Down Shift Rev Matching Question

[Ewheels]

To my fellow manual drivers,

After getting my feet wet in HPDEs this year, I now see the massive importance of being able to smoothly downshift while braking. I, admittedly, am horrible at heel-toe down shifts and this makes entering a corner at 120 both terrifying and inevitably slower than needed.
I could absolutely practice heel-toe more (and I will) but I don't know that I will ever be consistent enough compared to rev matching tech.

I know there is Auto Blip and I am looking into that product but I also know the 2019 Mustangs come with rev matching from the factory. My question is, does anyone know if us 2018 guys can get an ECU reflash to get this rev matching software on our 18s?

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[BmacIL]

To my fellow manual drivers,

After getting my feet wet in HPDEs this year, I now see the massive importance of being able to smoothly downshift while braking. I, admittedly, am horrible at heel-toe down shifts and this makes entering a corner at 120 both terrifying and inevitably slower than needed.
I could absolutely practice heel-toe more (and I will) but I don't know that I will ever be consistent enough compared to rev matching tech.

I know there is Auto Blip and I am looking into that product but I also know the 2019 Mustangs come with rev matching from the factory. My question is, does anyone know if us 2018 guys can get an ECU reflash to get this rev matching software on our 18s?

Practice as often as possible. It's hard to practice with relevance on the street because you're usually going slower and not braking as hard, but do try. I use the roll the whole foot method rather than classic heel toe. There are pedal extensions available to make it easier, too.

Otherwise, I've heard amazing things about autoblip.

 

[Ewheels]

Practice as often as possible. It's hard to practice with relevance on the street because you're usually going slower and not braking as hard, but do try. I use the roll the whole foot method rather than classic heel toe. There are pedal extensions available to make it easier, too.

Otherwise, I've heard amazing things about autoblip.

I still have some time before my next HPDE event so I'll likely practice till then and if I don't get heel-toe down by then, I guess I'll pull the trigger on Auto Blip.
I did contact my local Ford dealer about the relfash. I will report back on what they say.

 

[bananafonez]

Maybe consider a gas pedal spacer. helped me a ton.

 

[Ewheels]

Maybe consider a gas pedal spacer. helped me a ton.

I'm looking at Steeda's gas pedal extension right now. For $25, it's hard to say no. I'll try this out first before opening up my wallet further.

 

[HeelToeHero]

Practice as often as possible. It's hard to practice with relevance on the street because you're usually going slower and not braking as hard, but do try. I use the roll the whole foot method rather than classic heel toe. There are pedal extensions available to make it easier, too.

Otherwise, I've heard amazing things about autoblip.

I heel toe on the street all the time. I find it harder to do street driving than in track because the brakes are very sensitive.
It's still worthwhile to practice on the street.

 

[EFI]

If all else fails, I'll echo what was previously said that the Autoblip box works really well.

 

[JKL1031]

its easier under hard braking and in track mode where the throttle input is amplified

 

[NightmareMoon]

Pedal spacers will help on the street, but heel toe in anger at the racetrack they shouldnt be required because the extra full force braking will get the pedals aligned. Pedal height is only an issue on the street.

I run a wider throttle pedal, which makes it easier to reach with the side of my foot. I love it.

I find it hard to heel toe well in this car without accidentally braking at a bit less than maximum force, which defeats the purpose. When it doubt, just brake and hold on.

Heel toe rev matching can take as much as a year of good ole daily street practice to get good enough to use reliably at the track. Don’t give up too early, its a nice skill to have. Then you can learn to double-clutch heel toe downshift!

That said a pedal commander can successfully automate it for you.

 

[Ewheels]

Pedal spacers will help on the street, but heel toe in anger at the racetrack they shouldnt be required because the extra full force braking will get the pedals aligned. Pedal height is only an issue on the street.

I run a wider throttle pedal, which makes it easier to reach with the side of my foot. I love it.

I find it hard to heel toe well in this car without accidentally braking at a bit less than maximum force, which defeats the purpose. When it doubt, just brake and hold on.

Heel toe rev matching can take as much as a year of good ole daily street practice to get good enough to use reliably at the track. Don’t give up too early, its a nice skill to have. Then you can learn to double-clutch heel toe downshift!

That said a pedal commander can successfully automate it for you.

I am going to get the Steeda pedal extension. It just widens the gas pedal. I think that is my main issue is that the gas pedal is simply too far away from the brake pedal.
My next event is not till October so this should give me plenty of time to practice.

 

[TDC]

Practiced on the street.

 

[Rover]

I ordered Sullivan Racing pedals. The gas pedal comes in different widths for different driving styles. I can roll and blip okay but I got tired of having my wet sneaker slip up over the loaded clutch pedal so I got some aggressive surface coming...
https://www.srpracing.com/

 

[gixxersixxerman]

18’s can’t use the 19’s auto blip. We don’t have the “sensor” that the ecu uses to know what gear it’s in.

though I am surprised that Lund and others don’t have it set up in the tune. Along with FFS, something we did with EcuTek back in 2014 on FRS’s. Guess different logics. But you’d think throttle by wire could have it done, if decelerating brake switch on and clutch switch on then blip throttle could be put in. It’s basically what the autoblip does

 

[CrashOverride]

18’s can’t use the 19’s auto blip. We don’t have the “sensor” that the ecu uses to know what gear it’s in.

though I am surprised that Lund and others don’t have it set up in the tune. Along with FFS, something we did with EcuTek back in 2014 on FRS’s. Guess different logics. But you’d think throttle by wire could have it done, if decelerating brake switch on and clutch switch on then blip throttle could be put in. It’s basically what the autoblip does

It's fairly complex to do it right, especially without the right sensors. Here are two patents that go into the details, with the FCA one being more recent.

https://patents.google.com/patent/EP2035727B1/en?q=rev&q=match&oq=rev+match
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9567920B2/en?q=rev&q=match&oq=rev+match

I know the C7 has sensors on the shifting mechanism, i'm guessing to help predict gear change (e.g. up/right = +, straight down = +, and the others being downshifts). I looked into it a while ago for the heck of it, and even PM'd HextallS550 briefly, and it's much more complicated than it seems. Auto-blip is nice, but it isn't perfect by any means. An OEM solution will know the gearing and will know darn near the exact RPM the engine needs to be at once you get off the clutch pedal.

Interestingly enough, HP Tuners has the ability to specify how fast the engine "decelerates" when decelerating (= foot off the gas). Essentially auto blip. If you set it to decelerate slower, the revs will hang more, and when you let the clutch out after downshifting, a greater portion of the revs will still be there. According to the file I have, above 880RPM, the value is set to decelerate at 3000 RPMs per second. E.g. if you wind it out to 7000 RPM, and you can apply the clutch, shift, and let out the clutch in half a second, without touching the gas, the RPM should be 5500RPM. I've found the revs fall too fast (Hence the need to "blip" the throttle, but I did notice that when I shift fast, the Mustang does seem to hold the revs longer.

Setting it to 1000 RPMs per second, would "hold" a lot more revs in between shifts, but might be too awkward to use during relaxed street driving. It would be nice if this setting were changeable by drive modes, but if it is, it isn't anywhere in the values HP Tuners exposes.

^^^ This is all theory as I have not messed with it, but the table is there (Engine > Idle > Torque > Decel Torque > Decel Max Rate Drive (And also Decel Max Rate Neutral)). Although this sounds like it's for an auto, it's not. "Drive" means gears 1-6. [The neutral tables don't set the revs to fall at 3000 RPM/per second until 3000RPM though, so I'm not positive which table would technically be used since it's in between shifts]

 

[Champracerj]

Practice Practice Practice.....
On the street it can be harder as @NightmareMoon stated.
another place to learn and practice is a simulator and iRacing
there is a cost to get into sim racing but its tons of fun and great for learning/developing skills.

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