osokuko

"S" mode is better than I thought. On the way down to San Diego on the I-5 freeway yesterday I decided I wanted to use the S mode and the heck with the MPG stuff. Let’s see what this baby can do. I set the S mode to 6th gear and left it there. Now here in kalifornia we have a long open stretch of freeway between San Clemently and Ocean Side that most driver travel at 70 to near 80-85 mph and even at that speed you may get passed up. Back to S mode, the first time I passed some slow cars I gave it the gas and S mode down shifted for me to some gear then gain speed. Ok. The next couple times I gave more gas and again the same. Ok. Then the trans did some what felt like it was choosing other gears it was learning, now when I started to punch it hard I noticed the trans was down shifting two gears than one more down shift to the max power band and shifted gears at red line, I felt the rush of VVT-I cams coming on and were getting some serious “Getty up and go” with some real G’s pulling you into the seat. Almost like the IS350, Wow this thing is fast! I’ve used the S mode before to shift gears but never had this kind of power on the top end before. Anyway I was wondering if anyone else has had a driving experience like this while driving and leaving the tranny in S mode.

onsknht

Congrats on finding the power and enjoying it, it is single handedly the most exhilirating experience I had with the car... I'll get to some tips later, for now.

Putting the lever in S and gear 6 is the same as leaving the lever in Drive...

The basic and primary operation of the transmission S-mode is to limit gearing to a selected gear, in this case 1 through 6... Think about this a momment, in a 4-speed automatic there was P, R, N, D, L and sometimes L1 or similar. This was to operate 4 gears now there's 2 more!

S-mode allows you to elegantly select among 6 gears... That's it, otherwise it would be called "sport" or some other "performance" oriented name.

I was dumbfounded, on Toyota's website they actually have an interactive flash deal where you shift the car at about 4700 rpm and try to get the best 0-60 time... What a crock, even in the game the car hesitated shifting, if you want to shift at 5000 rpm on a launch, you need to do it at 4000 rpm!!! It's that late, really.

Anyway... Some hints on shifting, getting the most power etc... Your car makes peak torque at 4700 RPM after that your into the valve change and torque is on the rebound, however you're making more horsepower. Which is a crock because HP isn't the answer... TORQUE IS the 254lb-ft of torque @ 4700 rpm in your car would feel the same in another car making 254lb-ft of torque @ 2000 rpm... To think of it another way, torque is what you feel and is what gets you to a certain speed, horspower determines how fast the work will actually get done and this is all related to gearing. To get to the bottom line, you will feel the most power in your car at 4700 rpm, I'm not certain of exactly when the valves switch over but it's probably around 3700 would be my guess.

So if you use S-mode, try and shift the car as closely to 4700 rpm as possible and keep it near there if you're really getting into it and may need quick bursts of power.

IMO - the execution of the S-mode on the 3.5 was a failure, it was better to let the automatic do it's job... It does work better on my new car, but it's far from some of the newer systems like the VW DG system.

osokuko

Ons - Oh yes I know what your talking about when shifting say down to 4th and hitting the gas then at 5.5K next gear and so on, that’s the way I always used it. But this time I left it in 6th and let the trans pick the gears in responds to how much I used the throttle. In the S mode the trans is more sensitive to down shifting to a lower gear with a little more throttle use. More so than auto would offer. Our 02 Mit.GTZ if you stomped on it would rev up to I think 4K than engage and you were off like a sling shot. It just seems that S mode is more performance orientated like the GTZ. If I drive on the city streets say 40 and I push a little more throttle is drops down to 5th more throttle drop down to 4th stomp on it and look out it’s like a sling shots with the drivers side wheel tire wanting to left up ward and the car gets a little squirrelly.

dunnojack

i've always been afraid to uses s mode because i thought i'd break it.

so you can leave your foot on the gas while shifting?

i remember in my old ancient 4speed car, i'd shift while stopped only.

chuckb

I used S mode a lot and very aggressively in my recent loaner. I liked it and the trans never missed a beat. It is good at burping the throttle when you downshift to keep things smooth too.

osokuko

Well you got me on this one, what is "burping the throttle" to keep things smooth. Would that be like feathering the throttle probably not.

chuckb

I don't know how the car does it, but if you downshift without your foot on the gas, the car doesn't decelerate like you would think it would if you just downshifted. as if it smooths the downshift by raising the rpms a little while downshifting.

osokuko

With all the performance available with the S mode and 272 hp there must be a limit to the stress the front wheel drive trans (it’s a small package) can take. Just how much can they take before they break?

Pheonix

Torque does not equate to any relevant accelleration information. Torque is a static measurement.
Horsepower is a function of torque applied over both time & distance.
You want to spend the maximum amount of time in your maximum average horsepower out (which on most engines, will be a balance below & above peak horsepower) to get the minimum time-to-accelleration.

Gemmie abit I'll run it through some simulation software & tell you the 'correct" shifting points.

Pheonix

That being done...
Because of the nature of the horespower curve. (Agressively higher without trailing off until well passed the marked redline.) The simulations I just ran says:

• 1-2 6950rpm
• 2-3 6950rpm
• 3-4 6950rpm
• 4-5 6950rpm
• 5-6 6880rpm

So... For maximum accelleration, you really want to shift somewhere passed the 6,400rpm redline. LMAO!

Remember guys. You want the maximum AVERAGE horsepower. Always.

Nextourer

As much grip as the tyres have