it's allright I like abusing my car

I've found recently it corners a lot better and brakes a lot better then I used to risk it

the car in 5th starts at 1,900 rpm (peak torque according to the manufacturer).

max torque is only available when the turbo boost pressure is at its max.

By your theory, because of the torque, you would accelerate faster in 5th.

No! because the torque at the wheels depends on the overall gear ratio.

Torque@wheels in fourth is (4th ratio / 5th ratio) more.....

If you draw the full set of torque curves for all gears on the same graph then the optimum change points are where the curves cross...(slightly higher to allow for a drop in speed when changing)

Get the crayons out techie people!!

I reguarly take mine to 4k rpm (infact every gear on every occassion of every drive bar the first few minutes), today I drove my car slowly in what must be the first time since I bought it, and it was not only slow and boring but it didnt feel right, the car kept juddering and didnt like town driving as if it's so used to going faster that it doesnt respond anymore below 3k rpm - not a joke either. If anything it felt tired.

Have to say though I am a very enthusiastic driver who (and i'll get shot for saying this) always drives around the 80+ mark to silly speeds because I can, and yes it is much much faster when using all of the gear to the full as opposed to just 2-3k rpm for full acceleration, for the number of gear changes you will have to make & the peak bhp is around 3,800 in mine so it likes to be taken to that speed.

I have done a comparison, me and my brother in his cliosport 172 2.0 normally aspirated engine, when we both changed gears around our torque marks (2.2k in mine and 4k in his), I out accelerated his easily - a good ten car lenghts to a 100. When I then did the same but he gave it full beans to 7k rpm his did my car by about 10 lenghts and when we both went full whack we were exactly even to 90 mph when I edged ahead to a top speed of 110 where I was a full car lengh infront, obviously this is slightly biased as mine is remapped but you get the point...

In all honesty most of the time it just depends on how fast you wanna go. Fuel consumption is higher generally speaking when the engine revs more. Not talking about planting it at 1k rpm and expecting movement either, mind

If you wanna go fast you've got to have the turbo on boost. If you drop the revs too much it will need to spin back up again which takes time so it's gonna be slower.

Most of the time I use the gearbox according to what I feel like doing. If I'm stuck on a motorway around the usual speeds I mostly can't be bothered to change from 6th. When it is a lot of accelerate/braking going on, 5th is good for a lot more initial pull.

Staying on boost will definitely make the car respond more quickly to accelerator moves - when I feel like a little fun I make sure it stays 2.5k or higher and pull up to 3.5k..4k (std car).

The non-VRS TDI needed pulling up to at least 4k to continue pulling in the higher gears.

For more laid-back days I just change up pretty quickly and get great mpg, other days I change up later and it pulls like mad

In all honesty most of the time it just depends on how fast you wanna go. Fuel consumption is higher generally speaking when the engine revs more. Not talking about planting it at 1k rpm and expecting movement either' date=' mind

If you wanna go fast you've got to have the turbo on boost. If you drop the revs too much it will need to spin back up again which takes time so it's gonna be slower.

Most of the time I use the gearbox according to what I feel like doing. If I'm stuck on a motorway around the usual speeds I mostly can't be bothered to change from 6th. When it is a lot of accelerate/braking going on, 5th is good for a lot more initial pull.

Staying on boost will definitely make the car respond more quickly to accelerator moves - when I feel like a little fun I make sure it stays 2.5k or higher and pull up to 3.5k..4k (std car).

The non-VRS TDI needed pulling up to at least 4k to continue pulling in the higher gears.

For more laid-back days I just change up pretty quickly and get great mpg, other days I change up later and it pulls like mad [/quote']

What he said...

Does anyone else notice that if you put the pedal straight to the metal that you don't get much oomph, but if you gently 'squeeze' it on you get far more?

And anyone explain why? It's a drive-by-wire after all. I thought that would make up for any lack of finesse on my- I mean the driver's part.

On another note, my mate raced me in his CTR (with tuned exhaust - approx 220BHP) last night. He whipped my **** good and proper of course, but not until we'd hit 80 (he then went past me like I was going backwards) and he said afterwards that I gave him a bit of a shock coming off the roundabout!

Is it remapped right, or was he just in the wrong gear because as I've said a dozen times before prior to my remap my brothers 172 used to go by me at 60 mph like I wasnt moving and I had my boot to the floor.

If you feed it in it gives the turbo a better chance I suppose, I dunno

Was this the thread about the ECU 'learning'? - can't remember, but I think so... Anyway, one other thing I've noticed is that the fuel warning light / buzzer doesn't come on until I only have 50 miles' worth of fuel, instead of the 65 miles' worth that it did before. I usually top up once a week, so I don't off seen the low fuel warning - do you think it's the ECU learning again then?

It is taking your average fuel consumption to work out when to refuel.

If you go out and plant it a lot to get high fuel consumption during that trip you'll find the range remaining drops, similarly if you ease off a lot, say 60 mph 6th gear road, the range remaining will increase.

If you go out and plant it a lot to get high fuel consumption during that trip you'll find the range remaining drops, similarly if you ease off a lot, say 60 mph 6th gear road, the range remaining will increase.

So true - my predicted 65 mile range has been the same for the last 10 miles , although the bizarre thing is the car was far from babied this morning!!!

Chris

When I first picked mine up it was reporting 200 miles to a tank, drove 150 miles and the range just went up all journey, so much so I thought I'd overfilled it and broken the sensors!!

The PD100 may be different' date=' but my car will pull to 4k so if I change there, it will drop down to 2.7 k ish. At this point the turbo is already spinning nicely and the car will simply continue pulling. Changing any earlier means the revs drop to 2k ish so you get a shove in the back from the next gear, but mainly because you've lost momentum and you're relying on the torque to get the car moving, and the turbo spinning again.....

Is this the same on the vRS?

Chris[/quote']

Oh bother. I'm just going to have to go out and try it now.

on the subjects of ecu's "learning" on my old SAAB if you had the battery disconnected for any length of time or you had been doing some tweaking or you felt it was slow, then it required a 30min battery disconnect followed by 3rd gear foot to floor up slight incline 3 times from 1000 revs all the way to 5000 rpm the ecu got the message that "i feel the need, the need for speed ". It stayed like this for some time

If you rag it it seems to drop by a hundred miles, but then the following few trips drive it slowly and it creeps back up to what it started off with, odd :confused:, I had 450 miles in mine yesterday, booted it home and had 370 (25 miles journey), then took it easy today and just parked up and I had 510

on the subjects of ecu's "learning" on my old SAAB if you had the battery disconnected for any length of time or you had been doing some tweaking or you felt it was slow, then it required a 30min battery disconnect followed by 3rd gear foot to floor up slight incline 3 times from 1000 revs all the way to 5000 rpm the ecu got the message that "i feel the need, the need for speed ". It stayed like this for some time

I wonder how many people are going to try this now

If you rag it it seems to drop by a hundred miles, but then the following few trips drive it slowly and it creeps back up to what it started off with, odd :confused:, I had 450 miles in mine yesterday, booted it home and had 370 (25 miles journey), then took it easy today and just parked up and I had 510

the miles left is calculated by the last 200 miles driven in the car

Well thats what I read somewhere in the manual

I'm not too sure about this adaptive ECU theory.

If anything my car seems to go better when i've been taking it easy for a while (say for a few miles on one journey) and then give it a bit of a thrashing.

Yes it responds much better over 2000rpm as i suppose this is when meaningful boost is being given and the turbo is starting to get into its stride. The turbo must be spinning below 2000rpm.

I find that squeezing the accelerator progressively gives better results than flooring it. If you just floor it its like saying to the turbo "give me 1.5 bar and all the fuel you can manage NOW" and it seems to pause for a while while the ECU is trying to deal with your request and work out how much fuel to put in with it. Thats my theory anyway

Progressive definitely works better for mine at the moment

Progressive definitely works better for mine at the moment

That can be a bit annoying when your used to driving normally aspirated cars. Sometimes if I get caught up in a 'race' I can often forget to be progressive, and it does seem worse of it.

It is a bit annoying - compared to my metro which only 'moved' when flat out and revving it's little nutz off

I'm just wondering how the Octy vRS behaves in that regard - I've got a feeling it may be similar but less pronounced as it prefers higher revs I suppose. Perhaps someone with an Octy could sound in on this?

Yes, it's similar - progressive works a lot better. They're both turbos, aren't they?

Was kinda expecting it tbh - that said as the Octy is revving higher up the turbo shouldn't spool down as much I'd have said?

The feathered throttle approach seems to give better results- I had a quick Volvo 440 turbo that had the same effect. I can also rev the Fab quite freely to 4500+ but seems to go better if changing at 4000- my imagination? Another turbo thing is that if you are doing say 40-50 in 4th and change down into third to overtake- while clutch is down, give the throttle a blip (same as if you were heel-toe braking). This not only 'prepares' the ECU for more fuel but also spools the turbo up a bit before putting your foot down again. Takes a few attempts to get it spot on but you'll certainly notice it if you get it right.

Anyone got any more turbo drivng tips or are we overdoing this thread now?