What RPM should I shift at for the 1-2 shift at the drag strip?
From my daily driving experience on the street, it seems like first gear gets up to 18mph@2,000rpm and 20mph@2,200rpm. It seems like 1st gear runs out real fast and going above 2K rpms doesn't seem to go any faster. I never went past 3k rpm in 1st gear so I don't know if it will go any faster in 1st gear.

 

yes it goes faster

 

Bring it to about 300rpms before redline because the tach is a little slow. And yes it will go faster the higher the rpms are in any gear. So if your stock shift when your tach shows 6200 from 1st to 2nd and at just under 6500 in any other gear, i guess at the track you wont get out of third but from 2-3 shift at 6500

Bring it to about 300rpms before redline because the tach is a little slow. And yes it will go faster the higher the rpms are in any gear. So if your stock shift when your tach shows 6200 from 1st to 2nd and at just under 6500 in any other gear, i guess at the track you wont get out of third but from 2-3 shift at 6500

 

Do I have to wait long for the rpms to drop between gear changes? I have not taken the revs to 6K, I would imagine they need to fall down to 4K for the next gear?

 

i wish my car could hit 22000 rpm. but seriously the speedometer is slow.

 

Haha, post fixed.

 

You dont need to let the revs drop. Just grab the next gear right away and put it back to the floor!

 

at the track is a little different than just cruising on the street. the info i gave you applies to normal every day driving, not driving at the track.

 

Track driving isn't about being smooth. Run the car to redline in every gear, but be careful not to hit the rev limiter. When you shift, just complete the shift quickly and deliberately and get right back into the throttle.

 

I posted on the speed vs gearing of a TC when shifting a while back. (https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/general-cobalt-68/smooth-shifting-157260/)

Second gear is roughly half the RPMs of first gear. So if you're going up to 4k in 1st, then you're going to be at about 2k in 2nd after the shift.

Second gear in the TC is interesting in that if you drop the last two zeroes of your RPM, then that's your speed (i.e. 4500RPM... 45MPH).

Taking all this into account, if you take first gear up to say 6k RPM and then shift into second, then you'll be around 3k RPM after the shift, which would be 30MPH.

 

Great info guys. Hopefully the weather is good on Saturday and I go drag racing!

 

Well the morning looked like rain and possibly thunderstorms, then it cleared up and was nice all day. I will have to go another time. I'm working this Saturday, but I will get my racing fix by going karting on Friday.

 

So is staying in third gear a bad thing?

 

If you dont hit the rev limiter then DO NOT shift to 4th. Stay in 3rd as long as possible. Most guys make it through staying in 3rd, I had to grab 4th half the time when I was stock to not hit the rev limiter