I am still trying to determine the minimum speeds for cruising in 5th and 6th, under conditions of level ground and no need for substantial acceleration, typical of around-town or suburban heavy traffic. I'm not questioning shift points for light, medium or heavy acceleration, but rather the minimum at which you can maintain motion without lugging the engine.
My gut feeling has been to avoid the use of 6th at speeds below 53mph in such conditions, and to avoid the use of 5th below 40. With the wide spectrum of driving habits and opinions available on this forum [yeah, lots of us hold fairly strong opinions], I thought it might be useful to get the collective S2ki opinion on this topic.

 

I find the car is quite happy in 6th gear at a little over 30 mph if I'm in the mood for just cruising, which isn't all that often! The car stiil pulls well, although not with any great acceleration, as long as you don't encounter any uphill inclines. As for whether it would be more fuel efficient in a lower gear, I'm never quite sure. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

 

On a flat surface without acceleration I think you can maintain speed with the engine at 2800 - 3000 without problem. Probably 43-44 for 5th and 51-52 for 6th is as slow as I would go to avoid lugging.

 

I use the gear number *10kmh as the minimum shift position for each gear. This equates to 2000 revs in each gear.

i.e. 2nd =2kmh, 3rd = 30kmh, 4th = 40kmh, 5th = 50kmh, 6th = 60kmh.

60kmh is the Australian round time speed limit in most cities and is equal to 37.5mph. I drive at 60kmh in 6th EVERY day I drive the S2000 - but sometimes faster than that too .

At 2000 revs the motor is not labouring and will pull on level ground - below 2k revs it is a little jerky.

 

In my mind, the only thing you have to worry about is to avoid keeping the engine under 2500 RPM, no matter the speed.

 

I'm not an expert, nor an automotive engineer, but I've had automatic tranmissions that cruise nicely at 1800 RPM controlled by the computer. I'd think that if you don't have to push the accellerator down much to keep your speed on level ground, your saving gas and engine wear by using the higher gears (I've been getting 29+ mpg). Unless I have a need for immediate accelleration, I up shift to keep in 2000-2500 RPM range while driving around town (I know, I'm an old fart). If you need it, it's easy enough to down shift for passing or going up hill. The engine certainly doesn't lug in that range. Of course, I like to hear the "sound" of that engine now and then, and leave the revs in the 3000-4000 range unnecessarily. Take this post with a grain of salt--I just crossed the 600 (604) mile mark, and haven't been over 6500 RPM yet.

 

[QUOTEOriginally posted by QPhox4
I'd think that if you don't have to push the accellerator down much to keep your speed on level ground, your saving gas and engine wear by using the higher gears (I've been getting 29+ mpg). [/B][/QUOTE]

That's my feeling too, not that fuel consumption is something I worry about, I've no iidea what mpg I get! When driving at moderate cruising speeds, I tend to think of 5th and 6th gears as being like the overdive switch which we used to get on 3rd and 4th gears in some cars. Hmmm... I've just thought about how long ago that was!!

 

Mine sounds fine in 6th at 35 mph during testing but I usually slot her into 6th when over 40 when cruising.
One of the things I noticed during the test drive 2 years ago was the impressive amount of overtaking power in 6th - compared to most ordinary cars in 5th its very powerful.