I'm a relatively new MINI owner (July07) and I'm sorry if this has been answered elsewhere ... but I couldn't find it. Is there a chart anywhere that shows recommended low and high speeds of each of the 5 forward gears of a standard (non-S) MINI? I know there is a red-line on the tach ... I've just never taken any gear near it! Is 5th gear designed as a highway over-drive type gear or do you all use it at city speeds? Thanks for your answers to these rather basic questions!!!

 

I don't know of any chart. Most people use the tach to decide when to shift. I have a 6 speed. I use 1-4 in town, and 5 and 6 on the highway.

 

in general, downshift when your RPMs go down to about 1200 or so, and upshift whenever you want up to and including the fuel cut off!

Matt

 

There's no one right answer. If you're trying to maximize fuel economy, you obviously want to keep engine speed lower, but it depends on how much load you have on the engine (are you accelerating, going uphill, etc.) If you want to have fun, take it to redline! I think most people who have driven a stick for any period of time, mostly drive by feel- I know I do. When I shift depends on a lot of factors, so you can't boil it into a defined shift point or range for each gear.

 

Thanks everyone! I totally understand the whole "by feel" concept of shifting and I have no problems with that. I was just curious to discover the top speeds of the various gears.

 

I have an MC and try to keep my shifts just below the 6000 mark. Above that you just get much out of it any way. Never really paid much attention to actual speed but I can tell you that to get to 60mph, is still in 3rd gear.

 

Your going to find that a MC really starts to "pull" at around 4500 rpm, unless you have mods done to it like a different air intake, mine starts to "pull" at around 3500 rpm

As to the redline, there is a fuel cut off, my MC hits this, Or "Bounces" at about 7000rpm. This stops you from overreving the engine, but will not stop it from over reving if you downshift to soon.

A couple of years ago we had a MPG challenge here on NAM, lasted a week, so most of us were shortshifting, between 2500-3500 rpm, we all got better mpg, but it was the longest week in the history of MINIdom

Mark

 

You can make your own chart/table. All you need is tire revs per mile. Available from Tire Rack for your tires. Total transmission ratios for each gear. This will give you engine revs at 60 mph for each gear. From this point you can derive all the information you inquired about.