It is the most fun driving at around 4 to 5000 RPM. Does this hurt the car? I only use it for weekend/fair weather country road drives. What is appropriate warm up/ cool down? For those rare times I must navigate through rush hour traffic, stop and go, when I hit the open road is there a benefit to redlining the car? Should I redline the car? I have received various bits of advise, from " each engine simply has just so many RPMs in it", to "driving at redline for some time( how long ?) each time you take the car out is good for the engine". Is there a sweet spot of having a real blast driving, and not hurting the car? Also, do you guys find that on certain days your cars run better than on other days, for no apparent reason. And that when you baby the car for the first few miles of driving, it responds so much better for the rest of the drive. Kind of familiar in behavior and temperament!

 

First of all, yes there is a procedure for warming up a car before flogging it- start the car and drive it easy until your oil gauge gets up to normal levels. It takes a while- a good 10-15 minutes, more or less depending on the ambient temperature outside. By driving the car easy, I mean no full throttle, and no high revs- I usuaully try to keep it under 3K RPM (don't keep the revs so low that the car lugs, but just try shifting between 2,600 and 3,000 if you can). Do not start the car and let it just idle to warm up. One other point, when the weather is cold out (probably not this time of year, but the winter) take it easy on the shifter until it warms up- you'll notice it is harder to shift as many cars are when cold- it will warm up. Don't force the lever.

For normal driving once the car is warmed up, I shift between about 2,500-3,600 rpm. Revving higher may sound good and all, but you'll get worse fuel economy and in theory cause more wear to your motor. If you want to make it rev higher it's probably not really going to do anything, but I wouldn't be revving to red line every shift. As far as recommeded redlining, I would say most of us get on it enough that the car isn't going to build up any carbon- maybe I'll red line it every other time I drive it, and sometimes several times in one "driving session". I wouldn't bring it up to red line and hold it through- if you want to get on it and hit red line, I'd wind it out in the first 3 gears for instance.

There isn't really a cool down procedure unless you have a turbo, in which case the car should be allowed to idle for a minute or two while the turbo stops spinning.

The 911's I've owned always pretty much ran the same day after day- no noticable difference from one day to the next.

 

These engines are very robust and designed to rev, so don;t baby it. At the same time, more revs mean more wear in any engine, so hammering the crap out of it all the time is not a good idea either.

If you are at steady speed.... on a main road or interstate for example, no point in reving the car any more than necessary.... generally I like ot keep the car as close to 2,000 RPM as possible. In 5th you will probably be between 3,000 and 4,000 on an Interstate... this will not really hurt the car

I'd say anything below 1,500 revs is lugging the engine... i'd avoid that for long periods if possible.

For spirited driving you will want to keep the car in the 4,000 rev range... this is where the power starts to come on... redlining the car as you run through the gears is fine and will not hiurt the engine... in fact, I believe it is good to do this once in a while...

For normal around town driving, I typically drive between 2,000 and 4,500 with 2,000 as my target crusing range, and 4,500 as my shift point. Running at 3,000 or 4,000 crusing speed won't necessaroily hurt the engine, but is obnoxious and unnecessary... running 5,000 to redline for sustained periods is just plain stupid unless you are hauling serious *** in 5th on an opened highway....(and you probably shouldn't be going that fast on public roads.... but that's a different issue)

Like any car there is a distinct difference between driving it hard and abusing it.... 3.2 likes to be driven hard but abusing it is just going to cost you $$$$ in premature repairs

have fun

 

The best torque area is between 4500 and 5500 RPMs. I try to keep the engine in this area when I am driving it hard. Otherwise, like Andrew said, 2500-3500 is plenty for normal driving around town. Redlining the engine is bad for it and your HP actually starts to drop off in the region...nothing to be gained by redlining the engine and lots to lose.

 

I've read somewhere that it is a good idea not to let the RPM's drop below 2500 while cruising.

"911 engines don't like to be lugged as the low RPM harmonics tend to make the cam chains 'flop' around which ='s stress on the chains, gears and tensioners.....not to mention carbon build-up and possible detonation when trying to accelerate briskly from that low of an RPM"

 

Well, 2,000 rpm may be too little to drive up a hill or stomp on the gas. I have a 3.6 964 which puts out more torque than my old 3.2, but I seem to remember my 3.2 being OK at a little above 2K on up on normal flat surfaces if fast acceleration wasn't necessary.

 

Taking it easy and warm up around 2.5-3.5K RPM for gear changes. Spirited driving once warm you I change up around 5K RPM. Its the most fun to drive this way.

 

You definetly want to keep the revs low intill warm up. With a good, maintaned motor you will do nothing to the car reving it between 4-5 rpms. thats what the car is made for. You dont drive that car for gas milage.

 

OK...so now I know that I can have fun without damaging the car as long as I allow it to warm up while driving easy. And that the occasional rev to 4 or 5000 is not only even more fun, but is also just fine for the engine. So, respect the machine always, but do take it for the ride!!

 

yeak kind ok like some women I know..... ooooooooowww !

 

Can I jump in for a related question?
My bad side is that I used to like to downshift to decelerate (I used to). Many friends told that I should way until I am rich to do that often. I know how bad this does to the engine and tranny but can someone give "professional" opinion?

 

My .02 worth... I warm the car up gently, and then I typically shift between 5-6K rpms (occasionally running her up to redline if I'm really pushing it). IMO, cruising at 2-2.5K is not necessarily a good thing, I rarely let her go below 3K. Caveat, I do very little 'city driving', typically I'm on the curvey back roads. I'm not concerned with gas mileage, and don't beleive that cruising at 3-3.5K rpms is bad. I've only checked my gas mileage once (a few months ago), and on the interstate (I rarely do that either), over a full tank of gas, I got almost 27 mpg, while cruising in 5th gear at 80-90 mph (if I recall, the tach was at approx. 3.5K at those speeds). You're not doing a bit of harm at 3-4K rpms, and my car is NOT a Prius !

Keith
'88 CE coupe

 

rnln,

It's not really terribly bad on either the tranny or engine to downshift and use engine braking, but it puts additional wear on your clutch. Brake pad replacements are much cheaper than clutch replacements.

 

I don't know. I went over 100,000 miles on the clutch on my 911 and I almost always downshift. I do take care to heel/toe to match speeds. Part of the greatest pleasure I get out of driving my 911 is that song it makes on deceleration. And, if I can't downshift like that, what's the point?

So, I don't agree you have to wait until you are rich. Didn't cost me anything special.

 

That's the key- if one "rides the clutch" to smooth out downshifts, that's not good, but heel/toe or at least blipping the throttle up to the aproximate RPM before engaging the clutch after the downshift is much easier on the clutch.

I downshift as well and never had a problem, although if I'm in 5th and slowing to a light on a larger road I may only down shift to 4th or 3rd, I don't bother going all the way down, and I always heel/toe or if I don't need to brake get the revs up to minimize the clutch slipping with a downshift.