Over "water cooler talk" I'm trying to explain to this guy (a 93 Integra owner) about how different s2000's are to drive due to VTEC as compared to other 2 seaters.

I told him that "we s2000 owners" normally drive in lower gears and REV the engine higher. That's just how it is. So other cars that would normally be in 3rd or 4th gear, at times we are still in 2nd and 3rd.

For whatever reason, he could not understand why I was in 2nd most of the time and barely hit 3rd in city traffic. On the highways (freeways for those) I sometimes don't change to 6th, so I can enjoy the "hornet's nest sound " of 5th gear :-)

He decided to say, "why buy a car if you have to rev it so hard , all the time" GRRRrrr ( in my mind) and then simply said "I give up ! "

so what else can I tell this guy who for whatever reason does not understand the concept of VTEC ?


sj2000

 

The only point of VTEC is when you need the power.... If you are leaving your car in 5th gear while just 'cruising' on the highway (I.E. not passing quickly), then you are just wasting gas and spinning your engine unnecessarily.

I rarely find a *REAL* need to go over 4500-5000rpm when driving my S to/from work each day.

 

Just take him for a ride!!! That's do it unless he's dead.

__________________________________
2003 Red/Black

 

Tell him he doesn't understand and walk away.

 

What Rickycrx said. The way to explain to someone the benefits of VTEC is to explain that essentially we've got two different engines in our car - the nice Civic type engine for day to day cruising, and when we need it the equivalent of a race engine by revving over 6k. I like to explain to people how I get 25 MPG on the street and 7-8 at the track

 

It's all a patter of perspective. *All* cars need to "rev" to drive. A car w/o revs doesn't move Revving "high/hard" is relative. I could equally complain to someone "why do you rev so low all the time"? I actually had that experience once in someone's huge pickup, that redlined at 3k. It idled at something like 300rpm, and he never took it much past 1800rpm!

My style of driving rarely takes it past 5k unless I need the power, or feel like VTECing Since my S is a daily driver, that happens all to infrequently these days

 

Ask him if he's ever ridden a motorcycle. My CBR600 bogs below 5000 RPM and normal 'cruising' RPM is about 7500.

 

When I was learning to drive stick, the guy who was teaching me told me a good rule of thumb is to shift around 1800 rpm's and bring it up to 3k if I need the power...

 

rickycrx - I have to disagree with your point about spinning my engine unecessarily. I don't want to start a thread war, but I never tell anyone how to "drive their car".. I'll always offer suggestions. nuff said..

Unless someone shows me "significant degradation and damage, then I will believe it. Heck, one of our moderators (mindcore) even enjoys doing this as he once told me way back when. I think many s2k members highway or freeway drive for "blocks at a time" in 5th as opposed to 6th. But that is just my observation and assumption of course.

I had a chance to speak with one of our local car reviewers from a tv show, ( Graeme Fletcher ) and he told me our cars are made to to live at higher rpm's and what I was doing was fine ?

Doing around 100-110 KPH per hour in 5th gear is somewhere in the 5000 rpm (and Im being generous with that figure I assume ? ) which to my knowledge is fine ?

I'm sure more of the technically minded s2000 owners might have something to say about this as well.

But for my daily driver I still enjoy keeps the revs high. I ususally shift around 4000-5000K and like to sit cruising just below 4000 or more in city driving.

IMO low rev's defeats the purpose of this vehicle ?

I dunno ? I simply enjoy hearing such a beautiful engine winding regularly :-) ?

just my $.02 of whatever
sj2000

 

For me its forth gear on the hi-way 6k gets you 80mph and unbelievable punch not to mention a great sound.

I love the sound, feel and performance of the S2000 when it revs high...