Sequential Gearbox

[slinky]

I am in no way an [i]advanced driver[/i] but like to pay attention to the correct advanced driving principles and following reading on here about the system, specificaly aproached to junctions/hazards, I've been applying my new found knowledge to driving on the road.

I have two cars, one a company vectra, the other a Smart 4-2 (with the sequential flappy paddle gearbox)...

As far as I understand it, the system dictates that you should brake towards a hazard maintaing the same gear, ie not overlapping braking and gear changes, this is easy to do in the vectra, but poses a problem in the Smart, the gearbox is slow at the best of times, so I always go down through the box on my approach to hazards/junctions.

What would the advanced drivers here recommend?

cheers,

slinky
[url]587racing.com|http://587racing.com[/url]

[slinky]

Cheers Don,

More than welcome to have a play in the smart if you're ever over this way....

It takes some getting used to though! It sometimes feels as though the gearbox is in another time zone! But with the odd throttle blip and well timed change it can be quite fun!

slinky

[slinky]

you can "double hit" the smart box, but I've not tried it on approach to a junction/hazard, might have to give that a shot this weekend and see what happens, I'm sure it'll be ok with a h&t style blip..

slinky

[slinky]

I can confirm that block changes in the smart do actually work..

I guess the fact that it isn't truely a sequential box really helps with this.

So, approaching round about in 4th, double tap on the left paddle and a quick blip of the accelerator and we are smoothly in 2nd and ready to go.. I honestly don't know why I didn't try this before, but it makes a HUGE difference to how smoothly the smart can be driven..

This has turned out to be possibly the most helpful thread I've ever had on PH!

slinky