Rev Matching — Why, How, When?

Rev matching is a technique that is used by all racing and performance drivers when they drive manual cars at high speeds.

No matter what kind of racing you do, one of the first things you should learn is how to rev match. It is one of the most beneficial techniques you can learn with manual transmissions and can provide gains where you may not have thought possible prior.

Rev matching may seem simple on first look, but is something you really need to work at to get right and to use with consistency.

There aren’t many steps involved in rev matching, so it is easy to remember what you need to do. Rev matching is the first step to learning how to heel and toe shifting which will change the way you drive forever.

The five elements we’ll be focusing on today are:

1. Braking

2. Clutch use

3. Throttle blipping

4. Changing gear

5. Accelerating

Why Rev Match?

Let’s take some unnecessary work off the clutch. Rev matching is an effective way to downshift gears in a car. This is especially useful on a track, when you need optimum acceleration. It can also take some stress off of your clutch, as it will be doing less work in matching your engine speed to the wheels. Less work = cooler clutch = less wear.

Keeping the car smooth and balanced. While using rev matching, you provide a much smoother weight transfer when downshifting and cornering. If you simply dump the clutch, you’ll feel a lurch forward as the transmission, clutch, and drivetrain all fight to get back into operational limits. That sudden forward movement can and usually will completely upset the balance of the car which could result in snap over/understeer, which no one likes.

Rev matching is a technique which should become second nature if you want to drive a car quickly. As stated, prior it takes some practice to get right, but once you get the hang of it becomes somewhat of a habit, like learning how to drive a car a manual.

How Does Rev Matching Work?

Rev matching is primarily used when downshifting. When you’re on the track and turning into a corner, you want to already be in the gear that will give you the fastest acceleration out of the exit.

You need to ‘blip’ the throttle in order to bring the revs up to match the engine speed to the gear you are selecting. Blipping the throttle is simply opening the throttle a little bit in order to bring the revs up higher. So, in terms of rev matching in a car, the driver would press down the throttle slightly and very quickly lift off again. This is also called “feathering” in certain regions.

This means that the car will be much more stable and be within the optimum operating range in terms of RPM’s allowing for a fast and smooth acceleration out of the corner. Rev matching is a part of the heel and toe technique, which has been used by racing drivers for many years across all aspects of motor racing.

The 5 Steps to Rev Matching

There are not many steps to follow to learn how to rev match, but since we’re not in a car we will have to fall back to the time-honored tradition of visualization.

1. Braking

We are in fifth gear, accelerating down a main straight. Quickly approaching is the braking point. We prepare to enter the corner.

2. Clutch Use

As the corner approaches, we begin braking to hit our cornering speed. When our foot hits the brake, we hear and feel the engine speed drop. We know we need to be in second gear when exiting for optimum acceleration. As the RPM’s drop we are now able to put the car into second gear.

3. Throttle Blipping

While braking in a straight line, we disengage the clutch. The engine speed will drop quickly and we shift into second gear. The clutch pedal is in, and we’re in second gear as we reach the turn in point.

4. Changing Gear

Entering the corner, the clutch is still disengaged. We need to get our RPM’s up to second gear range. We begin to blip the throttle to accelerate the engine speed. We get our RPM’s up to 3200, catching our optimum RPM’s for second gear. The clutch is still disengaged.

5. Accelerating

While still in the corner approaching the apex, we release the clutch very smoothly and slowly begin to add speed, making sure that we are still in our optimum RPM range. We accelerate smoothly and progressively out of the apex and apply 100% throttle while exiting the corner. There are no sudden jumps or loss of engine power.

Final Thoughts

Rev matching can help you to downshift effectively and help to take stress off your engine, clutch and gearbox if it is executed correctly. It’s a very commonly used technique, and if you watch races with cars that have manual gearboxes, you will see it being used very often.

When practicing rev matching, it is important to remember that you don’t need to be 100% accurate on matching your revs at first. As with any skill, it takes some practice to master. With time, you will start to recognize when your engine speed matches your road speed.

The more you practice, the better you will become at it. Eventually it will become like second nature to you. But each car is different, and you will have to make small tweaks to find the right rev matching levels in each car.

I would also recommend researching the car that you are driving. Most cars have an owner’s manual, or some form of online information relating to their gear ratios. This can help to give you an idea as to what your revs need to be for each gear.

Rev matching is an important skill to learn if you want to be fast on a track and smooth on the open road.