Advantages of 6 speed over 5 speed...?

[psteng19]

Excuse the newbie question on a manaul tranny, but since i don't drive manaul, i don't know.
so all these new cars nowadays come in 6 gear manaul (Celica GTS, RSX Type-S, SE-R Spec V)

what's going to be the difference between them and their 5 speed counterparts? is it going to get faster acceleration? better fuel economy? etc...

if you bring up gear ratios, which i have a feeling that might be the case, i'll just get totally lost...

(just trying to decide if the spec V is worth the extra $1000 over the SE-R besides the HLSD and other options... and yes, I am going to try to learn how to drive manual before i buy one)

 

[RedRooster]

With a 6, your ratios can be closer, so the engine is always up in it's sweet spot.
Plus, 6th can be heavy overdrive, very nice for highway cruising.

 

[RambleOn]

It's mostly for fuel economy. In fact, in 6th gear your acceleration will be pretty lousy, even if you have a fast car. In order to get some speed you'll need to be in 5th, even 4th. So essentially 6th gear is for cruising at 65+mph

 

[atom]

I guess the simplest way to think of it without getting into technical terms would be that each gear has an optimal speed range at which it is used for a given engine. With more gears you have better optimization.

IE lets say for some car a gear works best at 30-90 mph. Thats a 60 mph range for it to operate in. It would be hard to make the gear equally efficient in that entire speed range. Now split that gear into two gears, optimizing one gear to accelerate in the 30-60 range and the other gear optimized to accelerate in the 60-90 range. Now for the gears, you only have to optimize for a range of 30 mph instead of 60 mph.

 

[LAUST]

You just have to make sure the Axel ratio is matched for the gearbox also.

In drag racing the Auto's in the C5 vette's is Much better not only cause Auto's shift far superior but also you shift too much with that 6 speed, but that is reversed when it comes to a road coarse, thats when the 6 speed will dominate.

Remember there is ALWAYS a pay-off in whatever you do, my blower is a Twin screw desighn so I get Killer low-end boost off idle, a Centrifical has zero boost at idle, but mine also has a stopping point I can only get tops 9lbs of boost outta my blower and it's a big boy, while a centrifical can go much higher and be easily intercooled.

 

[CraigRT]

I want a 6 speed for highway driving.. my car revs at 3,500+ at highway speeds in 5th and that SUCKS!

So next time you pull up beside a 2001 Neon R/T at the light and lose... u know why.. CLOSE GEARS. it accelerates like a wh0re but u pay for it by revving like a wh0re on the highway too.

baaaahhhhh!

 

[CocaCola5]

If the car can't make top speed in the 6th gear then you know it was made for fuel economy efficiency, if it makes top speed near the redline in 6th gear then you know it was geared for acceleration and performance. A 6spd is nice but don't expect it to necessarily make the car higher performance, it all depends on the design requirement of that car, in other words you have to look at each car specifically.

 

[thedarkwolf]

"I want a 6 speed for highway driving.. my car revs at 3,500+ at highway speeds in 5th and that SUCKS!"

I dought a 6 speed would have made any difference. 5th is normally right around .70:1 in 5 speeds and so is 6ths in most 6 speeds unless you get some wierd setup where 5th is overdrive and 6th is super overdrive. I guess with an extra gear they could change the final drive ratio a little without hurting acceleration and that would help a little.

 

[LAUST]

<< "I want a 6 speed for highway driving.. my car revs at 3,500+ at highway speeds in 5th and that SUCKS!"

I dought a 6 speed would have made any difference. 5th is normally right around .70:1 in 5 speeds and so is 6ths in most 6 speeds unless you get some wierd setup where 5th is overdrive and 6th is super overdrive. I guess with an extra gear they could change the final drive ratio a little without hurting acceleration and that would help a little. >>


Yep, it might not help like he said, time to find out what gear ratio you have in the rear end and if your tranny's 5th gear is a OD.... Heck I have a 4 speed Automatic with 4.10 gears and I only sit at 2400RPM @ 80MPH

 

While were on the subject, how do gear ratios work?
I have never understood that.

 

[kag]

btw, BMW M5's 5th gear top speed is 157 mph, and 6th gear is also 157 mph

 

[kag]

sammyson:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/gear.htm

 

[fastz28]

<< "I want a 6 speed for highway driving.. my car revs at 3,500+ at highway speeds in 5th and that SUCKS!"

I dought a 6 speed would have made any difference. 5th is normally right around .70:1 in 5 speeds and so is 6ths in most 6 speeds unless you get some wierd setup where 5th is overdrive and 6th is super overdrive. I guess with an extra gear they could change the final drive ratio a little without hurting acceleration and that would help a little. >>



My car has .5:1 for 6th gear. 2000rpm at 80mph, perfect for highway cruising.

How about 28mpg for a 350+hp car, not bad huh?