Double clutching in a synchromeshed gearbox car?

[Zico]

I came across this video where the driver of an STI is heel-toeing AND double clutching on his downshifts.. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0j-3xIZK-Bk

Is there any real point to doing this? Heel-toeing makes obvious sense because of the de-acceleration weight/torque in the whole engines crank/rods and pistons assembly.
By also double declutching he is only removing the de-acceleration weight of the synchromesh gears.. very tricky to get right every time for only 100th of a sec gains through braking stability.. and only if you were a very late braker.

Perhaps its more to do with reducing wear on the synchromesh?


Or is he just showing off?

[Daniel]

I double declutch in my car. Not sure why I do :mark:

[Mark]

Because you is mad?

[MrJan]

I double declutch too but mainly because we used to have an Austin Seven so I used to practice. Now I just do it cos it sounds good :D

[Azumanga Davo]

No harm in it, but seems like a meaningless waste of time and effort?

[Kneeslider]

I find that I do both out of habit. I guess it is because I learned to drive properly in a VW Beetle (which incidentally had excellent snychromesh), and the spacing of the floor mounted pedals etc makes this a really nice thing to do just so.

My TR6 when I got it up and running had worn out synchros on 3rd, so double declutching was the norm on that car going down the box into third, if you wanted to avoid a crunchy change. It's nice to practice, for the times when you might need it.

It's surprising how many cars have pedal boxes which aren't designed for such 'showing off'. My in Boxster, heel and toeing feels a bit funny, because the clutch and brake are hinged from the top of the bulkhead, in the normal way, and the accelerator pedal is hinged from the floor. This means that you can feel the different fulcrum points, when toeing and heeling and it produces the odd sensation that the bulkhead is flexing! I had to do quite a lot of checking to make sure that this wasn't actually happening!