2004 Celica GT-S : Where to shift when racing?

[Imidazole]

Hey, my girlfriend just bought a new 2004 Celica GT-S - She's wondering, where do you shift when racing it? Do you take it ALL THE WAY to the rev-limiter? Do you short shift it? What RPMs do you recommend shifting at?

[cam2Xrunner]

I'm guessing you want to take it all the way to redline. You get most of the power after 7k rpm when the lift engages. Also break in that engine nicely before going all out. I wouldn't get all crazy untill at least 2k miles.

[Imidazole]

What about starting on these FWD beasts? Rev it up to 4k and pop the clutch with full gas? How /do/ you launch these stock GT-S's?

My girl is afraid that if she revs and pops her clutch it'll be like her 1990, which goes forward, and the engine stutters and kinda drops power, then starts moving forward.

[cam2Xrunner]

She'll have to do it a couple of times to find the sweet spot. 4k sounds about right tho.

[Imidazole]

Awesome... we'll give it a few runs...

[02_SLE_6]

you should perform these kind of actions with a brand new car, like trdcam^^ said, let the engine break in unless you dont care about the nice celica.

keep in mind, hitting higher rpms doesnt mean its gonna go faster. each car has its own certain range of limits

[Imidazole]

So far we've clocked 1,500 miles on it, we're going to wait til 2k to 'track break it in'

[sagaboy77]

the celica is one of the most difficult cars to launch. I would recomend just lot of practice. I'd reccomend between 3k and 4k and shift at 8200