What should be the ideal number of revs on a car untill you change gear?

Question

Iv got a iat Grande Punto 1.2 Active (07) and i look after it as its a nice car. just out of curiosity, when you come out of first gear then second then third and so on, what should the rev counter show? My counter goes up to 7 (7000) revs and i try not to rev it much past 2500 revs befroe changing geear as i am frightend of wreking it but as it is i dont seem to get alot of performance out of it when doing this. There is no red line on the counter so i dont know what not to go past but without wrecking the car what can i safley go to before changing gear?
O and by the way if this helps, when i am in 5th gear and im doing 40mph the rev counter is on 2000 and if im on 60 its on 4000, but if im on a motorway and im doing 80 it would go to 5/6 is this too high, should i reduce my speed??

Answer 1

As a rule of thumb I would go to two thirds of the way to the red line before changing gear for normal performance. That would be just over 4800 rpm for you if the red line is 7000. Shift shorter if you do not need the performance though.

If it is properly maintained and not old and worn your engine is perfectly safe to take up to 7000 red line if you want to. There is a safety margin above that as well.

A 1.2 is not really meant for lots of motorway work but doing 80 as you describe is not a problem.

Fiat engines tend to like being reved to get the best out of them I have found but in general use the least revs and so the highest gear that gives you the performance you want.

Answer 2

Drive by feel, not by numbers. If your engine is under a load, you can rev it a lot higher than you could out of gear. When you start to loose power, or feel the engines power peak, shift gears. Most newer cars have a built in rev limiter. The rev limiter doesn't work when down shifting.

Answer 3

First, doing 80 the car needs to be at 5000-6000rpm to create enough power to move the vehicle that fast.



You will never get a "sporty" performance out of your car, it has only 1.2L of displacement and has just north of 100HP.



As far as what RPM to shift at its your decision, but for best fuel economy you want to keep the revs at whatever speed the engine produces peak torque as this is when the engine is most efficient.



Finally, you wont ruin your car by over-revving it. It has a built in rev limiter and it will not allow the engine to rev beyond a certain point.

Answer 4

Your engine is electronically rev limited, so you won't over rev it.

It's a small petrol engine, so it won't produce much power until high up in the rev range - as you've found out, below 2,500 rpm it'll be very gutless.

It's very low geared, so it revs quite highly for a given road speed, but it won't be harmed by any amount of motorway driving.

Answer 5

There is usually a Red Line at the Maximum Revs on the dial.



Does yours not have that??

Answer 6

you ought to continuously substitute before 3k RPM, yet in actuality in case you are able to substitute kit decrease than 2k you will save on gas. bear in mind, it is not in simple terms the kit changing that's significant, however the rev count extensive style you carry as you're making use of. attempt to upward push as much as 5th (or 6th even) as quickly as achievable and bear in mind that decrease than-inflated tyres and holding the accelerator good down will make a contribution to unfavourable economic gadget.

Answer 7

First gear up to 10 mph

Second gear up to 20mph

Third gear up to 30mph

Fourth gear from 30 to 40

Fifth gear from 40 upwards

As mentioned elsewhere your engine has a rev limiter. You can cane the living cr.p out of it to get going quicker but whats the point if you really want to look after it?

Answer 8

I find the most economical way to save money / fuel and for the best performance, it's best to change gear around the 1500 - 2000 mark. But obviously this varies depending whether you're travelling up hill.

Hope this helps

xx



m

Answer 9

i change gear every 10mph and it works pretty well in my car, gotta say though, at 60mph in fifth you should be on around 3000 revs and at 80 mph no more than about 4000. my mini revs at 3000 at 70mph and at 2500 at 60mph but i have six gears

Answer 10

For best economy, you should shift as soon as possible and keep RPM's down.