Do All Esprits Slow Down Sharply During Gear Change?

[SimonN]

Hi all,

Had a test drive in a nice 2002 V8 Esprit the other day but found it to be very jerky. When putting my foot down, the car would pull but when changing up a gear, the car would sharply slow down (like engine braking) during pressing the clutch before pulling again upon hard acceleration resulting in a sort of stop and start jerky movement.

Is this normal for the car or is it a sign of something wrong with a car. Was told it was due to a light flywheel. Am not very technical so would not know if the guy is correct.

Is this simply a characteristic of the V8 and something you just have to get used to?

Edited March 31, 2007 by SimonN

[Fred Basset]

Is this simply a characteristic of the V8 and something you just have to get used to?

It does not sound quite right, but also bear in mind it takes a good amount of time to master the use of the pedals. I've had four and I still drive mine like a pratt for the first few miles if I've not driven it for a few weeks. You need to be ultra smooth in my opinion.

Regards

Fred

[oneshot]

Doesn't sound right to me - Whilst you are off the power it shouldn't be that noticable if the change is fairly quick since the revs should'nt die that quickly.

[Jonathan]

Didn't have the hand brake on did ya ?

Light flywheel will just allow the engine to build and lose rpm quicker - I dont think there is anything special with the V8 as far as flywheel is concerned. The easiest way to find that out is rev it in neutral.

The only thing you might have been doing is engaging the throttle too soon. The V8 has a twin plate clutch so the travel is not as much as you'd expect, this could be simply you had the accelerator down and snatched the clutch too late causing it to jerk.

Did you try it without acceleration ie chaning up and letting it cruise with no pedal ?

[snuffy]

I found that the accelerator pedal is quite stiff on a V8. When I first had mine I found that when I changed gear I did not push the pedal enough when changing up a cog so the car slowed under engine breaking. Give it some more umph when changing up a gear and it should be fine.

[t70]

sounds like a dragging brake to me... rear discs have a tendancy to cease on... the reason for this is that the driver drives the car hard and brakes hard and the parks the vehicle and puts on the hand brake. The bake at this point is VERY hot and that heat is then transferred to the caliper and the piston expands within the caliper causing it to cease within the caliper. Seen it before on other cars with rear discs... it's quite possibly the problem... but if it is... you'll need new calipers and probably pads/discs due to the heat generated by a dragging brake screwing up all of the above.