralkin about, the OTHER noob is a little lost :lol2:

Sorry man but I'm still gona stick with what I said before. Even if all modern cars come with it, doesn't make it useless. It does for a fact cut down on the wear of the syncro's

powershifting in my circles is when you shift without using the clutch. at certain points in the rev range the gears will mesh together perfectly and the tranny will actually go into the desired gear without grinding. but this is extremely difficult to do correctly and very easy to f*ck up. you wont know at what rpm either until you try it and that would put immense amounts of wear on the tranny. although it might be slightly faster it is totally not worth the risk.


in a car i drove once i tried that no clutch shifting and it was surprisingly easy and im not sure why. what i would do is rev up a gear and when in was in the top of the rpm range id pop it out of gear without pressing the clutch and then move it toward the next gear applying a light amount of pressure. the gears wouldn't grind for some reason and when the rpm match just right the light amount of pressure poped it into gear. kind of odd but worked well when my left leg was messed up

thats power shifting and i got it to work very easily for me... except in 1st gear = 2nd go up your good. on a bike its the same.... except when it comes down to 1st and neutral i wouldnt atempt the power shifting.

thats power shifting and i got it to work very easily for me... except in 1st gear = 2nd go up your good. on a bike its the same.... except when it comes down to 1st and neutral i wouldnt atempt the power shifting.


thats good that it worked for you but was it under race conditions or just regular driving? try doing it when youre racing someone and you will more than likely hear some unwanted noises from your tranny. :iceslolan

it depends, ive never tried it but looking at how people do it youd have to wait for the revs to drop. that make take some patience, while using the clutch they just put it into the next gear with looking twice at where the revs drop.

double clutching was used on older cars like muscle cars but is useless on hondas and cars like that

thats good that it worked for you but was it under race conditions or just regular driving? try doing it when youre racing someone and you will more than likely hear some unwanted noises from your tranny. :iceslolan

heyhey, in relation to racing i do have track time and points on a track.. (sport bike/ricerocket) but i would never use power shifting on a track ( ... <---- thats my prefs); it was always under regular driving as myself being curious.

powershifting in my circles is when you shift without using the clutch. at certain points in the rev range the gears will mesh together perfectly and the tranny will actually go into the desired gear without grinding. but this is extremely difficult to do correctly and very easy to f*ck up. you wont know at what rpm either until you try it and that would put immense amounts of wear on the tranny. although it might be slightly faster it is totally not worth the risk.

LMAO...ok here is an experament for you...go get a car with a newer transmission....get going in 1st, then with out pushing the cluth in try and yank it out of gear into neural....isnt going to happen.... power shifting is not letting off the gas between gears, a good way to screw the tranny and engine along wiht in lower gear get rid of that anoying tread...double clutching is how you have to shift in older, or non syncro trannies....you basicly push the clutch in, take it out of gear (neutral) let revs drop if shifting up, bring them up if shifting down, then push the clutch in and go into gear....power shifting is actually a great way to induce oversteer in a corner (drifting) and so is engine braking... oh and for thoes of you who dont know what engine braking is it when you are in say 5th, then you want to slow down so you push the clutch in, let the revs drop in neutral, then shift into a lower gear (ie 3rd or 4th) and then slowly let out the clutch....dont drop the clutch because your wheels will not completely lock up but will get very close and you engine revs will jump from idle to redline or higher in a matter of seconds...not good any anything mechanical on your car....

double clutching was used on older cars like muscle cars but is useless on hondas and cars like that

sorry...but you are quite wrong.... syncro's where invented along ways before most muscel cars came about.... in order to drive a non syncro classic vehicle you would have to go back pre 1960 or drive a truck....

ok i think u guys are a little confused. double clutching is used for upshifting. now all our hondas are indeed synchroed which means the gears automatically synchronize before you put it in gear. now my friend happened to burn a synchro. not fun. ur tranny will make a little grind just before you put it in gear. so now on to double clutching. double clutching is used quite a bit in drag cars. usually only in cars with straight cut gears. ever seen a gear outta ur tranny. the cuts run on an angle. now straight cut gears are used to get better lock. they dont ever slip. but with straight cut gears there are no synchros. in order to get the car in gear properly you have to make sure the tranny is running at close to the same speed. thats why you let up the clutch in neutral (gets ur motor spinning with ur tranny). so in a car with straight cut gears you first push ur clutch pedal, shift to neutral, release clutch pedal, again push the clutch pedal, shift to ur desired gear, then release. now good racers can do this in a matter of milliseconds. thats right under a second. it begins to feel natural, just flows in one fluid motion.

Double clutching was a thing of the past, like in the old old days when manuals didn't have synchros and had to double clutch so that their gears wouldn't grind, but some people double clutch anyways just to bring their rpm up after shifting. Power shifting is simply keeping it floored while you shift instead of letting go of the gas like your supposed to.