Yes, it requires some knowledge beforehand which you now have but it also requires a lot of feel. And to measure your times, look into grabbing a Dragy GPS unit. A smoother release of the clutch gives your tires a chance to grip. The goal of launching is quite simple: Accelerate the vehicle as quickly as possible. Now, on to the factors that go into launching a car. Steps to Launching a Manual Car Find a flat, dry and safe surface. We recommend a drag strip! Disable traction control Clutch In and Select First Gear Apply throttle to reach your desired launch RPM Release and modulate the clutch while modulating the throttle to optimize grip and minimize clutch slippage Change Gears Sounds relatively simple, right?
In theory, it is. Step 1: The Surface Ideally, you want to find a flat and dry surface. The more grip you have, the quicker you will accelerate. Push your clutch in and select first gear. Step 4: Rev up to your Launch RPM So this step requires the most thinking beforehand and is thus the longest section of this post. In other words, is your vehicle front wheel drive, rear wheel drive or all wheel drive? That means you can actually launch at a slightly higher RPM like 3,, A general rule of thumb is to start with a lower launch RPM to see how the vehicle will react.
After that, assess where your car makes peak power. It was clear in our hot hatch test that not only did the Honda have a bigger, grippier tyre than the Hyundai, but also made 26kW more power some rpm further round the rev counter.
This will then inform your gearshifting strategy. The Focus is also designed from the factory to be flat-shifted, that is clutching in and changing up a gear without lifting your right foot off the floor, whereas most owners won't subject their cars to this level of mechanical malfeasance.
If you're launching a vehicle, you'll also want to make sure that there's nothing in the cabin that's likely to get loose and do damage. Switch the air conditioning off and close the windows. And if you have a passenger in the vehicle, advise them to rest their head against the head restraint, especially if you're in something really punchy.
When you're clutching in, you'll want to be on a flat surface so that the vehicle doesn't roll. For the love of all that is holy, do ensure that you're also in first gear and not third or, worse still, reverse.
Clearly this is something we'd not recommend on a public road, but we'll often just give the tyres a quick chirp-up when testing at the dragstrip more to clean the tyre surface of debris than to warm it up in any way. Moderation is key here. You'll also want to experiment with the clutch biting point of the car. To do this put a modest amount of revs on the board and slowly bring up the clutch to the point where the engine note lowers slightly as the driveline takes up the slack and prepares to move the vehicle.
Note this point in the clutch's travel. How many revs you put on the board is generally a combination of two factors. High torque cars will generally require fewer revs, whereas an atmo car with lower immediate torque benefits from more revs.
Then there's the amount of grip that you have available. If you're on a high-mu surface with plenty of traction, you can safely nudge the revs up a tad, safe in the knowledge that your tyres aren't about to cremate themselves in a cloud of carbon black.
How quickly you drop the clutch will also depend on how much grip you have available. With all-wheel drive vehicles, you will need to disengage the clutch crisply and build revs rapidly, as the grip available is often considerable.
Ford's advice with the old all-wheel drive Focus RS was basically to rev it almost to the limiter and sidestep the clutch. Savage, but effective. But it's worth remembering that if the tyres aren't slipping, all of that stress is transferred to your clutch plate.
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