Quote:
Originally Posted by hlmiii
"You're increasing wear and tear on your clutch for no good reason starting in second or third...especially in third!"
Uh, yeah. Of course.
I wasn't recommending it - just stating the possible.
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Understood.
(We've got some first time manual owners here though, better to make sure they don't get the wrong impression about things like this. I'd hate for one of them to burn up a clutch because they're trying to acheive the mythical 3rd gear launch.
)
My last car (mildly tuned GTO) would actually pull out from a dead stop in 4th gear without a lot of fuss. That meant you could go from a dead stop to about 145MPH without ever changing gears. Pulling out in 2nd was like pulling out in first in a lot of economy cars. My little brother actually pullled out in 3rd gear the first time I let him drive it and we were moving before I realized he had it in the wrong gear (it had a short shifter that made everything pretty close together).
Still, in the case of the 135i (and most cars) I'm of the opinion that if you want to save yourself a gear change around town, it's better to take off in 1st, then skip to 3rd or 4th once you're moving, instead of starting in 2nd, just because of the clutch wear.