Help me to understand clutches/shifters/accelerators.

Hello,

I finally have better racing gear than what I used to have in the past (CSR wheel, CSR sequential shifter, Clubsport pedals - probably a Clubsport shifter sometime this year), and so now I'm trying to use it in such a way that replicates the actual car I'm driving as much as possible. I read a little theory about this message topic but I would also like to get your thoughts.

1) Obviously with all the H-shifter cars I will use my clutch pedal.

2) Cars with sequential shifters, and cars with paddles, I am not clear about clutch pedal usage.

I gather from what I read that most of the 2) cars don't use a clutch at all, or at most, they usually only use a clutch when getting into first gear from rest. Correct? So to generalise I pretty much shouldn't use my clutch at all with these 2) cars?

The next question I have is with the accelerator pedal. Lets keep it simple and take things like blipping the throttle or heel/toeing out for the time being. When you change gear with an H-shifter you release the accelerator at gear change (and clutch in). However, I'm not sure whether the accelerator is released with cars that use sequential shifters, and also whether it is done with cars with paddles?

So I'm pretty much trying to find out when should I use my clutch, and when should I release the accelerator during gear change for various cars.


Cheers for any advice.

p.s The tagging system could be a lot better for separating out which cars use H, sequential, or paddles.

 

Might help. No throttle release on upshift, manual blip on downshift. Although AC provides autoblip on downshifts, so you're just pressing the brake while downshifting.

 

In a car with sequential transmission just try out if the engine revs into the limiter while shifting under full throttle. Then you have to lift in that car. You probably have to manually blip then either. Idk right now which car in AC does that, but I'm quite sure there is one.

 

Paddles are just a driver's interface to change gear, they don't determine which kind of transmission the car has. You can have sequential, automatic, or even manual gearbox with paddles (Lotus Exige S Roadster). Or a sequential with both paddles and lever at the same time (Huayra). The filter in the game menu tags the cars by transmission type, not by the type of gear lever.

In the cars with manual gearbox you press the clutch and blip every time you want to change gear. The exception is aforementioned Lotus, which drives like semiautomatic.
In the cars with sequential gearbox you use the clutch to start moving and then you don't use it for the rest of the race. No need to blip during gear changes. These type of gearboxes are found in the race cars (Formula, GT). Also Huayra has this type of gearbox.
In the cars with semiautomatic there is no clutch pedal at all, but in AC we currently have to use the manual clutch like with sequential gearbox. These are computer controlled dual-clutch gearboxes installed in many today's road cars and supercars. They offer the fastest gear changes possible and at the same time can be made to work relatively well in the daily traffic.
There are no cars with "traditional" automatic transmission in AC.

EDIT:
At least that's how it works in Assetto Corsa right now. In the real cars with sequential transmission things can be more complicated, depending on how many electronic aids the car has. Some may require blip on upshifting or clutch on downshifting.

 

Thanks for that video, @CTR69. I can't see from my iPad whether that car is paddles or a stick, but I'll check it out later.

@some1pl, yep, I'm aware the tags are transmission type and not lever. My comment of the tags not being helpful still stands. For example, I pick one of the many Lotus road cars after choosing the sequential tag. Go into control options, load my settings to use my sequential stick, load tracks etc, go in game, notice the car uses paddles. Exit race, go to controls, load my settings that use paddles on my wheel instead. Load race again. For me, that is not very user friendly and the tag is not helping.

@some1pl, so in real life we don't use the clutch with a sequential gear box after the start, but in AC we have to for every gear change otherwise we get engine damage?

Thanks for all your comments.

 

Well, there are not that many cars in Assetto Corsa, it's not that hard to remember. Or check in the showroom what's in the cockpit.

No, no, the opposite. In AC you don't need clutch after you start moving. In real life it depends on the car.
On the other hand with semiautomatic you need clutch in the game to start moving, while in real life these cars don't even have the clutch pedal. I don't know if that's on the devs TODO list, or will it stay like that.

For example here's how the sequential works in some of the cars: www.gettyproductions.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-use-sequential-manual.html

 

Or go to http://assetto-corsa-mods.wikia.com/wiki/Assetto_Corsa_Mods_Wiki
There you have the gear change type listed