[lars_cockswell]

Well, this is new for me anyhow.

I was at a local rally last month and ran into a guy who prep'd a bunch of STi's for the local media evals before they were available to the general public. He prep'd and maintained 22 STi's so I was really eager to hear his impression of the car both on the road and on the tracks he arranged to have them at (Mosport and Mt. Tremblant - both in Canada).

Anyway, one of the neatest things he told me was about how some automotive jouralists don't know too much about driving standard tranmission cars and he had to teach a few of them how to wind there way through the gears. He told me that they were instructed to adopt two modes of shifting. 1-3-5 for spirited driving and 2-4-6 for relaxed driving.

I have not done too much with the 1-3-5 but I have used the 2-4-6 granny-mode shifting for when the wife is in the car and it makes a huge difference in the back-seat driving department. I start in 2nd, wind it out to only about 4.5k-5k RPM and then a quick shift into 4th, and repeat into 6th. She no longer complains that my driving is "throwing her head back and forth" during acceleration. I find the STi has more and enough torque for 2nd gear starts and it's a very relaxed way to drive - the shift from 2nd to 4th takes only a slight flick of the wrist.

I'm pretty sure this is not hurting the car - can anyone confirm this?

Lars

 

[darwood]

Actually I started 1-3-5 shifting the day I got the car. I got tired of shifting every 5 seconds during break-in. I wonder what a 1-3 instead of a 1-2-3 shift does to 0-60 times.

With 6 gears so close together, it's not a bad idea to skip gears... kinda like driving a Mountain Bike.

 

[slashSTI]

You have to be slightly careful when skipping gears because it is more stressful on the clutch to bring a higher gear up to speed. Same with starting from 2nd gear since it's harder for the clutch to transfer engine torque to the larger gear - notice you need to slip the clutch more when not starting in 1st

 

[CloNeGTS]

As long as the revs are matched to the ground speed, there shouldn't be any ill effects from skipping gears.

It's a good idea....

 

[RiX]

Agree with Rob... if you rev high enough to match the rev range of the gear after the next one, there should be no ill effect -- in fact, this could be just as smooth.

But, you know, I bought this car because I love changing gears... and driving spiritedly. 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-3-4-5... :-D Heheh.

Why skip gears when you can enjoy every one of 'em? (but then, I think I should try 2-4-6 and see if my g/f likes it any better..!)

-Rich

 

[CloNeGTS]

I admit, most times I go thru all the gears. But on those mornings when the alarm seems to go off too early, you're just not in the mood to 'drive spiritedly'.

 

[MKIVSupra]

I have also heard of starting in second gear in the snow or on ice. Otherwise it's all gears all the time for me.

 

[mx_9]

I have also heard of starting in second gear in the snow or on ice. Otherwise it's all gears all the time for me.

The 'winter' option on my Volvo starts the transmission out in 3rd gear....(automatic tranny, of course).

 

[BlackLight]

3 questions come to mind:

I would think that you will have a tough time spraying the car behind with slush if you start in 2nd. Doesn't that remove one of the reasons for owning a 4/AWD and driving it in the winter?

How does the clutch bring the gears up to speed when changing gears ?

What do you mean "up to speed" ?

 

[turbs]

Sometimes what I do heading out to a highway from a stop light is do 1-2-4-6. There's all kinds of combinations, practice and soon you'll be comfortable with a certain pattern. It also helps a bit with the gas mileage.

 

[MKIVSupra]

I would think that you will have a tough time spraying the car behind with slush if you start in 2nd. Doesn't that remove one of the reasons for owning a 4/AWD and driving it in the winter?

What? To spray the cars behind me with slush? :-? Yeah that is my reason for owning an AWD vehicle.

Unless you meant with 4/AWD you don't really have to start in second gear, then I agree. I just used the starting in second gear as the only time I ever heard of a reason for skipping gears.

 

[Sha_zapple]

I have also heard of starting in second gear in the snow or on ice. Otherwise it's all gears all the time for me.

The 'winter' option on my Volvo starts the transmission out in 3rd gear....(automatic tranny, of course).

3rd?! thats kindof high of a gear, considering it porbably has only 4 gears.

 

[AussieBorn]

What's slush??????? :lol:

sorry....I'm in SoCal

Back to the subject at hand..........I'm still havin' fun stirrin' the pot(all 6)

so for now....................

 

[BHODGES3]

Got mine in Silver Spring, MD

Heh, this reminds me of when I first drove my car. I didn't know about the lock out ring for shifting into reverse so I was actually in 6th. And the thing still started crawling forward, slowly but surely, from a full stop in SIXTH gear.

 

[Yukonart]

Many Volvos have 5-speed auto trannies. . .

That's cool that it'll start in 3rd when it's slick out. . . less spinning of the tires.

 

[mx_9]

Well, you have to select the W on the console. It doesn't detect the conditions. It is a nice feature, though, and does drastically cut down on wheel slip.

 

[STiObserver]

I call this short shifting. As far as i was concerned it doesn't hurt anything... as long as you match revs.

I have a 5-spd and use 2-4 for city driving if I'm on my cell phone at the same time.

I know, I'm that jerk that always complains about bad driving and there I go talking on my cell while driving a stick-shift...