Borrow someone else's car or a rental and try it.

Thank goodness for rev limiters!

 

You cant' really pull your shifter out of gear unless you let up a little on the throttle, wait until the engine quits pulling or use the clutch, and then if you jam it into the next gear with the throttle floored you aren't doing your synchros any favors. In the old days guys would remove every other tooth off of their synchros so they could power shift. Then they would let off the throttle just for a split second and back down and pull the shfter form one gear to the next and their shifters were better for doing this than on a fwd car. A vertigate shifter on a muncie M22 is a lot better feeling shift than what we have. Actually even if you use your clutch to shift, if you apply power before you have the clutch all the way back out you are technically power shifting. Look at airshifted motorcycles, when they push the button the ignition interrrupts for a moment and the torque is broke so that the air shifter can pull the shifter out of gear and pop it in the next as the ignition is brought back and power applied.

 

About powershifting and damage to the car. I had a 03 CTS that was stick and i powershifted. first car i learned how to do it in. after about 20k miles the rear end blew. now with my ss i will only do it if im racing. there is no reason to put the stress on your tranny. i had to learn it kind of the hard way. caddy paid for my new rear end seeing as you cant really race a CTS lol even tho i did. the poor car. also about hitting the rev limiter if you do it right you wont hit it just be careful going from 2nd to 3rd cuz its up and over not exactly strait up. 1st to 2nd is cake cuz u just rip down hard. anotha thing i do is try to use like the whole front of my foot on the clutch and not lay it on the floor. depress it in and out really quick. you can practice that in your driveway with the car not running. try to have the gears shifted before the clutch comes back out this way you see whether or not you would cause damage to your car. something i leared at like 15 cuz i wasnt allowed to drive and i would act like i was driving stick.

 

I havent tried powershifting in my ss/sc and probably never will cuz it's hard on em but in my last car. an 02 cavi I could power shift and ended up pulling off a 17.2 at alltitude with it completely stock. Not fast with our sc's but damn fast for that car.

 

i know this guy at my job that is a mechanic and i told him about this whole powershifting and he told me don't do it cause you mess up the clutch and basically what your doing it forcing the gear in. For example pretend the clutch is a key and it makes the door open if you don't use that key and force yourself into the door you mess up the lock and its the same thing with box and the clutch, thats also like he told me that those people that keep their foot on the clutch that also wears out the clutch lil by lil. Of course not putting in the gears in right also messes up the clutch never give it too much gas or too much clutch open the clutch wide enough so that the gear goes in smoothly and then hit gas so it doesn't pull the box, something that i do all the time is that when i turn off my car i put the emergency brake on and leave it in first gear. So if anyone try's to tow it their stuck cause it gonna mess up the whole transmission and don't forget to take it off first right before you turn on the car.

 

powershifting may be fun but you pay in the end, friend of mine blew clutch and grinded first and second to hell in his firebird

 

Hmm, Clutch Go Boom...

 

I have always powershifted . Ive done it in the SS from day 1 when Im at the strip . I can live with the extra clutch wear for the extra .1 or 2 , I dont like seeing that boost guage falling in between shifts . On mine I just tap the clutch , and throttle on shift . Ive got so efficient in the SS , it damn near sounds like a auto going down the track . I thought I woulda broke something by now , but my pecieved drivetrain durability of the SS keeps on proving me wrong . My times coming , probably this year when my car has new found power and the abilty to hook up.

SoundinlikeAautomatic goin down the track Racing

 

Why powershift? Why not?