Quote:
Originally Posted by Halm
When a long time enthusiast is lectured about what gear to drive in, IMHO it is time to shut down the thread.
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Hey, it's never too late to learn to drive!
I rode with a fellow Pelican once in his 911 and he was driving down a city street @ 5k rpm. It was quite strange. Someone must have told him to "keep the revs up" at some point and he did not really understand why or why not so he just failed to upshift. Ever.
Even if you are driving a 1958 4-cam Carrera that fouls plugs on the street, there is no power or performance available if you are winding the piss out of it at a steady speed. It's called a power
band for a reason. you need to be at the bottom of the band to use it. And this was in a 3.0 CIS car; a low-compression, low powered car with nothing in the upper register to speak of. An engine no more fussy or peaky/cammy than a Mercedes or BMW sedan engine. Sorry. There would have been a lot more torque available driving around @ 2500 rpm and punching it. Once again, there is little or no torque available when you are already at or near the top of the power band.
Even if you're driving a Honda S-2000 or some car with no bottom end, it does not make sense to drive down a freeway in a low gear. It just wastes fuel that could be used to have fun or go somewhere. It takes 2 seconds to downshift, and that's if you're really slow. Any 911 from the early '70s-on has plenty of torque down low and not that much up top, with a few exceptions. (Turbos and variocam cars improved the top range).
