ORIGINAL: imyy4u

ok, the reason the corvette has this skip-shift feature from 1 to 4 is because IT CAN. it has so much freakin' torque that it can accelerate just fine in 4th gear, which is a 1:1 gear just like our 4th gear (corvette has 2 overdrive gears if i'm not mistaken). unless you're s/c, you probably won't have enough torque in 4th gear to make it save any gas...you'll just bog the car, or burn up too much gas by revving too high in 1st. now a 1st to 3rd shift may indeed save you some gas. as was said above, 1-3-5 is a good mpg shifting pattern that will probably save you a few mpg.

but at the end of the day, is the inconvenience caused by remembering to shift 1-3-5 really worth the few extra $$ you save at the pump? especially when you'll be accelerating as slow as a grandma? i'd argue not...just stick with the 1-2-3-4-5 normal pattern but shift at 2k in each gear like the manual recommends. shift outta 1st at 10mph, outta 2nd at 20mph, outta 3rd at 30mph, and outta 4th into 5th at 40mph. that will probably do just as well.