Been speaking to my housemate who helped test our uni's entry in the Formula student (which they did very well in!) It made me think about an old thread started by phelspa about gear stick mounted clutches, i thought this was a better way maybe.

The clutch control is part of the gear lever. When you pull back on the gear stick it disengages the clutch, back a bit more and you have first. Then let it go forward again with a few revs and you have lift off! For the up changes when you dont need clutch you just push forward as normal. When you downchange, just pull back and it does the clutch for you!

Would be fairly simple to convert a locost for this, and means u have very simple down changes and left foot braking.

Sounds good but dont know if you would have enough control when pulling away. I can still embarace myself at trafic lights, either loads of revs and black lines on the road or stall it.
Also it must get a bit hairy on hill starts

i was under the impression that clutchless downshifts are only practical at full chat, and that usually people use the clutch anyway. Might be wrong though.

JoelP do you mean clutchless upchanges? The system i described means you have the clutch on downchanges but not on upchanges.
If you did mean that, you are right though (both of you). I think this setup would be better suited to racing or hill climbs. Maybe have a way for operating the clutch if you needed to upchange with the clutch.

Sounds a good idea, certainly better suited to racing, I still use the clutch for upshifts unless I'm bouncing off the rev limiter
Have considered the BEC clutch issues a bit.
Mounting a clutch lever from a bike on the gear shift seems a good option, would need a bit of designing to get the master cylinder vertical but not too difficult.
Also, how about switching the clutch and gear shift. Change gear with your foot and operate a clutch with your hand, same as a bike (apart from wrong foot) Would take a bit of getting used to but reckon it would work.

John

Is it only me that thinks that "push forward to go up the gears" feels totally alien?

Chris

Me as well, I push to go down, pull to go up, but I think it goes back to my karting days

Proper tiptronic style autos have the same arrangement as the old BTCC sequential boxes - push forward to change down, pull back to change up.

My Mazda6 does this, as does the Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo. Means your hand is inertia assisted when changing gears - the acceleration forces push your body and hand back, the braking forces throw your body and hand forward! Just like in a pukka race or rally car

The tiptronic in My Mitsubishi has push forwards for up - feels wrong.
I'm going to go for forward = down, back = up.
I will be going for a hand operated clutch on the gear lever - I had a bit of an accident 2 years ago and now have to use my left foot for accelerator and brake which is what prompted by to go the bike engine route so that I could get a constant mesh sequential gearbox without having to spend too much money.

You're right about the going forward to up the gears, I built mine like that - I had no room on the other side of the gear selector on the engine - it does feel alien, and for the first few times I was out I had to think very carefully before selecting gear.
I only screwed up once - my first day at Nutts Corner track when I popped down a gear going up the straight, the car lurched, threw me forward and bounced off the rev limiter. Scary, but no damage seemed to be done.
I was very careful after that! I have got used to it though - it's fine nowadays. The only problem I wouldn't trust myself in a mates BEC with the gears going the other way - odds are I'd blow his engine.
If I had to do the build over again I'd try to get the gears working the other way.
For the clutch I'd prefer the hand operated clutch on the gearstick for more feel - as MK-Ninja says it's all too easy to get the start wrong.

" same as a bike (apart from wrong foot)"

My bike gearchange is on left foot, clutch on left hand. It wouldn't take much getting used to but I can't really see any benefit in doing it.