Anyone else ever make the shift from 2nd gear directly to 5th gear?

Sometimes, I just hammer round the on-ramp in 2nd, then shift to 5th once on the main road/highway. I'm basically already at highway speed [maximum in 2nd gear on a 2005 MCS is about 100 kph (63 mph), I think.]

Okay, I admit, this shifting method first happened when I missed 3rd and put it in 5th by mistake! Probably, not classic technique, but going through 2nd, 3rd, 4th, then 5th takes me way over the posted speed limits. :smile:

 

Not 2 - 5. 2 - 4 yes. 3 - 6 yes.

Not an issue. Shouldnt hurt anything. If your up to speed, ur up to speed

 

I do that all the time - in exactly the same situation as you....merging into a freeway/highway...

 

I have a MC.

I always shift from 3rd to 5th. In third, I'm going 110kph (68mph) at around 5k RPMs.

Thats at the bottom of most off ramps, or when getting up to speed on the highway.

 

Same, I have a Cooper, and I shift from 2->5 every now and then. If I max out in 2nd gear its at about 88km/h (53mph?), and the freeways inside the city have 80km/h limit, so I shift to 5th.

As long as you wait a bit longer for the engine to rev down to 5th gear speed before you let the clutch in, you'll do no harm.

 

Yeah, definitely make sure you let the the engine spin down or your syncro's are gonna to be hurting.

When testing out a theory of 1k rpm between each gear on my friends MR2, we ran it up to 7k rpm redline in 1st and then shifted into 5th at 2k. Not that I recommend that sort of shift pattern

 

I sorta understand that...but "spin down" to what rpm?

Presumably when someone racing a MCS shifts from 4th to 5th gear they could be moving at close to 170 kph, at over 6K rpm. What rpm would they let the engine drop to before engaging 5th (hypothetical question only...they may not care about clutch longevity if racing and are probably shifting as fast and smoothly as possible! :smile: )?

 

"Spin down" to what it will cruise at in the higher gear.

I let the revs drop to 3000rpm when I shift from 3-5, droping down from 5000 rpm.

 

Don't have my MCS yet, just learned to drive a stick, sooo my question is:

how long does it take for that spin-down to occur? You've got one eye on the road and one on the tach? Or are you playing it by ear?

 

Mostly by ear, or a qiuck glance at the tach.

It does not take so long that I lose much speed, maybe a mile an hour.

 

Lets say, for example, you shift from 2nd to 5th at 60 mph.

2nd gear you revved the car up to 6000rpm (made up)
At 60 mph in 5th gear, your car will cruise at 3000 rpm (made up)

so when you shift, clutch in, gear lever move to 5th gear slot, before you let the clutch engage, let the engine rev down to about 3000rpm.

This way there is minimal drivetrain shock and wear on your syncros

 

i find myself slowing down while i shift 3-4-5 to 50mph.

 

Guys the only time to be concerned with matching engine speed with drive wheels is when you are down shifting, on the up shift as long as you are not speed shifting the time it takes to go from one gear to the next the engine will drop at least 2K rpm if not more. Remember on down shifts the wheels speeds will be much higher than the engine speed so the engine becomes a brake hence the reason for the blip to increase the engine speed to wheel speed for the new lower gear, one never worry about this on the up shift no matter what gear being selected.

 

I go traditional 2-3-4-5-6, merge the traffic from the ramp as fast as I can, always faster than the vehicles on the highway, trying to figure out how I am gonna find my way to the left lane quickest. It is fun....

 

There is nothing wrong with skipping gears. It is all a matter of what RPM you are shifting out of and how you treat the car. If you skip at lower RPM, you will notice it. You could actually go from 2 right to 6 if you really have that lead foot. I did a 3 to 6 entering the expressway on the testdrive..

When I took an MCS out for a test ride, I wasn't used to the short throw of the shifter. After a while It dawned on me that I was driving it as a 4-spd totally skipping 3 - 4. Car seemed to handle fine. but I did start to use all 6 gears after I noticed what I was doing.
I also didn't remove all the pressure on the gas pedal so the RPM would be pretty close to what it would end up once in gear to help eliminate the initial compression jerk I'm not too keen on all the time. Yeah.. it was the first time really driving around in a manual aside from a short test ride in my bro's WRX and that was a lot easier to drive than the old '94 Escort I tried to learn on about 8 years ago or more.

Anyhoo, I was impressed on how easily the MCS drove around and can hardly wait till the end of the month when the car will hopefully be delivered.