On 31/03/2016 16:59, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Clive George wrote:
On 31/03/2016 15:39, bert wrote:

I did a little test with my Defender which has max torque at about
2000 rpm and max power at about 3500 rpm. Going up the gears and
accelerating as fast as I could I never got anywhere near max power in
any gear before I could feel the acceleration dropping off.

But did changing to a higher gear result in faster acceleration?

Only an idiot would think it would.

I agree. So to make the car go the fastest, even though you can feel the
acceleration dropping off, it's still worth staying in the lower gear
past peak power. Ie aiming for peak power where possible, same as I've
been saying for quite a long time.

Unless you were way beyond the peak
BHP in the low gear. Which few engines would allow anyway.

Does it come as surprise to you that changing up results in less torque at
the rear wheels? And it's the maximum torque which produces the best
acceleration. ;-)

Funnily enough I've been arguing that for quite a long time...