sugarwood

If you're on a long section of windy road where you're mostly 3000 rpm in 3rd gear (around 45mph).
Would you put it into 2nd where you'd be driving 4000 rpm in 2nd gear?
Just feels like driving along at 4000 rpm seems a bit much.

LexVan

Are you on a road or a race track? Your redline is probably well over 7,000 rpm. Stay in the lower gear.

Tom W

My $0.02
For just cruising down the road (and better gas mileage), 3rd gear would be my choice.
For performance driving, life begins above 4k rpm and starts to get exciting above 5k rpm.

sugarwood

Don't you find it very hard to drive at 4k+ for any extended period?
As soon as you let go of the gas, the entire car lurches

linzman

feathering the gas and being smooth, looking ahead, and anticipating, all these will make it even more fun to drive that awesome car.

333pg333

Wrong forum......

mark kibort

So, since this is a racing site, you never drive the car at an RPM that is lower than your RPM range that is post shift RPM after redline if whenever possible. maximized acceleration happens by maximizing HP.

NYoutftr

My 3.6L is very happy at 2900-3300.

The gearbox in a 996 is setup very good for various speed limits and keeping the rpms in this range.

Tom W

Not on a race track. Most of a race is spent above 4k. It's very different from driving on the street, which is why I answered as I did. For just cruising, the higher gear, lower rpm, is fine. For maximum performance, you seldom want to be below 4k.

Jabs1542

Rotating the car, throttle steer, and precise car control all happen above 4K (even better above 5K), but you don't need any of that on the open road... save it for the track.

Veloce Raptor

Interesting point of view

LuigiVampa

I'm thinking the same thing.

But if this is the right forum the above would be the answer.

Don't shift until your shift lights are flashing!

jscott82

Most important: never coast... either on the gas or on the brake...

If coasting go ahead and use the higher gear and enjoy your latte...

mark kibort

yep... thats racing! AKA maximizing HP (both positive and negative forces!)

the reason for this is that you then have maximum accel and max decel forces that the engine can make with NO other pedals involved. if you ever are at a speed where the engine is out of the highest HP range (range of your gearing) you are sacrificing the ability to use these forces. if you are worried about , spinning out because of too much force , or controlling the car, learn to do that then!

depending on the car, its really between 6k and 7.8K for the Cayman, for cars like mine that redline at 6600rpm, its all about keeping it above 5000 whenever possible. mostly, its about when you are dont rotating the car, throttle steering, etc. when you are pointed straight, you want 5-6k RPM on the tach, otherwise, you are leaving acceleration potential on the table.

yep... one of the nice things about the 928 is that i have that racing-useless, 5th gear. but it sure was nice to cruse to the track at 2000rpm going 70mph and get 20mpg (a lot less noisy too)

Jabs1542

5th gear, that's so 1980's. Now days you use 7th gear to lumber to and from the track