General Driving - Speed and Gears
 

Not quite sure what I'm asking here - I guess I'm mainly just curious to find out what gears people tend to 'hold' in when driving around at fixed speeds?

For example, when doing 30MPH through a village, I generally tend to be in 3rd gear, however when I get the the edge of the village (national speed limit marker) and want to accelerate hard (without dropping down to 2nd) it takes a while to build any boost due to the low(ish) revs. However, if I'd been holding it in 2nd at 30MPH through the village, it feels like I'm revving the car just that bit too high for the speed I'm doing - Does that make sense?

Same with a 60MPH zone - I tend to be in 5th, but again it's (just) off-boost and I need to drop it to 4th or 3rd to get that 'shove'. I do sometime hold it in 4th at 60MPH, but again, for 'regular' driving it sounds like I've 'forgotten' to change up to 5th.

I realise gearbox and final drive ratios all make a difference here. I'm basing my experience on a UK Classic, so it will be at lower revs than a JDM Classic for the equivalent gear/speed, and I'm assuming that later models all have different gearing ratios too.

What do other Scooby owners tend to do?

I'm not one for thrashing around, especially in slower speed-zones. But usually, 30mph is 3rd gear, 40mph is 4th maybe 5th whilst anything above 50 is definitely 5th gear. You can get away with 30moh in 4th but the delay in boost is awful. Car in question is a UK Turbo 2000.

I have a classic RA and a blob JDM - both of which can comfortably cruise at 30 in 5th without major lag issues when accelerating to higher speeds.

A few years ago I attended a speed awareness course where advice was given when driving in urban areas to use a gear lower than the car is technically capable of. For example, in a 30 zone although the car might be capable of 30 in 4th or 5th, use 3rd or 4th as you are more likely to let the speed creep up if you're in a higher gear.

Just remembered about this section in my owners manual:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...f10f90a6be.jpg

Doesn't look like they advise staying in 4th for very long!

Yep, pick the appropriate gear for the speed, depending on ratios I try to keep below 3k when pootling but above 2k.

I don't know why you would try accelerate out of a 30, In 3rd or higher, don't be scared of droppingg it a few and giving it death. If you have lag, you are in the wrong gear ;)

Usually because I've got some Audi/BMW/<other german euro-box> sitting inches off my back bumper because I'm sticking to the speed limits!

30-60MPH is quite good fun for a bit of 'foot-down' boost. Surely I can't be the only one who enjoys the acceleration? :confused:

Haha, try read the rest of that post :P

"I don't know why you would try accelerate out of a 30, In 3rd or higher, don't be scared of droppingg it a few and giving it death. If you have lag, you are in the wrong gear ;)"

Its all about the acceleration, just drop it a couple and give it death.... No lag then!

Ahhh - sorry - I misinterpreted your post. Gotcha! :-)