elanya

How very bizarre.. I have no idea why you would even want to take a turn with the clutch engaged! I've always tried to make my gear changes as fast and smooth as possible.

'Riding the clutch' (as my dad calls it) isn't very good for the clutch, can't see it harming the rest of the car but a clutch is pretty expensive to replace. And yeah, I'd be reluctant to recommend doing that on a turn for just the reason suggested above. After all, with the clutch depressed you're effectively in neutral - I wouldn't want to go ANYWHERE in neutral unless I was being towed.

Block changes are where you go, say, from fourth to second or third to first as you decelerate. You can use the engine to aid you in the deceleration that way, and if you're going from fairly fast to very slow or a standstill, it means you can keep your gear matched more or less to your speed - which obviously is safer. Instructors here seem to go through phases of whether they recommend this approach or not - don't know about test conditions, but in real life I'd find it hard to drive without using them on occasion.