Re: Shift patterns

[Iain Mannix <mannix@privateI.com>]

At 1:41 AM -0500 12/14/1997, Kevin McGrath wrote:
>Smokinn wrote:
>
>> I agree with Paul, not unless you have to money to afford the wear and tear
>> that "redline" causes to your engine.
>>
>
>I usually keep quiet, but I have to disagree. Whats the point of having a
>scirocco if you drive it like a Ford Escort? and I'm not talking about a
>cosworth Escort (just to cover the how many list members does it take to
>change
>a lightbulb clause)

I agree, in a sense.  Someone else posted that they liked 4k for shifting,
which does not seem wrong to me - for me, however, I shift either at about
2500 or 56-5800, depending.  Unless I need maximum acceleration, I drive it
slowly.  If I need to get out of the way/into traffic, I am pretty
aggressive, as long as the oil is warm.  I believe that warm oil is the key
- if the oil is not warm, don't floor it, ever.  I don't.  Beyond that,
however, the "wear and tear" is to me insignificant - if the oil is warm,
it does not seem to drastically shorten the engine's life to be
redlined/close to it on occasion - driving around town in second at 6000rpm
for extended periods will do more damage than good, but accelerating using
the engine's powerband is seemingly pretty harmless, IMHO.  My car has lots
of miles, and sees lots of autocross and track use.  I drove it really
aggressively for the two years I owned it prior to solo(which has slowed me
down a LOT on the street).  Randy Walters has 200+ on his DSP GTI, and I am
sure it sees lots of high rpm use.  Wenzez' Scirocco has a used JH engine
in it - who knows how many miles - and it does not complain when he drives
it aggressively.  They don't seem to mind, and it seems that cars driven
passively get a bit clogged - fuel, exhaust, who knows.  When I bought this
GTI, I was driving it home - floored it once warm, and it coughed and
sputtered above 4k for a second, then cleared out and has been fine since.
The previous owner was proud that he never revved above 3500.  Great:).  I
thought I had bought a heap of crap at first - on the test drive, he asked
me not to rev it "that high" - I believe him, he was really into the GTI,
but more of a neurotic cleaner than enthusiast.  Anyhow, I don't think that
redlining it is _bad_, but if you don't need to, I guess there's no point.
I'd bet that's what everyone else was trying to say:).

As far as the numbers for optimum shift points go that Shawn posted,
they're probably spot on for optimal acceleration - a friend figured mine
out based on the dyno graph, and Shawn told me what his computer said -
almost exactly the same numbers.  Shifting at redline is not always the
best for performance - the curve starts to fall somewhere, and if you shift
way down the back of the curve, your rpms might be beyond the horsepower
peak when you get into the next gear - that's what was happening with mine
when I shifted (8v) at 6200 - I was constantly on the downside of the
curve, whereas shifting lower puts me just below the power peak, spending
more time in the good part of the powerband.  It is nice to have a power
peak below redline, though, so if you are approaching a corner, you have
some revs to avoid shifting with - mine will often see 6500+ in cases like
this, where there's not enough room to go up a gear(to go right back down,
unsettling me and the car), so I can rev it out a bit.  Anyhow, warm oil
warm oil warm oil, and I think the engine will last plenty long:).


I.Mannix(cold oil is bad.....)


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