I was reading through the posts concerning the Sportshift. I completely understand how to use it properly but I only see its usefulness in one situation. If you want to hold a lower gear while going through some twisties. Otherwise, I feel the automatic shifts quicker and smoother!
For instance, I was cruising at around 65 MPH and decided to pass someone quickly. All I did was floor the gas and it did an automatic double downshift into 3'rd gear instantly. I'm pretty sure if I moved it into SS and then flicked it down twice, it would have been a less responsive manouver. Does anyone else agree or have I not mastered the art of sportshifting?
How about when accelerating quickly from a stop (drag racing). Would the SS maximize the performance?

 

I also found that the tranny shifts alot smoother in D5. And I do agree that SS is used mainly for holding a gear 'til redline.

For highway cruising, I would leave the gear in D5 instead of SS...

Andy Kuo

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'92 Mercedes-Benz 400SE
Pearl Grey/Black

'02 Acura TL-S
Satin Silver/Ebony

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

 

I agree. I find that it is hard to beat the automatic in shifting up through the gears once it learns your driving style. By that I mean that you take it up through the gears floored a few times. If you drive conservatively most of the time and then try to accelerate rapidly it will shift early. It would be nice to have a switch that would put it in the max acceleration mode.

I use SS for down shifting and holding a specific gear in curves. With front wheel drive you can throw the tail out a little by momentarily letting off the gas at the begining of a curve to give a little oversteer and then getting hard on the gas. This does not work in auto mode.

 

Holding gear is cool!! TLS is easier to reproduce lift-off oversteer than I expected. I can't imagine how some ppl judge a car to be handler or not by it's drive-wheel configuration. In the old days, RWD would be the way to go for performance, but now aday, car designs are so advance, that the gap between FWD and RWD has been narrowed down significantly....heck, even new BMW M5 has the tendency of under-steer..

Andy Kuo

------------------
'92 Mercedes-Benz 400SE
Pearl Grey/Black

'02 Acura TL-S
Satin Silver/Ebony

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

 

What does it mean to understeer or oversteer sand how can use the SS in this regard?

 

Understeer means that the car wants to go more straight in a turn and you have to apply more steering to make it turn. This is also called push and you want a little push because it is easier to control. Oversteer means your car wants to turn more than the steering input and the back end wants to break loose and cause you to spin out of the curve tail first. In racing this is referred to as loose. Neutral is the fine line between the two. It might sound ideal to be neutral at first but then you don't know which way the car will break loose and could lead to an accident. Race cars are set up with a little push but as the tires wear and the fuel load changes they change. Too much push and tire wear increases and the car becomes slower. Too much towards loose and the car becomes very difficult to drive. This is when you see a race car suddenly go into the wall back end first. With too much push then car won't make the turn and go into the wall front end first.

Front wheel drive cars tend to understeer a little too much in fast corners. That is why setting the car up for a turn with a little oversteer attitude helps. The idea in any turn is to exit at the fastest speed. You don't want to feather the thottle thru the turn but rather brake hard going in and then apply as much throttle as you can thru the turn. In racing you would apply maximum brake going into the turn but for normal driving a little lift of the gas pedal will help alot. In ice racing you set the car up somewhat sideways before the turn (like oversteer) and go thru the turn with the front wheels pointing out. This also is true of dirt track racing.

 

I've found the other use for it
I turn my car into a fuel miser on city roads I lift off easy and try to make sure the revs never go above 2500rpm. not something to do if you're impatient. but its pretty nice if you're just cruising along. I know for sure this works because, I've seen my car hold fourth gear beyond 40 with light driving. SS lets me push it over to 5th and drop the revs below 1500.

 

"The idea in any turn is to exit at the fastest speed. You don't want to feather the thottle thru the turn but rather brake hard going in and then apply as much throttle as you can thru the turn".

Sosetting up for a turn, I would use the SS to downshift giving me some engine braking going into the tunr and as I speed up upshift coming out at maximum speed?

 

I use SS a little differently. If I am in fairly heavy traffic (not bumper to bumper) I find that I do a lot of passing and lane changes to find the lane that is flowing. SS is great for this, because I can hold it in 3rd gear where the car responds instantly to the throttle. When I go to pass and the opening is a little tight, I can easily execute the pass because the car accelerates instantly. If I had to wait that extra 1/2 second for the transmission to downshift, it would be much more difficult to work my way through traffic.

 

Raptor-

There is a demo of VSA in action with understeer/oversteer at:
http://www.acura.com/model_types/tec...ec_vsa_top.asp

click on 'VSA demo'

It doesn't tell you how to use SS with it, but it is the 'visual' version of Ed K's explanation...

 

Raptor-

You down shift before the turn but lift off the throttle when you are just into the turn so the weight shifts forward. This lightens the grip on the rear and it will step out a bit. It works because you are getting engine braking on the front wheels. As soon as this happens get back on the gas. This takes less than a second. Try it and see if you feel the difference. The car should plow less and track through the turn better. The power on the front wheels pull you through the turn.

 

ed k,
thanks for a very ENLIGHTENING explanation. I must admit that I was confuse also about Understeer and Oversteer.

 

Exactly...

 

I don't think our cars will oversteer, being so nose heavy. But we can mess around with the anti-sway bars and tire pressures to make the car more prone to oversteer.

 

Excellent!

 

I think the "oversteer" we referred to for our TLS would be some lift-off "oversteer" that make the car corners more toward neutral than under-steer...

Andy Kuo

------------------
'92 Mercedes-Benz 400SE
Pearl Grey/Black

'02 Acura TL-S
Satin Silver/Ebony

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

 

I wanted to put this discussion to a reality test today, and as I cruised along and approached my right turn, I made sure no heavy traffic was around (gotta be P.C.) and dropped into 2nd -- I slowed to 40 mph and probably took the sharp right turn at 35 mph or so -- midway into the turn I dug into the pavement w/ a hard throttle and noticeably felt the understeer. If we had a sport emergency brake, I bet you could -- w/ some practice -- pull up hard on the rear wheels and let the back out a little, and then gas it out of the turn. Nevertheless, I remember taking hard turns like that w/ my rear-wheel drive C280, and there is no comparison between RWD and FWD (ding ding!! congrats on the new observation!! I know I know... we all knew that) .. but hey, the TL-S isn't THAT bad.

 

We should petition Acura for a test TL-S to settle this at a drag strip. If they lend us a car, we could make several timed runs to determine which mode has the lowest times, SS or Auto. This would be good for brand loyalty. The more people relegated into TL-S rear-view mirrors, the more cars they sell. ;-)

Regards
-w