I like to punch the gass on on-ramps for fun, I'm not sure how exactly I'm supposed to draw the most power out of the TSX when accelerating with the 6mt. Do you wind it up past 7000 rpm for each gear or just some of the gears? Do you put the pedal to the floor and leave it there or do you use different amounts of gas at different phases?

Supposing you do wind it up to the red line, what's the best way to get up that close to the cut off point without stairing intently at the tac to make sure you don't actualy hit it?

It's also complicated by the VTEC kick-in at 6000 rpms, only 1000 rpms shy of red line, and the rate of increase suddenly jumps so you're out of head room in the blink of an eye, and you only end up using the VTEC for a tiny part of the acceleration, unless I'm doing something wrong, which I hope I am at this point.

 

Sounds like you need hondata!

 

Just let it bounce off the fuel cutoff


Just kidding of course. I'm sure after some practice, you'll be able to identify the pitch of sound that the engine is making close to redline. Then you won't have to stare at the tach to shift and actually look at the road in front of you.

 

I love to do that too and usually taking it to red through 3rd is plenty. Knowing that sometimes fuel-air velocity is maximized with a partially-open throttle position, I've wondered too if DBW accounts for that and optimizes the butterfly valve position appropriately. Hope so...?

I agree that it takes some practice. Sounds like you're doing it right, though. The first time I tried I was in a 60mph curve and wasn't paying enough attention to the tach and bounced it off about 7400 before the shift. Admittedly the engine can handle that with ease, since Hondata bumps the red to 7600, but I still felt like a tool, the car had about 1200 miles at the time so I still felt like I should be somewhat gentle...

Hondata is the answer, I just don't have a spare $600 for it now...

 

Ya there isn't even a 2007 TSX Hondata out yet, so I have some time to save. I'm not the modding type but the Hondata strikes me as fixing something which is broken rather than improving on something which is already good enough.

 

+100 Yes, should have come that way from the factory. Probably a emissions or mpg issue, since from what I've read it seems to slightly increase the first and decrease the second...

Sorry, forgot '07s don't have it! Hope they make it for you!

 

You're right that the VTEC range is annoyingly small. If you turn down the radio ;-) , you can kinda tell by the sound when you've got it wound up, as mentioned. If you want maximum power, you should shift it pretty high. I find that I usually don't need maximum power, but it can be fun to run it through the gears. You do risk hitting the rev limiter; I do that on very rare occasions. It seems more "gentle" on the TSX than on my old Prelude -- possibly another benefit of DBW? :-)

Anyway, seems to me that you shouldn't bother with Hondata unless you're in the habit of running it wide open to redline and that still isn't good enough. I mean, might as well make use of what you have, first....

 

That's why I haven't gotten it yet. My commute doesn't take me on the freeways, and I don't have enough time to get to vtec in-between traffic lights. The last time my car went into VTEC was the last time I went on the freeway, which was ages ago.

 

 

Junichiro Koizumi, drifting?!

 

 

Another benefit of the DBW? I'm still trying to figure out the first one.

Hondata is nice if only because the revs won't drop below the iVtec point (5K) when shifting near redline. Obviously you wouldn't be doing this all the time, but it's a nice feature to have when you do need it.

 

^^And you don't need to wind the engine out to enjoy the benefits of Hondata. It's nice around town, too. Nice midrange boost.

 

If Hondata improves mid RPM performance then I would apreciate that also. In general it sounds like a finely tuned engine with more even performance.

The explanation that the VTEC kick-in is at 6000 rpm for fuel economy seems unlikely, because if you're trying to save fuel then you barely aproach 4000 rpm, let alone 5000 or 6000.

The explanation that they put a torque hole just so you feel the VTEC kick in seems unlikely because of the resulting small VTEC window is unimpressive in itself. The salesman must be like "There! Did you feel that? No?...it's easy to miss"

 

Hondata +1