truman911

I have a 09 six speed. At what rpm should I shift to maximize acceleration? I heard 5th and 6th are kinda overdrive gears.

therealhitman

In the C6 I try to shift at 6000 rpm regardless of traffic control or weather conditions. The exception is school zones where, of course, in the name of safety I shift at 5800.

winters97gt

500rpm past your peak hp is usually a good starting point, then you can see if you need to go up or down a bit depending ET's and trap speeds.

dvilin

FloydSummerOf68

LTC Z06

Red line.

texas_c6

BlueFizzy

It has a rev limiter, so just bang it off the limiter on every shift! Seriously, I usually shift somewhere between 2k and 3k in normal driving.

BillH2121

Thank god, a voice of reason - and the spirit of "safety first" is always appreciated. Indeed, some crazies insist on shifting at 6500 at all times.

GotChrist?

inthehunt2

I have done studies that show that the optimal shift point for the LS3 is between 6300 and 6500 depending on the gear you're in at the time.

Note that it is best to shift past the peak HP so that you maximize power delivery to the road surface both before and after the shift. If anyone is interested in my calculations, I will be happy to post.

gene0809

shift when you see god's eye's

sjohnson2615

The red zone on your tach is the performance zone,that is why it is red.
Always keep it in that red area if you want the max BANG for you horsepower buck.

BSE1956

I want my click back.....

marc2005c6

i shift at under 1500 rpm, i love bogging and going nowhere

Na seriously, on chilled out driving, under 3k..... for attempting to go fast. just around 6k

C7-Beast

I shift when the sound is right. I rarely ever look down when I'm on my car hard. I did look down the first few hard launches and just know the sound now. I was thinking of installing a shift light but I have yet to hit the limiter and I know I'm typically above 6k when "on" my car.

I guess my one big issue is that I'm so used to the sound of the Corvette engine that when I'm driving my Mustang hard I bang the limiter all the time.

inthehunt2

OK - Here's the info I mentioned earlier.

Disclaimer:

1 - I got the HP numbers from an SAE graph. I had to draw horizontal and vertical lines on the graph and "guess-ta-mate" the horsepower curve by reading values from the grid. Not all that accurate but good enough for this study.

2 - I did not perform a continuous integration. Instead I did a piece-wise summation for sake of simplicity.

3 - Each summation covers a span of 200 RPM (kind of coarse).

Now a description of the insert below...

The left part of the insert is the gear ratio of the '08 A6 transmission.

Next to the right of that is the HP table for the LS3 engine as advertised.

Next to the right is the graph of the HP curve

All the way to the right is the summation I performed on the HP and gear ration tables. The "Power #" is the average HP available over the RPM band covered during one gear based on the spread of HP assuming the shift point chosen in RPM in the middle column ("Shift Start"). The higher the "Power #", the more tractive power delivered to the road surface during that span of RPM right after the shift up to the next shift.

Note that for a 1-2 shift and traveling through 2nd gear, the optimal Power # is 386, and this occurs if you shift at 6500. The areas below the 1st gear shift table is the 2nd gear shift table and is read the same way. Note that for a 2-3 shift and traveling through 3rd gear, the optimal optimal Power # is 399, and this occurs if you shift at 6500.

The rest of the tables below are read the same way.

I hope this crude little study of mine helps. And yes, I know it's crude. I didn't want to write a piece of code to get a ton of details when a "quickie" in Excel would get me close enough to know when to shift with my A6 in paddle mode.



Comments are welcome.

jimmy p

engineer by any chance?

inthehunt2

Used to be! Check my profile LOL!

OregonC6

You shift it when it feels like it needs to be shifted. Now, that's coming from someone who will turn 60 this fall and got his first 4 speed 68 Camaro at age 18. You can study hp and torque graphs if you wish and if you understand em. Or....you can shift when the power flattens out.

You have to "feel" this. If you are looking for an RPM at which to shift and then are going to try to watch the tach and shift when you hit that RPM then you don't "get it" and you "won't get it" by doing it this way.

You can feel the cam/engine come to life with more power at a certain point.....you then ride that power curve until you sense by sound, feel, and vibration of the car that the curve has flattened out...in other words you may be increasing rpms but are not doing so as rapidly as before....that's when you power shift the thing.

That is, if you know what power shifting is. I would not recommend you try that until you have a well developed sense of what your engine is doing.

The tach is a decoration in my 05. This is why I have never understood the value of the HUD except as a speed monitor. I don't need to know what the tach says my RPM is....I know the gear I'm in, my hand is on the shifter, and from experience I can sense where I am in that gear. It's all automatic , so to speak, and that is precisely what is best about it.

In my opinion you should cut out a piece of paper and tape it over your tach. Learn to drive the car, whether you are driving it fast or slow, by sound and feel......

be careful, have fun, and become one with the car........