Hey, I got a simple question for the 2010 owners, At what mph do you downshift to a certain gear?


For example, today I was going 60 and wanted to downshift to get around traffic, would I go to 2nd or 3rd?

 

I drive a 5 speed 01, so this is probably irrelevant but I would go to third, unless I wanted to go absolute ***** to the walls i would do 2nd...

 

Cool cool, and you just rev match to get there right? So the car doesn't lurch like a mother ****er?


I know this questions are a bit ridiculous, but I've only been driving stick for 2 months so now i'd like to know how to do certain things a bit better haha

 

in my car, i'd go from 5th to 4th to pass (5 speed). 4th gear had more than enough power to do passing for me and i didn't have to rev match.

 

5th to 2nd at 60mph would be pretty dangerous and isn't required to pass someone. You would be at or near red line, there's no reason to down shift to that high of a gear. 4th has plenty of power to pass @ 60mph. With 3.73 gears and a manual transmission 4th is 3,000 RPM @ 60mph. Not sure about the not needing to rev match comment. It's still required for a smooth shift IMO since you're going up nearly 1,000 RPM.

I just wanted to throw this out there since the OP mentioned 5th to 2nd. Please keep in mind the rev limiter will NOT prevent a mechanical over-rev. If you're going 80mph, shift into 2nd, and fully let out the clutch your engine is going to peg red line and your wheels are going to lock up. The electronic rev limiter cannot save your engine at this point. This isn't something to mess around with. My buddy accidentally down shifted to 2nd instead of 4th in his BMW, didn't react fast enough to push the clutch in, and the engine experienced a mechanical over-rev. It ended up bending several rods among other damage. The repair bill was over $3,500.

 

Wow, okay guys thanks good to know. I was also implying if I were gonna do a highway roll haha, but I got it now for the most part.


I have 3.73 gears btw

 

Oh, highway roll? 4th all the way, I was thinking passing someone by going into the oncoming lane and it would be needed to be done in a hurry, then i would do third.

 

If you are going to do a highway roll, just slow down to like 40-45 mph and rev match to 2nd gear. Then you can slowly accelerate up to 60 if you are roll racing or just peg it from there if you are just out having fun. 2nd gear is so much more fun than 3rd.

EDIT: If you PM me your email address, I'll send you a spreadsheet that will calculate your maximum speed in each gear. You just have to type in your tire diameter and rear end gear ratio and it will tell you what road speed you will be at for certain engine rpms. This is also good information for knowing how high to rev the car during rev-match downshifts.

 

Yeah, then probably 3rd. Test it by getting up to 60mph in 3rd to see what your RPM is. Now you know how much you need to rev the engine for a smooth down shift from 5th to 3rd @ 60mph. If you're going a little slower or a little faster you can compensate accordingly.

 

I have 4.10s and at 60 MPH shifting from 5th to 3rd gives a good kick in the pants without hitting the rev limiter. At 70-75 I will go from 5th to 4th.