Alright guys noob question commin...when yall are cruisin and a car pulls up next to you with a challenge do yall down shift according to rpms or speed? ive drivin standards before but never learned how to race..i was in 4th gear at about 60mph and a GT pulls up next to me and basically challenged me and i know at that speed i could be in 2nd and pull a for more mph before goin back up into 3rd but i didnt want to screw up anything cause ive never raced before..would i down shift to 3rd first then down to 2nd or straight to 2nd and rev match? or is that not a good idea and harmful to the transmission and engine? ?


sorry guys i just want to learn the ways..never downshifted that drastically before and just wanted to know

 

You can go down a couple gears without damaging anything, as long as you don't redline or go past redline. I have never redlined it to 1st gear so I don't know the maximum speed of that gear, but I know 2nd gear on the Bullitt with the 3.73 axle is around 73. So at about 60 unless you are really fast with the shifting it would probably be just as effective to downshift to 3rd and you would probably get the same acceleration...or convince the challenger to go down to around 45-50 then make better use of 2nd gear.

 

i'm no racer myself but i'm thinking, it maybe a bit harder to downshift to 2nd goin that speed. ofcourse you can hit insane speeds in 2nd gear but being at a high RPM doesn't necessarily mean you are getting the most out of acceleration. like the guy above said, you'd be shifting up to 3rd immediately so it's a waste of time.

you can try it at a slower speed somewhere and test it out, get a feel for your car

 

Hey man #5522 here..i guess there wouldnt of been much difference of goin down to 2nd and gettin just 10 more mph..just drove home from work and dropped to 3rd from 4th at 60..but thanks alot for answering me on such a question

 

Yeah you pretty much should be looking for whatever gear at that speed puts you in a fat part of the powerband for whatever speed you are moving to. Same principal for downshifting pre-corner grab down a gear and see if you're speed is where you need it to be and consider where you're at in the powerband. If you need more rpms but your speed is good then you're better off grabbing one more gear and making an extra up shift on corner exit.

Street racing is bad mmmkay.