What model and year are you driving?

Cheers

 

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that, see if it makes a difference.

Cheers

 

Hi,

I get where you're coming from. However, I'm not actually trying to push past peak power or to the absolute rev limit of the engine. I'm actually happy to have a fairly reasonable redline because I'm not trying to squeeze the absolute maximum out of the engine like I'm in a race. The problem is not the actual redline, it's the automatic upshift near redline that I have an issue with, because I can't rely on the consist throttle response and effect on the balance of the car in the corner - basically I'm not thinking about anything apart from the accelerator and brake pedals and the steering wheel input. When the car suddenly changes gear in the middle of a corner or in the middle of a series of corners, I'm forced out of the zone of enjoying the car's balance and I now have to either force the car back into 2nd gear or re-evaluate how to handle the car in 3rd gear now. Basically I don't have control over the car.

Even in a racetrack situation, let's says in a quick series of back-to-back corners, peak power is not what keeps a driver in the same gear at or near the redline, it's actually because all the driver wants to do is focus on where to place the car using the throttle and steering, keeping the car balanced and moving smoothly through the corners - pausing to change gear will upset the balance of he car and take brain power from the quickest line through, so actually would cost more time than simply staying in one gear and focussing on the cleanest line through those corners. And sometimes you want to drop from up high in one gear, right into the power band in the next gear, which may require higher revs in the previous gear to "fall back" into the right rev band in the next gear. So sometimes having a redline higher than peak power is useful.

I hope I'm making sense.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised - the 3.5 itself has hardly changed in 15 years!

 

There is something to be said for "area under the curve" - the idea being to keep the car in the peak of its powerband for the longest time possible. So, even if you make slightly less horsepower at 7000 RPM compared to 6600, you are still taking advantage of the gearing in your current gear, not to mention being at a higher RPM, closer to peak power, in the next gear.

I believe this is part of the reason why Lexus made 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear so close together on the 8-speed auto.

None of this applies if you are just driving "normally" though.

 

Yes I understand. I have been it dyno session with both bikes and cars, where the objective was to find the powerband and shift points that keep the car/bike in the most optimal range for exactly what you are saying. In some cases we even installed shift lights to know when that light hit, shift to aid in better than watching a tach. The optimal shift points were needed for closed course tracks and drag straight line 1/8 and 1/4 tracks.

In these cases each time we were even a nana second because it all it takes delayed or got out of that peak power band by over peaking, you also cause it to drop out rmp's back into a non optimal shifting range also. if you shifted at peak, it dropped back to drive back to peak no loss power. If shifted over you dropped back to continued over shifts that resulted in loss performance in speed and time. This was also impacted by your own personal delayed reaction time to shift with a Clutch or a Auto Manuel shift. Now if you changed Cams and were making more breathing power beyond redline that a different story. I hope I explained this correctly to be understood.

If the point was the delay of the auto Trans map, then I understand. A good ECU Tune can get rid of and change that very easy. You can also pull the Trans fuse and or reset by disconnecting the battery and see if the Trans ECU relearns itself if you drive it aggressively and it will maybe remap some. But for sure there are ppl who want to just let the car over rev to 7500rpm+ cause they think they are making more power and it feels good.

Why I have my 2013 GS350 with the 6 speed auto still!

 

Yes I understand. I was just covering a bigger aspect of shifting past reline as mentioned.

 

2015 is 250 non f sport. i know that say i'm driving 30-40mph, it won't down shift to gear 1-2.. but if i leave it in those gears and go all the way to the rev limiter, it won't shift 100%. you're putting your car in manual mode right? like moving the shifter to the + / - side, right?

 

Even with traction control on? That seems odd. My IS 300 AWD would always upshift at about 100 RPM less than redline unless I had TC off.

 

I've never turned off traction control, maybe I'm not taking it all the way to the rev limit? I can make sure again today. I remember I was at a stop and forgot I was in manual mode and had my foot on the gas (thinking it would shift) and it was just revving like crazy and didn't upshift on it's own until I did it.

 

Apologize, the car does actually upshift on it's own, I've never taken it to the rev limiter.

 

Try setting up a Custom driving mode. You can make it so the engine is in Sport but the suspension is normal. Then just hit one button to activate

 

But why would you turn off traction control? Does it feel better driving when you turn it off?

And i tried to turn it off but for some reason the light wouldnt show up. I then held onto the button a bit longer and both traction and some other abbreviated thing would show up and light up constantly. Like nothing else would show, it will always come up with those warnings and you cant change it to another view setting and have it stay on that view, just goes back to the Traction being off. Is this normal?

 

Sometimes the traction control on the IS is too aggressive and cuts power at the slightest hint of wheel-spin. It can be frustrating in some scenarios. What's unfortunate is that there's no apparent Sport setting for TC, which would make things safer while still allowing for some fun. So, your options are to leave it fully on in the name of safety or fully off in the name of fun.

If you come to a complete stop and disable traction control fully (i.e., hold the button down for 3 seconds), it will constantly remind you that TC is turned off. If you have pre-collision assist, I think that will also go away. Maybe that's the abbreviated thing you mentioned. So yes, it is normal.