imo there is an art to power shifting.

I was never very good at it in the '60s.. so when a friend/trophy winner banged my gears I thought I gained 50hp.. whatever

Also do not deep stage the car since 911 have a pretty decent mechanical reaction time and deep staging could cause a red light.


Quiet Boom; what is "deep stage"?

and another thing I often see is "imo" (?).

deep stage, I believe, is getting the car to barely set the lights to account for the mechanical reaction of the drivetrain to take up their slack before you start to move. Crap, or is it getting as close as possible. Now I can't remember.

IMO -- in my opinion
imho -- in my humble opinion
fwiw -- for what it's worth
ymmv -- your mileage may vary

etc

Deep stage is used primarily for drivers with a slower reaction time since the front wheels are as far forward as possible. Deep staging takes only slight movement of the car to trip the timers. On cars with slower mechanical reaction times it can be used a tool to acheive a better reaction time since it's ready to break the beams as soon as it "winds up". This is particularily used for front engine/ rear drive cars with somewhat flexible chassis in which the car absorbs a lot of force before moving. On a vehicle like a 911 with a stiff suspension and a self contained driveline vehicle reaction times are quicker, this is one of the reasons (among many) that top fuel cars have the engine, trans and rearend directly coupled together.

RoninLB is correct BTW, the art of the powershift takes practice. Once perfected however the shifts are lightning quick.

When I was young, and had first started driving some BS artist (fool) told me that starting out in second is the way to go because it would not burn out first gear. I recall he drove an old Ford pick up truck. I still don't know what he meant, or WTF he was drinking. Has anyone else heard really bad ideas as well?

Hmm, starting out in second, less mechanical advantage due to lower gearing means more strain on the car. Less torque applied (due to the higher gearing) means more slipping of the clutch necessary to get the thing going (not much of an issue with a granny 1st gear maybe, but still an issue).

I've heard lots of people talk about this in lots of scenarios, snow driving, everyday driving, etc... I think they are all crazy. I suppose that if you didn't have a very good feel of the car and clutch it may help when driving in snow, but that would just be a bandaid to make up for over aggressive acceleration. Hell if 2nd gear is better and doesn't burn up 1st then 5th must be golden, right? Not. I hope the guy wasn't talking about starting in 2nd when racing.

Starting in 2nd is a great way to wear out your clutch.

"Back in the Day" A lot of pickup trucks had a granny 1st gear, basically useless unless hauling a lot of weight so his suggestion doesn't seem that far off. Many stick shift drag racers using slicks launch in 1st but do their burnout in second to get the tires hot enough. This is particularily true if the rear gears are 4:11 or shorter. I don't recommend it in a P-car, however I start in 2nd all the time with my 901 during regular driving since the 3.0's torque makes 1st a very short gear. I'd never launch that way though. ;)