When should i shift?

[jarule]

I have a '90 Corolla SR5 5 speed manual, and when i race i just shift at the redline (6200)..does neone shift at any other speeds? should i shift at redline or a lil sooner? i read on edmunds.com that my max hp is at 5800 rpm..does neone hav any input?

[Lafora]

8200 rpm.

nothing gets better results than that.

[Trueno_Sprinter]

u shift at 8200?? I shift at 9000!!!!

[jarule]

hmm...any REAL suggestions?

[REN69]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! you're too mean cyril!

I don't even redline my car anymore.. the 4age hits peak HP at 6800rpm and torque at 6000rpm with a redline of 7200rpm. So why bother risking a blown engine with the assumption that redlining it will squeeze more HP out of it.. if anything, HP probably drops after 6800rpm.

I wonder if anyone has a dyno sheet for a stock 4AGE to show what I mean. I bet HP and torque drop a bit after their peak.

BTW.. 4agze.com says the 4AFE hits peak HP at 5600rpm and Torque at 4400rpm (how the fock do you convert Kw to Hp and Nm to Ft/lb torque??? I'm not used to seeing power figures in this measurements! )

[jarule]

yeah my car redlines at 6200 but i've read that the peak is 5800..if neone has dyno sheets on that i'd like to see it also..

[TRDragoon]

in normal driving days, i shift at 4500 rpm....
when im hitting it, shift at 7000 rpm.....

but with gas price and snow these days.....i have no clue what i shift at???

[jarule]

dang normal days 4500? i usually shift at 3000-3500

[REN69]

same here man.. I don't even know what I shift at, since I don't usually race, the most I hit is like 6000rpm. Only time I hit 6800 to 7000rpm is when I get on the highway ramps to get up to a nice speed.

Ever since this one time I think I went over redline.. I said no more.

[brink]

I drive first up to ~3500
Second 4000 to 4500
Third and higher >= 4500

That's just based on how the car feels in each gear. I've never heard or read anything about it, but it seems like my particular transmission seems to produce different power ranges in different gears. It's more based on feel than looking at the tach or any sort of dyno tests, though.

Of course, that's assuming I'm trying to accelerate really hard. Normal driving I consistently shift so that when I reach cruising speed I end up between 2500 and 3000 in whatever gear is appropriate for that velocity.

Heh, for the longest time I was under the impression that you were absolutely supposed to shift at 3000 no matter what, and to go any higher risked blowing the engine. Don't know why, I think it was my instructor in driver's ed who indicated that. You have no idea the whole new worlds of exploration that were opened when I realized I could safely go above the dreaded 3k limit.

[jarule]

brink wut do u shift at when ur racing?

[ek-9]

hitting your redline is fine as long as you have a limiter. That's what it's there for (provided your motor is in reasonable shape). But it is true that redline DOES NOT always equal the optimum shifting point. I remember a coupel years ago, they were testing the Focus in SCC and they couldn't get 1/4 mile times anywhere near the factory spec. Then they dyno-ed it and realized that shifting at redline actually takes the car out of it peak power/torque and so afterwards, they shifted something like 500-800 rpms sooner and shaved about 0.5 secs.

[boroEF]

the point of shifting above ur peak hp point is so that after u shift when ur rev's fall u will be back into the "sweet spot" of the rev band.

at shannonville i shifted at 7500rpm when i had my zc...

bondobondo shifted at 8000 with his corolla

[Nx2k]

Originally posted by boroEF
the point of shifting above ur peak hp point is so that after u shift when ur rev's fall u will be back into the "sweet spot" of the rev band.

at shannonville i shifted at 7500rpm when i had my zc...

bondobondo shifted at 8000 with his corolla

true dat!
but if your power falls off dramatically past peak then it may be good to shift before redline but that all depends on how the power band is like

[brink]

Originally posted by jarule
brink wut do u shift at when ur racing?

Well, I drive a totally unmodified 4cyl camry so I don't really "race", though there was this guy in a celica the other day who seemed to want to mess with me, which was sort of strange and out of the blue. Maybe he caught a glance of the 8ball shifter in the parking lot and thought it was somethin' special

The figures I gave are for when I'm accelerating hard, like onramps or when late for work