Was talking to some guys about drag racing and this 1 guy tells me that when he races he shifts the manual trans in his car with out using the clutch I told him he was full of sh%$ and to take me for a ride because I had to see this but of course his car was not working at the time . 99% of me knows this is BS or is there a a magical way of shifting with out the clutch?

 

With enough force, anything can happen. If you just lift slightly on the gas it will come out of gear and a hard yank will usually stick it in another gear. It beats the hell out of the transmission and probably saves no real time, but it makes him feel better I guess.

So, yes, you can, and why would you?

Now, if he has a "dog ring" jericho gearbox, or similar, you can shift them that way, they are built with special "synchros" (dogs) for that use.

 

he said his trans is t56 and when he shifts with no clutch it is as fast or faster than an auto
I drive semi truck and shift with out a clutch all the time but there is no way you can shift fast

 

i don't really believe it's faster than an auto. it still takes a couple tenths of a second AT LEAST to physically move the shifter from one gear to another. a properly tuned or full manual controlled automatic can shift gears quicker than that.

on top of this, as was said, he's beating the ever-loving crap out of his transmission. if it was MEANT to be shifted that way, there wouldn't be a clutch pedal....T56s are not bullet-proof. i personally think if he wants to race, he should learn how to shift his car the proper way, or start saving money for a rebuild on his trans.

 

Shifting without the clutch while cruising around is no big deal, but anyone who does it at the track or while racing is nuts. My dad tells me stories of doing it in his 69 z28, and the 3rd or 4th time he did it, he grenaded the tranny. He says you just slam them as hard as humanly possible and it will happen.

Dont know why anyone would want to do that.

 

It's probably pro shifted/dog ring setup.. They sya its upto 60% faster shift's which is pretty damned fast.. Especially given the current elec. controlled trans's out there.. probaby pretty close w/ less paristic losses..

 

Shifting W/O a clutch is easy to do in normal every-day driving, infact if done correctly there's no damage to the tranny at all...

Doing it while at Full-Throttle is another story... I can't see it ever being done without causing some MAJOR damage...

 

that's a good point, i didn't think about the possibility of it being pro-shifted.