when i'm just driving normal around town i try to shift under 4K rpm, just to conserve whatever i can as far as gas. every so often i do play around, but normal daily driving is somewhere between 3 and 4K rpm. one other question, is it bad if say you shift from 3rd to 5th or 2nd to 4th!?! sorry this is my first manual transmission so i'm still learning

 

no it's not bad. I shift at around 5k, sometimes i'll cruise around 7k on the freeway for fun though

 

I keep reading here that by staying under 3750 we will save fuel, as that is the RPM where more ports/injectors will open. Yet I don't feel any sudden power surge at that RPM. And it really seems that under 3000 when accelerating or climbing steep hills would be lugging, or otherwise stressing the engine. So to answer your question, I typically upshift between 3500 and 4500 if just cruising, and anywhere between 5000 and 6500 under brisk acceleration. Occasionally 6000 to 7500 for *****-out freeway merging or just being impressive. But then what do I know? -- I am new to the car and to this forum.

 

wow cruizing at 7K.... im sure you can hear the gas being sucked in massive amounts into the engine? hehe

The only time I "cruise" at 6000 or 7000 RPMs is when im "playing" with another car on the road. You know when you want that shot of power while you are doing 80 already in 4th

 

I'm still breaking in the car, so most my shifts are around 3000 to 4000 rpms. Once my break-in period is over, id like to rev and shift higher.

 

i shift at the beep

 

What she said ^^^^^^^^

 

I shift at 4k.

 

i try to shift around 2.5-3k...

but now i'm back at school so no car. spring break, anytime pal.

 

I try to shift between 3k and 3.5k, but at times I have to get up to 4k.

9k on weekends though.

 

I don't pay attention to the tach....I shift when it feels like it's time to shift. Once you and your car have truly meshed, it's more about feel than instruments.

 

I pay more attention to the tach when I am down-shifting while slowing down, as opposed to up shifting while accelerating.

 

 

I shift 1st and 2nd 5k to 8500k if I can (no traffic) then go to 5th or 6th since I,m at cruising speed then. of course in traffic I use all the gears and shift closer to 5k. I live in a rural area and get 20 - 23 MPG. I only floor it when passing, otherwise about half throttle and let it rev, I guesstimate that I get about 85% of the available power at 50% throttle, try it and see what you think. Seems like the cold weather has cut MPG to about 20MPG I was usually getting 22 in the summer.

 

*beep* shift *beeb* shift

I thought this was the standard shift technique for all rotary cars.

 

I shift when I remember to.

There was this one time when I was playing around with my sounds and bumping it real loud and I forgot that I was in 1st. Heard the beep, looked down and I was redlining it. LOL. Couldn't even hear the engine over the sounds.

 

I shift fairly early now. I have to drive 200 miles a day to work and I need all the fuel I can get. I keep the RPMS between 2500 and 3k around town. I try not to go over 3k unless I need to. On the freeway, in 6th, I don't have a choice but to over 3k. I average 21.5 mpg going to work. About 75% of it is freeway driving.

 

Saving fuel is a good thing. I can afford the gas although I feel like wasting it is irresponsible.

BUT . . . I will ask this again. Isn't heavy acceleration and/or pulling hard (say up a steep grade) below 3000 RPM hard on the engine? Isn't there a rotary equivalent of "lugging" it?

 

That's me, too. I do it by feel, and sound. My first stick automobile didn't even HAVE a tach, I had to learn to shift based on the sound of the engine (ironically, my last automatic DID have a tach. Go figure).

 

I paid a driving school for a lesson on a stick for a refresher in driving one before my car gets here. Some comment or another was made about the tach (the car I was driving didn't have one) and he made a really dumb comment. "I did't know cars came with those unless you bought, like, a race car or something." And this is the man that teaches people how to drive!!!!

 

I typically don't pay a lot of attention to the tach but around 4,000 is probably where I shift.

I do however like to take it up to 8-9,000 at least once a day. Gotta prevent carbon build up, you know

 

if you want to save gas then yes shift at 3k-3.5 k and if your on SAFE roads [not wet ]turning off the TC&DSC will help you save gas.but if you want to have fun shift at the beep.

 

has this claim been debunked yet? i don't see that, in everyday normal driving, TC and DSC would even engage.

 

The RX-8 was designed to have a pretty linear power band so there's really no hard power surges anywhere. However I can definitely hear when the S-DAIS opens up at 4000 RPMs and I can still feel a bit of a surge come on from that point onward. For the best acceleration you don't want to shift at anything less than 6000 RPMs. Anything below that and the RPMs will drop below 4000 after shifting and the S-DAIS will need to reopen again.