Small displacement turbo = turbo lag.

Despite being smaller, less inertia, efficient turbo in modern engine, the lag is still there.
If you driven old school turbo, that is serious even more lag.

As Jason from Engineering Explained said - "Don't lug your engine."

Be it Turbo or NA.

Paddle shift is there for a reason. Downshift 2 gears, before you go.

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Dec 13 2023, 11:17 AM

Think of regular guy cruising at steady speed in overdrive. Then simply lug the engine to overtake.

versus another person who downshift to optimal gear before the action.

I'm sure you know the difference.

Braking and corner are usually fine. Car already downshift during corner entrance, plus we don't one shot floor to bottom on corner exit.

Of course certain corner, like should I use 2nd gear or 3rd gear situation, human make better judgement. On high torque, high power car, sometimes short shift 2nd gear, get to 3rd gear early on corner exit is faster especially on slippery road.

I have driven 2.5L, 3.0L NA with 200-250hp
*Unfortunately no luxury to experience 4.0L+ yet

I have driven old school 2.0T with big turbo lag

I have driven modern small (also tiny) displacement turbo

I have driven modern small displacement turbo with electric assist

I know how big difference of new/old tech. Driven them in dynamic situations well enough to know when the lag is barely noticeable, and when the weakness is amplified with lag at its worst.

Btw my small = including 2.0T.

Smarter, yes totally with you.

I think I said this before.
Modern transmission with fancy 8->2 direct shift is designed exactly for regular driver that trying to lug the engine.

Just I'm not the fans of dependent on step on accelerator then TCU downshift behavior.

It mess with the enter corner rhythm. Yes, new smarter AI downshift upon braking. Just still not all modern cars do that.

Question is how many gear to downshift?

Like Elantra Sport most of the time 4->3 upon braking. In slow speed hairpin, 2 vs 3 situations. Sometime I manual downshift additionally to 2, sometimes I don't, it depends.

On the case when 2 is needed, if I don't help the AI. It would be brake TCU 4->3, past Apex and during the exit TCU 3->2. Not smooth.

Then the Volvo with Polestar Engineered tune shifting is just awesome and spot on in almost all situations. But then the Sport mode (Actually named Polestar Engineered mode in car) is un-drive-able on normal road without manually short shift.

Guess no perfect world. Or BMW way with multitier Sport, Sport Plus.

Engine braking and my brain process corner speed with gear number and rpm (sound) rather than speed itself.

Sometime I take short glance at speed, but just look. Action still driven by gear number, rpm (and others).

Give my CVT also I rather sequentially shift.
Being said that, I only driven EV in city and wild wild west freeway. Not sure what to take on the sense of speed on winding road yet.

BTW, at high speed eg:. 200km/h corner proceeding from a even higher speed straight, I have totally no clue how to handle those.
I think I will freak out when I finally make the green hell visit. For sure hire an instructor, lol.

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Dec 14 2023, 10:45 PM

Sepang has places with low speed corner, follow by a long high speed sweep bend that one can accelerate to 200+ in the bend given a powerful car. Or long straight goes brake into a hair pin, with others mid speed 100+ corners.

Nordschleife is a bit different from usual GP track. It got a few long straight that goes into 5th-6th gear, some powerful car can reach top speed, then proceeding by a quick high speed turn. Some places 2 consecutive bends that treated a single long sweep, again after the long straight.

One example is after Aremberg, flat out down downhill Foxhole, Adenauer forest through few chicanes. Then a left bend uphill (slight lift off for high power road car, flat out for race car and low power car), followed by another quick left turn around 200 (some brake, maybe downshift to 5, make sure smooth and don't lock the rear wheel).




2nd example is after Pflanzgarten jump then right turn, left bend, then off you go, I remember the corners, but just don't know how to describe them. You can search yourself.
3rd example is Kesselchen the famous hillclimb section, 3 left bends flat out, a right bend flat out, then the interesting part is near the top with non flat out quick left turn at around 200 (maybe downshift to 5 depends on car), follow by a quick right turn flat out. **Then slow down to a sub 100 mid/slow speed turn, before entering the banked Carousel everyone seen on video.

Tourist usually take those bends at slower 160'ish, leaving more margin on the table. Still plenty fast.

Yes, Karak highway and also somewhere near Ipoh area. But not going for that on public road. Despite I'm not a good speed obey boy, still refrain from taking bends at those speed on public road.