pszikla

It occurred to me yesterday that I subconsciously cruise on the highway in 4th gear pretty often without upshifting to 5th, or 6th since the engine just purrs at highway speed in 4th and am already cruising above the speed limit of 60.
When I remember that I am in 4th, I skip 5th and go from 4th to 6th just to drop the revs (never hard on throttle, just cruising).
Do any of you guys do that and am I wrong in bypassing 5th?
Casual downshifting same skip of 5th.

an02boxster

Naw...I just run mine to redline in 1st then drop to 6th

pszikla

nice!

Tippy

IMO it is not hurting anything skip-shifting. I would personally would not run my car at highway speeds in 4th, that is excessive wear on the engine.

Benjamin Choi

Going a bit overboard, no? What's so excessive about it other than you might get a little more cabin noise?

I just run 6th for fuel economy and if I want a lil' more go, then I stick to 5th, but rarely 4th at 65MPH+.

And it shouldn't hurt anything by skipping gears, but never "good" practice I guess.

Bottom-line, do what you do.

nycebo

It's a mileage and torque thing.

MikeZ

I agree with NYCEBO. I am usually in 5th gear at highway speeds going up thru the gears. I believe what is more important is the rev matching on doew shifts for the car's health.

juankimalo

Don't worry about it
The engine won't suffer anything, but It would better not to step down the accel. when you need power at low rpm

wdonovan

OK Let me ask this. Any of you guys track your car (or just drive spiritedly)? If so.... do you hit every gear on a decel into a turn? Bet you don't get great track times going 6, 5, 4, 3..... hell it would take half the straightaway just to downshift. You can shift 1 to 4, 2 to 5, 6 to 3....... your not going to hurt anything as long as you don't overrev in the high end and don't lug in the low end.

Tippy

Wear.

Excessive may not be the word. How about unecessary.

RPM = part distance traveled in a given time. More RPM, more wear.

pat056

I agree with MikeZ. Heel/toe and matching revs is far more important. At the track, I regularly go from 4th to 2nd in hard corners. I just match the revs. Haven't replaced a clutch yet...or engine.
I admit to "daydreaming" and looking down to find myself at 4500 rpms im 4th, just cruising,but heck, I strve to keep my race car at 5500+ rpms the whole time, and haven't had engine issues. Like Choi says, it ain't gonna hurt it IMHO. I mean, what's worse, driving around at 4500 rpms or driving around a 2500 rpms?

Dr_KarlB

Ive only done a handfull of track days, but i would be surprised if anyone gets into 6th, and probably rarely 5th.
You can hit 120MPH in 4th i think ( or close to it), and ive never seen a 1st gear corner.
Mostly i would change between 3rd and 4th, ocasionally 2nd.
Thats at Infineon, Thunderhill and Laguna Seca in the Novice run group

Tippy

4500

Benjamin Choi

hair splitting. the wear between driving in 4th gear at 60mph than 6th gear at same mph... is nominal at best and easily overshadowed by where you drive the car, how you drive the car,e tc.

Ray S

I actually do hit all the gears down shifting for a corner. For example going into turn 5 at Road America I rev match down shift from 5th to 4th, 4th to 3rd, and 3rd to 2nd all prior to turn it. It sounds like a lot, but in practice it actually happens very quickly and does not slow me down at all.

For me it is a real rhythm that I fall into and I am braking the entire time this is going on (while bliping the throttle at each downshift with the right side of my right foot)