In a real car, where the pedals are half a mile apart, it's* hopeless.

Pedal setup can make a big difference, especially to us mere mortals The Mondeo I had was beautifully setup for heel 'n' toe with perfectly spaced pedals and an equal amount of travel on the brake and the accelerator. The Panda is the complete opposite and the brake pedal has significantly less travel than the accelerator so the only way to heel 'n' toe is when you're standing on the brakes - with a 1.4 engine it's a pretty rare occurrance when you need that much braking on the road

There are pedal extensions available which may help reduce the spacing between pedals......

Chris

When on a race track changing down normally makes you lose speed. When double de clutching, helps you to carry the speed into the corner whilst changing down which obviously helps when racing and also helps keep the revs up so you don't lose revs through corners. I'm a racing driver at the MG race meetings

Edited 11 February, 201214 yr by Metty92

DDC is still taught today to police advanced drivers in the home counties at least, it is an integral part of the course and driving style.

Reasons-

It teaches students to get there braking done in a straight line prior to the corner. ( hence being in neutral for a second is not important )

It perfectly matches speed to revs, which means the car is perfectly balanced going into the corner rather than recovering from all the weight being at the front as it would be if you used any engine braking, particularly if at max speed or in poor conditions.

It sets you up ready to 'drive' round the corner putting more weight toward the rear allowing greater steering input.

In low power cars ( most patrol cars ) you will want to enter the corner at v high revs of a lower gear, which is a scenario which would cause a great deal of engine braking (even skidding if got a little wrong ) Even current patrol cars (1.4 diesels, utterly awful ) have the power band surprisingly high in the rev range ( and absolutely none low down, really ) meaning this this technique is still useful.

That's how I read it too and the process means that you're already doing the rev-match when the car is crossing neutral, rather than when the clutch pedal is down, so if you don't have the option of using a clutch you shouldn't notice.

I wish I'd been familiar technique when the clutch pedal in the Fabia snapped as I could have braved more than 1st gear when I limped it to a safe place for the recovery truck

Chris

My dad taught me how to do it, very useful to limp to a VW dealer for a Scirocco clutch cable a few years ago. It's surprisingly easy once you get the hang of it.

I too learnt to double declutch when driving early 1930s cars. I also once had to drive home my 1954 Ford Prefect with a failed clutch and managed OK. However I doubt that with modern cars that using DDC gives a faster gear change than relying on the synchro, there is less inertia in many components in modern transmissions than formerly. I should care, I'm awaiting the arrival of a new Octavia vRS with DSG, LOL.