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what does it mean to "drive your car hard"?

bondboy

Senior member
I try to stay at or under 3000 rpm on local, but the the freeways, I usually do 80 mph... or over 80 which revs at around 3500 rpm. Is that considered driving your car hard??

Btw, I own a 96 civic. So is that too hard for a car that old?
 
No - driving it hard would be doing clutch dumps at every stop light. If that's all you do, you're babying it 🙂
 
My definition of driving hard would be alot of fast acceleration coupled with alot of heavy braking and throwing your car around turns.
 
Yeah, heavy foot, using the powerband (which you definitely are not), etc. My Accord sees 7000 rpm about everytime I drive it. That's driving it hard.

EDIT: Left out hard braking and hard cornering (like right turn at an intersection at 25mph).
 
Hard? Heh...

I almost always shift at or above 4000rpm in my MR2 -- and it's 10 years older than your Civic. 😛
 
Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
My definition of driving hard would be alot of fast acceleration coupled with alot of heavy braking and throwing your car around turns.

lots of burnouts and power sliding as well
 
I just can't see how you can drive a civic like that. Its gutless to begin with and you're driving it like a grandma.
 
Originally posted by: bondboy
Well, I still seem to be passing people a lot. Go figure...

LOL, yeah well. It really makes baby Jesus cry when I see an old grandpa driving an E55 like, well, a grandpa.
 
Originally posted by: bondboy
I try to stay at or under 3000 rpm on local, but the the freeways, I usually do 80 mph... or over 80 which revs at around 3500 rpm. Is that considered driving your car hard??

Btw, I own a 96 civic. So is that too hard for a car that old?

I hate people that take an hour to get up to speed or grandma their cars on the acceleration lane...

3000 RPM? What's the redline 6000? You drive like a pink taco 🙁
 
Are you asking in regards to maintenance? Because if you are, the answer is yes.

If you drive the car outside in weather... that includes good weather, bad weather, cold, hot, anything... if you actually step on the gas pedal to make the car accelerate from a stop, even if you don't rev it past 2k rpm. If your car sees any "city" driving at all and your transmission (which I'm guessing is a slushbox) is subjected to engine heat you'll need to follow manufacturer's recommendations for "heavy use."

So pretty much everyone falls under heavy use.

But you definitely baby the car... I've been driving my beater daily since my regular car went down, it seems my foot is welded to the floor and it still feels like it's constipated... going from 400bhp down to 140bhp... yay.
 
Most of the time I revv under 3.5K before shifting up. The odd occassion I'll feel like driving like an ass and revv the damn thing all the way up and take high speed turns. The need 4 speed 🙂

Fast acceleration. Clutch dumps. Hard braking. Fast hard turns. That's what comes to mind when you say driving it hard. Also, not changing fluids at proper intervals.
 
just dont push it over 4500 too often. I think high RPMs are less harmful on the freeway than the city.
 
head on up here to Colorado and try passing people doing 80 on passes at 10,000 feet with a 6-8% grade. thats driving your car hard i would think 🙂

oh, and thats 2 lane road.. make sure you dont get into a head-on with on coming traffic. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: GZDynastar
head on up here to Colorado and try passing people doing 80 on passes at 10,000 feet with a 6-8% grade. thats driving your car hard i would think 🙂

oh, and thats 2 lane road.. make sure you dont get into a head-on with on coming traffic. 🙂

Turbochargers are key.
 
Driving your car 'Hard" usually means running a lot of stop and go miles under adverse conditions like extreme heat, engine oil/coolant neglect, low tire pressure, etc. sure,it can mean funning it at high rpm's , but ive always run mine at high rpm's and its almost a clssic(16 yers old, with 165,000 miles and it runs like new- so its more of an adverse condition thing i think
 
Driving the way I do in NFSU2 (using walls to help you turn, not shifting out of 1st because I'm picking my nose, etc :laugh: )
 
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