Rev matching: opinions?

[Michael_vroomvroom]

Just got my 2020 Mustang. My very first time I've bought a car I actually want, rather than just the cheapest that "would do", so everything's great of course, but I wonder what other manual transmission guys think of the rev matching feature. The first few hours (long drive home) I thought it seemed interesting and somewhat nice, but now I'm starting to change my opinion. Perhaps I'm using it wrong?

I'm used to pretty aggressive downshifting on my motorbike (Honda's "super sport" fireblade model. Something like the motorbike equivalent of the "super car" term for those who don't care about bikes) while on the road. No automatic rev matching there, at least not on my old model, so depending on whether I'm downshifting to slow down as I'm getting off the highway, or downshifting to accelerate, I'll either blip the throttle by a little or by a lot.

I'm still babysitting my Mustang and keeping the rpm's low until I've reached 1600km/1000 miles, so the only downshifts where I feel the rev matching kicking in are when I want to slow down. E.g., downshifting from second gear to first gear as traffic is slowing. This however creates a rather impolite "vrooom" sound in the milliseconds between me disengaging the clutch and downshifting, and me engaging the clutch again.

While the clutch is disengaged as I'm downshifting, the computer obviously does a rev match in preparation for me re-engaging the clutch in the lower gear, and increases rpm by some five hundred or a thousand (at least for now, as I'm still breaking her in), which everyone around the car can hear quite well. This makes me feel a bit like those clowns on motorbikes that like to rev their engines for no good reason in the city center, annoying everyone around.

Basically it feels like this feature is something that would work well for downshifting to accelerate (which I have not tried yet), but I'm more dubious about the usability of it regarding downshifting for slowing down. On the bike I usually do some limited rev matching while downshifting to slowdown, but to a much lesser extent than the Mustang's computer, and I do the matching while releasing the clutch, so the sound effect is much less pronounced.

Being a Mustang newbie (and a newbie regarding anything but "whatever is cheapest" cars in general) I'm interested in hearing more knowledgeable peoples opinion on this feature. I guess it reduces wear on the clutch a little bit, , but I don't like the free spinning increase in revs as it makes me feel as one of the aforementioned idiots on bikes.

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[Silver Bullitt]

I test drove a 2018 Camaro SS 1LE. It had the rev matching feature which I hated, particularly in traffic. I finally stopped and disabled it.

I have an '18 Mustang which doesn't have the rev match feature and I much prefer that. I'd rather rev match when I want to, not every time I push in the clutch.

With that said, I'm pretty sure you can disable it, but I'm not sure if it stays disabled after an ignition cycle, or if you have to disable it every time you start the car.

 

[NoVaGT]

As a life-long manual driver, I love it. It works perfectly every time, and stops the need to heel & toe.

 

[Silver Bullitt]

As a life-long manual driver, I love it. It works perfectly every time, and stops the need to heel & toe.

Assuming you call "perfectly every time" when you push in the clutch to stop at a light or stop sign. I'd hardly call it perfect. There are times when you are slowing down there's no need for a rev match. That was the main thing I found really annoying.

 

[geep81]

As a new manual driver, I love the rev match and doubt I will ever not use it.

I am curious though OP, you say you would choose to not always rev match when downshifting if possible. Doesn't this end with your clutch disk grabbing hard when you downshift at certain speeds? Do you just coast in neutral until you get a smooth engagement point?

I am not sure I would enjoy driving if the revs were not always matched when down shifting.

I have been looking for a good reason to try disabling the rev match but I haven't found a reason to yet.

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

I test drove a 2018 Camaro SS 1LE. It had the rev matching feature which I hated, particularly in traffic. I finally stopped and disabled it.

I have an '18 Mustang which doesn't have the rev match feature and I much prefer that. I'd rather rev match when I want to, not every time I push in the clutch.

With that said, I'm pretty sure you can disable it, but I'm not sure if it stays disabled after an ignition cycle, or if you have to disable it every time you start the car.

Yeah, it's in traffic I'm feeling the annoyance. The first day I was just doing 300+ miles of relaxed highway driving back home, and it felt ok. But as my daily driver much of my time will be in traffic, like today, and it does not sound cool. I did indeed disable the rev match feature when I parked it for the night today, and sure do hope it's still disabled tomorrow.

As a new manual driver, I love the rev match and doubt I will ever not use it.

I am curious though OP, you say you would choose to not always rev match when downshifting if possible. Doesn't this end with your clutch disk grabbing hard when you downshift at certain speeds? Do you just coast in neutral until you get a smooth engagement point?

I am not sure I would enjoy driving if the revs were not always matched when down shifting.

I have been looking for a good reason to try disabling the rev match but I haven't found a reason to yet.

Yeah, it grabs hard, but I'm using it to break, so that' what I want. E.g., coming of the highway in fourth gear into a roundabout on my daily route, I know the route well and just want to slow down quick. So downshift into second at the same time as I'm hitting the breaks. There's no problem downshifting like this on dry road, and if I wanted to really blip the throttle, I could even downshift into first. Sure, it's more wear on the bike, but at least the sportsbikes are built to handle this.

If I were to do the same on my Mustang with rev match enabled, I'm sure the computer would kick the rpm skyhigh for no reason at all since I'm downshifting to slow down, not accelerate. And I'd sound like quite the fool too. So that's a good reason for me to disable it I think, unless the opinion is that one should not downshift to slow down the mustang, but only use the brakes.

 

[Silver Bullitt]

Yeah, it's in traffic I'm feeling the annoyance. The first day I was just doing 300+ miles of relaxed highway driving back home, and it felt ok. But as my daily driver much of my time will be in traffic, like today, and it does not sound cool. I did indeed disable the rev match feature when I parked it for the night today, and sure do hope it's still disabled tomorrow.



Yeah, it grabs hard, but I'm using it to break, so that' what I want. E.g., coming of the highway in fourth gear into a roundabout on my daily route, I know the route well and just want to slow down quick. So downshift into second at the same time as I'm hitting the breaks. There's no problem downshifting like this on dry road, and if I wanted to really blip the throttle, I could even downshift into first. Sure, it's more wear on the bike, but at least the sportsbikes are built to handle this.

If I were to do the same on my Mustang with rev match enabled, I'm sure the computer would kick the rpm skyhigh for no reason at all since I'm downshifting to slow down, not accelerate. And I'd sound like quite the fool too. So that's a good reason for me to disable it I think, unless the opinion is that one should not downshift to slow down the mustang, but only use the brakes.

What you describe here I would blip the throttle. You are still engine braking, but you really want your rpms up a bit to match the lower gear. Where I really found it annoying was say you've already rev matched to go from 3rd to 2nd slowing down for a light or stop sign, and now you just want to push in the clutch to come to a stop. You don't need a rev match here. Or, you're in stop and go traffic in 1st. You don't need a rev match every time you push in the clutch.

 

[Pero]

With that said, I'm pretty sure you can disable it, but I'm not sure if it stays disabled after an ignition cycle, or if you have to disable it every time you start the car.

It stays disabled after ignition cycle.
So it is really easy to choose to use it (spirited driving, track use or just being childish) or not to use it (polite daily driving).
It is only a matter of few buttons to push on the steering wheel.

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

What you describe here I would blip the throttle. You are still engine braking, but you really want your rpms up a bit to match the lower gear. Where I really found it annoying was say you've already rev matched to go from 3rd to 2nd slowing down for a light or stop sign, and now you just want to push in the clutch to come to a stop. You don't need a rev match here. Or, you're in stop and go traffic in 1st. You don't need a rev match every time you push in the clutch.

Sorry for not being specific, but yeah, I do blip the throttle a little or a lot. Blip it enough to not lose traction, blowing the transmission, or anything stupid happening, but since my intent is to slow down, I don't want to rev match it like the Mustang does. What the Mustang does is what I'd do if I wanted to continue driving at the same speed in a lower gear. I guess the feature is useful for that; if traffic has slowed down a bit, e.g. from 70 to 50 and you're starting to feel like you're in the wrong gear. Easy to shift down a gear and let the rev matching take care of things so you can continue driving at 50 in the lower gear. It seems perfect for that, but less so for downshifting to slow down, unless you like to make a lot of noise while doing it.

Downshifting to accelerate I guess the rev matching won't be felt much as you'd manually increase the rpm to more than the rev matching computer is doing anyway.

Think this feature is not so useful for me as it's currently implemented then.

 

[Laserbrain]

For someone who goes by the name Michael_vroomvroom, you seem overly self-conscious about the car's engine sound.
It sounds great! Revel in it, I say.

 

[Dfeeds]

Assuming you call "perfectly every time" when you push in the clutch to stop at a light or stop sign. I'd hardly call it perfect. There are times when you are slowing down there's no need for a rev match. That was the main thing I found really annoying.

What are you on about? It only rev matches when you start to enter the gate. Just pushing in the clutch doesn't cause it to rev matches, nor pushing in the clutch and going into neutral, or pushing in the clutch and releasing it again without changing gears. Beyond that, subject to your own opinion of when one should rev match, it does work perfectly. It blips the throttle and holds that speed in case you're being super lazy and taking forever to release the clutch. When it doesn't work perfectly is when it sometimes doesn't want to work at all, and this is jarring when you're not used to it happening. The pcm does seem to give a slight rev when releasing the clutch, in first gear, if this is what you're referring to. This isn't rev matching, though. It's this kind of nifty thing that lets you ease off the clutch without having to touch the gas pedal. It makes parking in my garage and stop and go traffic really easy to deal with. Honestly, the pcm's subtle management of the engine speed has made this the easiest, manual transmission, daily commuter I've ever driven.



As another lifelong stick driver, I also love it. I even have an aftermarket exhaust. I was a little self conscious of it at first but I quickly got over it. It's saving a lot of wear on your transmission and drivetrain. I daily my car so any help in prolonging it's mechanical components is fine in my book. My car's longevity means more to me than someone's opinion of me that I'll most likely never meet. Anyone who has inquired about "why" seemed to think the feature was really cool, when I explained it. I can't say I've ever relied on engine braking much, though, so if it's engrained into your driving technique then I guess I can see it taking some getting used to. I disabled hill assist for a similar reason.

 

[SAL-E]

Not for me. I find it very irritating. Turned it off on the first day.

 

[302@12psi]

Love the Rev Match. No reason to turn it off. It does everything perfect...well almost. There's a few times at parking lot speeds where it didn't blip going slowly and shifting into 1st. I'm so used to it doing the right thing I released the clutch as normal it was very jerky.

Rev Match is a keeper. The hill assist is garbage and got turned off a week into driving. Don't miss it.

If you have AE put the exhaust in Q when you don't want to be "that" guy.

 

[Zrussian13]

Life long manual driver. When I went to test drive the car I was sure this was one thing I'd hate but I was wrong. I was impressed with how well it worked and its continued to work perfect ever since. Had the car 14 months still no complaints.

 

[torqued]

I could've turned it off and taken the time to get a feel for what engine speeds I need to be at around for which gears at what speeds. But it came with it so I skipped that part of learning a new manual tranny.

I'd say it's a qualified yes on making one sound like a douche. Yes, cuz it revs your engine even when you don't want it to. But not any more than the loudness of these cars accelerating hard. So I look like a douche on the roads no matter what. (Since I didn't buy this to always just drive it like a granny.)

The only other drawback I've noticed is there's a little delay. If the light's turning yellow and I want a burst of power to enter on yellow, there's a thunk and jerk as I'm not waiting for it to do its thing.

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