If the NSU & FRJ are to be used in competitions in the future then a two tier system needs to be arranged. On average a NSU driver using a manual clutch & H-shifter is a second a lap faster than someone using auto clutch, this means it's not a level playing field. How can you have two different speed things competing against each other? Either separate them or fix the issue. Presently the NSU is at Hockenheim where a manual shifting car will be 1.5 seconds faster per lap, how is this fair @Alex Hodgkinson ?
Just had a brief look at this with the FR-J at Monza Junior. Best lap time with manual clutch/ h-shift was: 55.62 Best time with auto clutch and using paddles was: 5.58 Observations: - More confident on corner entry with auto clutch/paddles as there's less to think about. Gained 0.2-0.3s into T1 relative to manual shifting. - Two gear changes on the back straight. Lost 0.2s with auto clutch. - Top speeds 206/203kph (manual/auto) - 1 gear change on the main straight which lost 0.05s with auto clutch. From this test I'd observe that lap times are very close but auto vs manual clutch obtain those lap times in different ways. In addition h-shifting with manual clutch has the additional risk of missing gears/miss-shifting, whereas full auto mode does not. This doesn't appear to require any adjustment.
Very similar observations with the NSU, with a slightly bigger delta but certainly not a second: H-shift/manual: 1:02.295 Auto clutch: 1:02.47 - Again gained time in the braking zones with auto clutch - 0.2s lost on the back straight (2 gear changes) - 0.05 lost on the front straight with 1 gear change
I don't think it's unfair. It's just like if there were two tier systems, one for those who play with a wheel and one for those with a pad. Furthermore it would limit the number of drivers since not everyone owns a H shifter.
It's more the turbo out of slow corners, it's a trick that can be learnt, makes it impossible to compete, as they just power past. Go watch the quicker drivers. At Hockenheim in the NSU, I was faster through the turns but as soon as we got to the hairpins it was all over, there was 5 people using shifters and 5 cars would fly by, leaving me for dead. It's too much of an advantage, in low powered cars, position is everything and if you can slide by at will 2 or 3 times a lap then I don't believe it's a level playing field. I have no data but just go through the Leaderboards for the FRJ & NSU and see which cars top them, like I said, I don't know but I bet shifters top both.
I completely agree with Alex. I've been using an H-shifter with clutch and heel-and-toe since I began driving in RaceRoom 4 years ago and while I believe it gives an advantage over autoclutch, you have to know that you will get many mis-shifts, either because you try to upshift too quickly or because your downshift is not precise enough. I lost many very good laps in hotlap competitions because of mis-shifts, even if I try to concentrate on shiftings, but I feel it's the price to pay to drive these classic cars as they are meant to be driven (I use H-shifter, sequential or paddles depending on the real transmission system used in the cars). I think it's fair that drivers using the real shifting mode get an advantage over paddles as our favorite sim racing game is a simulator. And when I looked inside some NSU TTS in my street when I was young, I can't remember seeing paddles behind the wheel (joke!).
In Manual mode the car will not change gear unless you use the clutch on these manual gearbox cars, well it won't for me.
Exactly my point. In auto clutch with sequential shift you don´t need it but you can use it to keep revs up. I tested and the optimum final drive for Hockenheim is not the default one so that´s to consider too.