Shift at redline or max torque?

[bloodstriker]

Title says it all. (Nothing constructive to say lol)

 

[Spagetti69]

If your engine is hitting the limiter your wasting time.

 

[Exorcet]

Neither.

The goal is to maximize the area under the power curve. Go into the tuning menu, look at the power curve. Find peak power. You should go a little past it to shift.

If the curve is close to symmetric around the peak, you'll want to shift such that you'll be at the same power before and after shift.

If the curve drops quickly after the peak, shift just after you cross the peak.

If the curve is close to flat after the peak, go to redline or maybe rev limiter.

 

[bloodstriker]

👍

Neither.

The goal is to maximize the area under the power curve. Go into the tuning menu, look at the power curve. Find peak power. You should go a little past it to shift.

If the curve is close to symmetric around the peak, you'll want to shift such that you'll be at the same power before and after shift.

If the curve drops quickly after the peak, shift just after you cross the peak.

If the curve is close to flat after the peak, go to redline or maybe rev limiter.

Ok thanks a lot for that. This is why my supercharged Viper ACR has insane acceleration up to around 7000rpm then drops off

 

[sprplay]

There is a good explanation in the old tuning guide from scaff starting page 16:

Tuning guide - part 2

It basicly says: Torque on the tyres count - not engine torque. So shift at max. RPM (exceptions are mentioned in the article).

 

[zedextreme8177]

I only short shift when the Power is Limited, otherwise the acceleration is drastically reduced.

 

[chuyler1]

There is a good explanation in the old tuning guide from scaff starting page 16:

Tuning guide - part 2

It basicly says: Torque on the tyres count - not engine torque. So shift at max. RPM (exceptions are mentioned in the article).

I hadn't read that part of the guide...very interesting. I just wish there was a way to get a more detailed graph of the torque/power curves in the game. The little tiny box doesn't help very much and makes it virtually impossible to run calculations to determine if shifting before, at, or after redline will yield faster acceleration times.

In my personal experiences, most cars just need to be shifted at redline except when the ecu or other mods allow you to shift beyond it. Because of that, I always install the custom transmission and set the top speed based on the track.

Occasionally I find a car that needs to be shifted well before redline (most keicars, and my MR2 supercharger) and for those, I just find a tranny setting that keeps the engine in the lower power band for longer. I'll hit top speed well before redline. If I drop the tranny to hit top speed closer to redline, my actual top speed for that particular track goes down. That's how I know the top end rpms are worthless in that particular car.

 

[Karma Cowboy]

I guess (autodidactically me) it depens on which torque range car you are using. I.e. There is a lot of difference between AUDI RS6 an let´s say NSX-R Prototype.
I would change/shift gears earlier in the AUDI than I would for the NSX-R, because the torque for AUDI is massive across the power band, where as the NSX get´s it´s torque in the high end of the power band.
I hope thsi make any sence

 

[benjoromo]

I just wish there was a way to get a more detailed graph of the torque/power curves in the game. The little tiny box doesn't help very much and makes it virtually impossible to run calculations to determine if shifting before, at, or after redline will yield faster acceleration times.

I thought the same thing. At least on the RPM scale you have two points so you can interpolate in between. On the Power scale you have only one point so you don't know the slope of the power curve. Then, I realized how you can get more data points. You can go into "tuning" and select the power limiter. Limit it to some RPM, making sure that the limiting RPM is significantly different than the max RPM. You can do it for a number of points and get as detailed as you like. If you wanted to go a little hardcore you could even put a ruler up to the RPM scale to better interpolate that value.

 

[Colonel_Loki]

There is a good explanation in the old tuning guide from scaff starting page 16:

Tuning guide - part 2

It basicly says: Torque on the tyres count - not engine torque. So shift at max. RPM (exceptions are mentioned in the article).

Where is this guide located? It is interesting.

 

[Exorcet]

I hadn't read that part of the guide...very interesting. I just wish there was a way to get a more detailed graph of the torque/power curves in the game. The little tiny box doesn't help very much and makes it virtually impossible to run calculations to determine if shifting before, at, or after redline will yield faster acceleration times.

See GT1. The one and only tuner focused gear ratio screen in all of the GT series. You got to see the MPH and RPM in each and every gear, and all of it was superimposed on the power curve.

PD's thought process is full of the oddest decisions, like leaving such an obvious feature, that they already had, out of the later games.

 

[f_399]

on the curve, shift around max tq or max hp?

max tq is usually way before redline as oppose to max hp

 

[oppositelock]

Scaff's guide is correct, there's no way to properly calculate shift points without taking a dyno printout in, say, 100 rpm increments as well as individual transmission ratios and doing the math. So when in doubt, shift at redline. On a car like the R33 GT-R LM road car that has a redline 2000-3000 rpm past the power peak you're pretty much left guessing.

 

[sprplay]

Where is this guide located? It is interesting.

It' here on gtplanet.

Just follow the link in my post or find it in the sticky thread in the tuning subforum.

 

[niky]

Torque peak is relatively meaningless for racing... because torque peak in 2nd gear will not accelerate as hard as hp peak in first... usually... unless you're driving an odd diesel.

Only experimentation (I suggest "ghost-racing" yourself on track) will tell you what shift points are best for specific cars in specific corners. In some corners, I deliberately short shift to maximize traction on cars with too much power...

 

[bloodstriker]

shifting during a corner? Doesn't that slow you down considerably?

 

[niky]

Basically, you want your gearbox set so that you don't have to shift in a corner, but on some tracks, there will still be one corner where you might need to shift right after the apex.

 

[cleanLX]

Scaff's guide is correct, there's no way to properly calculate shift points without taking a dyno printout in, say, 100 rpm increments as well as individual transmission ratios and doing the math. So when in doubt, shift at redline.

^^this.
Which is why so many of us begged to have the fully adjustable transmission completed in an update.

 

[GTP_roadrunner]

I always shift based on my feelings
They mostly tell me "wait, wait, wait...shift".

 

[GTP_roadrunner]

Basically, you want your gearbox set so that you don't have to shift in a corner, but on some tracks, there will still be one corner where you might need to shift right after the apex.

I think you might wanna specificate in exactly what kind of corners you advise shifting. Besides maybe sometimes in highspeed or mid-speed turns, shifting in slower corners is not the way to go round a course faster...