I wish we had a "Driving" forum here. Lacking this, hopefully this is the best place to ask my question. Namely: how many of you are clock watchers and how many of you do it by ear? Say that you have just shifted into 3rd and are winding up to 4th. Do you watch the tach or do you listen to the motor? Back when I was a little bitty baby, I was told that the ideal up shift started at the peak of the horsepower curve and dropped to just below the peak of the torque curve. However, I learned to drive (ride) on crappy old motorcycles and crappy old sports cars. At best, the tach needle only gave a range. Typically, I couldn't even see the tach due to my eyes vibrating out of their sockets. Thus, I'm a sound man. I wait until I hear the motor starting to over run its peak power, if this makes any sense, before shifting. I do the same on down shifting. It's hard to describe, but I can sense the point at which I can bang a downshift without locking the wheels. You guys (and a few gals I think) are better drivers than I am. You probably have the time to look at the tach, the water temp, the oil pressure, the pretty gal who just waved at you, and that funny cloud that looks like a bunny rabbit. But not me. My eyes are looking further on up the road. Your thoughts? Dale ps The fastest shifting animal I ever rode was a Yamaha V4 two stoke. Due to the narrow power band, you had to up shift as fast as you could. Ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying, ying. Down shifts didn't matter. No engine braking. Yipes!
On the street, I upshift by sound and/or seat of the pants, depending on how much power I need to put down. On track, I usually do it by RPM, unless I am purposely shortshifting in order to better balance the car. On downshifting, on the street, I usually use the brakes only until at nearly a stop, then to neutral, and then into whatever gear I need. If not coming ot a full stop, I usually use the brakes only (MUCH cheaper than a clutch) until road speed/RPMs are veray close to where they'd be when I downshift...and I always heel/toe rev match in this situation. On track, I sort of do the same thing: I don't do my heel/toe downshift until I am about 80% thru the braking zone. Less of a chance to luck up rears, less stress on driveline & clutch, and the car remains MUCh more stable under braking...plus I need a much smaller throttle blip to rev match. Hope this helped, Dale!
The ideal shift point, is usually a couple hundred RPM past the peak of the curve; reason being, if you shift just passed the peak, your next gear will fall into the meaty side of the powerband. I shift by sound and RPM on track If you have an awkwardly placed tach, or simply aren't looking at the tach, I'd suggest installing a shift light; they come with a variety of fuses, for various redlines, and give off a bright light when you've hit it. Over time, I believe, you'll be able to slow everything down and find the time to glance at the tach b/w shifts. I check water temps, pressures, etc on straights.
Yes shift lights are great, and what I used to use ... on the track and 90% on the shift light. Obviously the only time I changed earlier was for tricky corner sequence, etc. You should also install a low oil pressure warning light ... comes on at less than 30 psi! BUT if you are seriously tracking/racing you need to learn how to be 100% aware of your gauges all of the time. Now ofcourse if you are wealthy enough to install those new fangled digital displays then that solves most of the issue, as they will warn of problems by automatically changing what they display if something is out of the normal, ie. water temp too high, etc. If you do not learn to be aware of your gauges you are going to waste a fortune ... and it is not that hard to learn. One way is to race a really unreliable engine ... you soon learn, as I did. What you should atleast do is pick a couple of places per lap to check the control gauges (water temp, oil temp, etc.) and thus reassure yourself that everything is under control, but yes the shift light and oil pressure warning light are a must for us budget racers. Pete ps: we have discussed the change up point many times, and for maximum acceleration using ALL the gears it is at peak power or above (if your engine can handle it)!. Yes you need to understand your gear ratios to get this perfect ... but peak power is a very good starting point. Without gears, peak acceleration occurs at peak torque ... just think about maximising the torque at the rear wheels at all situations. If you do change at peak torque though on most cars you will end up BELOW peak torque in your next gear, and thus your engine has to work hard to pull up to there. If you change ABOVE peak torque then your engine will end up at peak torque or above in your next higher gear and thus your acceleration (overall) is better. If you want to bore yourself to death read this (watch out for the pettyness displayed by one particular person though): torque vs hp for 360 replacement
On the street I listen to the engine and change when it sounds right. If I get it wrong I either hit the rev limiter (and look like a dickhead) or I shift a tiny bit early (so what). On the racetrack, with all the best intentions in the world I hit the rev limiter every time and I need a big ass red light flashing in my face to tell my stooopid ass to change gear. That's principally 'cos I put my brain in the glovebox before I put my helmet on. True .... I can't think worth a damn on the track. I head out there with the express intention of tootling about on a low speed run only to set lap records for the car ..... go figure. In the heat of battle, I don't physically possess the ability to watch the gauges intensely as well as haul that car around the track without losing position to the half dozen cars immediately surrounding me. Tachos (and other gauges) are useful indications but when the needle is up around the business end I'm just too damn busy to watch what its doing. Its only on straights and long curves that I have the time or inclination to watch or check gauges. That's why they built "idiot lights". Steve
depends on the situation. but just as aside, the hp curve on most ferraris, does not peak....looking back at my road&track collection, the hp and torque curves just go off the chart in more/less the same straight line they were following. in other words, you can just rev it close to red line and then shift and you will be getting just about the max hp and torque. (i think).
Agree with some of what you say (quoted above) but here is a quote from Alan Jones (1980 F1 Champ): "Unlike other drivers, driving the car does not require a hands clenched attitude, thus I am less buggered at the end of a race. This also means that I am able to think about strategy and how to maximise the speed of the car, etc. while racing ... " Well it was something like that ... Something to aim for, I guess ... Pete
I really do not want to go down this path again (the link I added a couple of posts back is where this will head), and yes Ferraris do make power at high revs (hp is an engines ability to produce torque at revs), but here is the F430 specs: Max power: 360.4 kW at 8500 rpm. Max torque: 465 Nm at 5250 rpm Thus technically speaking (writing ) if you rev a F430 past 5250 rpm the torque is dropping off and thus acceleration in that gear is slowing ... but because of gear ratios you need to keep revving to maximise your overall acceleration. Pete
