Free-ing the gear (*shifting to N) is for N cruising, which means when u r cruising on high speed, or are going down from a high ground like fly-over, shifting to N will let the car cruise by itself, while not reducing the speed that dramatically.

proper techniq to brake the car is like what foxx3001 said,
-step on the brake pedal until the car's engine ALMOST jerks (*reach a very low rpm that the throttle is insufficient to move the car), while not stepping on the clutch
-shift down a gear, and release the clutch
-repeat step 1, and then 2, until ur car reaches 1st gear, and stop.

what ppl love doing is (*which is not recommended coz it'l reduce ur brake pad's lifespan)
-cruising in N (*free gear)
-step on brake gradually when nearing destination (*or junction, or whatever)
-steps harder until cars stop "cun cun" accurately at the place that u desire.

what i does is,
-cruise on N when not driving high speed
-does not step on brake pedal at all, coz i duno y, but my calculation is always accurate, and the car will stop when reaching junction. (*edit: might need to step slightly on the brake though)

extra info:
when driving at high speed and needs to stop drastically(*this is also used to avoid accidents, like cars that stop suddenly, or bikes that "die fire" suddenly)
-imagine you are speeding at 120km/h, 5th gear
-step on clutch and shift to 4th gear, release clutch, step on brake pedal
-next 2 seconds, step on clutch and shift to 3rd gear, release clutch, step on brake pedal again.
-repeat til 2nd gear, and your car has most probably slowed down drastically to around 20km/h ~ 40km/h, depending on your timing and skill.

this skill is call gear-braking, is taught in BMW driving academy. given situation is:
-there's a trailer which turn over suddenly in front of you
-you're 6 seconds behind him, cruising with 66m/h
-you need to stop ur car in 5 seconds

its impossible to step on the brake pedal to stop the car in 5 seconds. handbrake is out of the though of coz. so u'l need to slow down ur car drastically, and turn ur car when nearing it.

This post has been edited by don^don: Sep 22 2006, 11:43 PM

thanx for the praise. wil always try to help. i'm still valy noobies though.

eng98, what you do is actually the correct way, and recommended. its just that, that's my bad habit la... haha~

break the car! nice...

anyway, yeah, at slopes, i supposed everyone will do that, including me.

ur car will probably jerk alot, if you're not stepping on the clutch (*i mean stepping, not releasing).

stepping on clutch while braking will wear and tear your clutch's skin. its not recommended if you're at junction or crossroads.

i only step on clutch and brake only at junction cornering, that is to prepare myself to shift to a lower gear when exiting corners.

When traffic jam, here's what i do:
-step on brake
-step on clutch
-when wanna move, shift to lower gear(*probably 1st gear), release brake, lighten up ur clutch, and ur car wil move a lil`.
-when the car in front of u slow down again/stop, press ur clutch down again, and step on ur brake again.

in this way, u don hav to apply ur pedal, thus u don havta waste alot of fuel in traffic jam, but ur car will be moving very slowly.

This post has been edited by don^don: Sep 26 2006, 10:01 AM

a lorry? but i supposed if its that heavy, it should be running on a v10 or v12 , which in wad i understand, should also be very powerful. its just that, if u apply this, then its gonna be valy valy slow for the car to move.

kancil and kelisa in driving academy hav their throttle adjust to a higher rpm. so the idle rpm might be 1.5k, which is impossible for the car to "die" even if u lift the clutch too soon. so u wont fail lo~

i usually engage in 1st gear during traffic jam, and didn apply acceleration pedal. this is coz my car has small displacement.

to drift (*around 100km/h - 5th gear):
1st, step on brake pedal
2nd, press clutch,
3rd, turn to the direction you wanna go to
4th, pull handbrake, shift to 2nd gear (*though valy stiff, juz force it in)
5th, counter steer and rev ur car, (*by that, i mean step hard on the acceleration pedal)
6th, when u c the exit (*by that i mean a straight line), SMILE!!!
th, release clutch, release brake, let go the steering wheel abit, and grab back when u know its in straight line...

the next thing u know... u r DK!!!

This post has been edited by don^don: Sep 26 2006, 03:08 PM