When do you usually shift?

[Pat Crellin]

Originally posted by S2GART
Take the bulb out, problem solved.

I thought I saw here that the light can not be removed.

[wholberg]

I have an 87 Targa with 98K miles. I follow the owner's manual instructions and do not take it over 4500 rpm until the engine is warm, shifting at about 4000. After the car is warm, I shift at 4500 to 6000 during normal driving. When driving at a constant speed, I usually run between 3000-3500 rpm. My engine seems exceptionally smooth here, and has plenty of pickup for in-town driving.

The shift light is a joke. I tried shifting when it lit up a few times, and I ended up in overdrive at 30 mph, with rpm barely over idle.

[rcaradimos]

The light is based on lack of pedal movment, hold it down and shift at red line as much as you can in what ever gear. It's hard to do in 4th, It's nice to drop down from 5th to 4th and give it a poke, get to learn your skill first so you DO NOT hit 2nd, On this board you can read some storys about missing a shift.
Have fun and watch out for the Cop's I read your other post, this is not a car to have sitting in the garage to wax only.
Safe driving and lots of it!

[KFC911]

I cringe when I hear about folks shifting at 3500-4000 rpms in these cars...they are missing out, and the car doesn't particularly like it either imo. I keep my car in the power band (3500-redline) when I'm driving, approaching redline (and occasionally hitting the rev limit) on each and every shift after she's good and warm. In other words, I've got a 22 mile 'back roads commute' to work, and most of the time, I don't get past 3rd gear .

[javadog]

Dorschman,

Let me give you another viewpoint. When the car is cold, you don't want to use as many revs, obviously. Running the engine to 3000 initially, maybe 3500 after a couple minutes and maybe 4000 once you get 120C oil temp. I'd wait till full oil temp is reached before using a lot of revs or throttle.

Once it's warmed up, then what? It depends entirely on what you are doing, or going to do. I'll elaborate. The faster you wish to accelerate, the more you open the throttle and the more revs you use. Sounds obvious, right? What it boils down to is you don't want to use a lot of throttle at low revs or very little throttle at high revs. The former isn't particularily good for an engine, the other is equally pointless. Think of them as going hand in hand, the higher the engine speed, the more throttle you give it. Once you get to a cruising speed, if no further acceleration is likely, shift up to a gear that still feels a little responsive if you increase the throtttle opening. What I mean by this is, if the revs are too low for a particular gear, large changes in throttle position will have little effect on engine power and the car will feel unresponsive to you inputs. Try accelerating from 45 or 50 mph in third, fourth and fifth just to see how each feels. You'll see the difference.

If you are cruising along and anticipate a need to accelerate coming up, drop it down a gear or two, depending on how hard you are going to accelerate. Pretty soon, if you pay attention to what the car is trying to tell you, you'll develop a certain amount of mechanical sympathy and smoothness in your driving.

"Italian tuneups," where you run through the gears to redline periodically to clean the plugs or clean the carbon deposits out of the cylinders is pretty much unnecessary at this point, with modern injection systems and good quality fuels. It's more important to get the engine to full operating temp each time you drive it and to boil off as much condensed water in the engine and exhaust as you can.

Of course, if you want to bang the engine off the rev limiter each and every shift, or howl down the freeway two gears too low, feel free to do so. The rebuilds will just come sooner....

JR

[MOMO3.2]

masraum used a great analogy with the "supermodel" as wife thing--LOL.

In all honesty, I would not be at all interested in driving my 911 if I were deliberately shifting before 4.5k. Otherwise, why even own the car?

Mike

[PorscheGuy79]

I never can understand these shifting questions, to me its like asking how to have sex. Yes there are some guidelines but most of the shifting should be felt, rather than a numerical point. If you feel like the engine is strung out or not feeling as it should, up change. If you feel like the engine is lugging, down change. If you really want to know your car, put it in second gear on a long clean straight and floor it from about 2k up wards and watch how the engine behaves. I know my engine well enough to know that it goes berserk from 5k to 6k. I actually shift before the redline because I can feel that the power isnt as rich as it could be up near there. Every different motor is completely different in how it should be driven, you should learn the pros and cons of each motors rev range.

[Joe Bob]

Originally posted by Pat Crellin
I thought I saw here that the light can not be removed.

Then crush the hell out it.....are ya man or a mouse...

I hate things that tell me what to do.....

[T-Bone911]

After all warmed up, 5,000 "normal" and 6,200 when converting gas into smiles.

[Wayne 962]

It's really funny when I drive someone's car, when they ask me to take a look at it. Most people shift at about 3-4K, and I run the car up to just under redline, almost all the time (only when warm). These cars were meant to be driven - the rev-limiter is there to prevent damage - hitting it will not damage the engine. The looks on these 3-4K shifters is priceless as they think I'm trashing their car. Then I take them for a ride in my '72RS, and then they begin to understand.

-Wayne

[svandamme]

i couldn't possibly not rev the snot out of a Porsche engine
i'm mentally uncapable of doing so, even when warming up , i eyeball the temp gauge like a hawk ... every bit of movement there, means a tiny increase of rev range....

it's not the speed, it's the accelleration, the throttle response and the noise... shifting at anything less then 5000 is such a waste... might as well buy a diesel then...

[danl]

Originally posted by PorscheGuy79
I know my engine well enough to know that it goes berserk from 5k to 6k.

My engine is "on song" 4-6k, I encourage tenative guest drivers to "take a gulp - don't just take a sip!" As Wayne said, "they start to get it" if you show them the way. I like watching the look on a guest driver's face as they start to "get it".... I also enjoy a moment in the passenger seat to concentrate on listening to the engine sound - so sweet!

Always with a warm engine though....

[anthony]

I drive my car near redline when appropriate but it's kind of hard to do around town except for first gear since 6000 rpms in 2nd gear exceeds most city street speed limits.

[ianc]

It's fun to redline the engine and always drive in a higher RPM range than necessary, but wasteful as well. You'll use more fuel, run at hotter temps, and be looking at a rebuild sooner. Is this even debatable? Spinning the engine over faster than it needs to leads to higher operating stresses and consequently a reduced service life. That simple. These engines are built to withstand a lot, but all other things being equal, an engine shifted at 4500 and not abused will outlast an engine that is consistently thrashed to redline for no particular reason. Pay for a rebuild and then decide.

Shift when you no longer need the acceleration of the lower gear, or if you're just having fun, when you notice the engine running out of power. Many people point to HP figures being higher at higher RPM's, but torque figures equate more closely to acceleration, and these are achieved lower down in the RPM band. My SC's max torque occurs before 4500 RPM.

I too wish my CASIS light didn't work.

ianc

[livi]

What Matthew, Stijn and Ian said nicely blended and stirred not shaken..

[jmz]

why bother owning one of these cars if you don't beat the snot out of it?

I don't see the point. Drive a mercedes or something else but not a purpose built sports car.

[livi]

JMZ,

Cause its one of very few cars that does not necessarily have to be spanked hard in order to be fun to drive.

[stlrj]

I'd like to connect the upshift light on my 74 w/86 3.2 just for fun. What do I need?

Cheers,

Joe

[ianc]

I'd like to connect the upshift light on my 74 w/86 3.2 just for fun. What do I need?

Some patience, a small lightbulb, and the willingness to be constantly annoyed.

why bother owning one of these cars if you don't beat the snot out of it?

I don't see the point. Drive a mercedes or something else but not a purpose built sports car.

So the only way you can derive enjoyment from driving your car is beating the crap out of it? Hope you don't feel the same way about your girlfriend\wife?

ianc

[Rot 911]

Do a search on the CASIS light there is a thread on which wire to clip to disconnect it.

As you may have seen from this thread, the 3.2 engine really doesn't come into its power band until you hit 3K rpms. An aftermarket chip will give you more low end torque. I just installed the SW chip and it has done a great deal to improve the low end power range.