ROSSC

My old man reacons im going to wreck the engine because i drive it fast. (genraly not above 5000rpm in any gear).
Obiously i dont want to wreck the engine, whats your idea of taking it easy and thrashing your car

Rich D

iTrader: (12)

Taking it easy for me is for example when the engine is cold I just use part throttle and don't go above about 3000rpm in each gear, or pottering around town, etc...

Normal I define as anything up to about 5000rpm, not always full throttle, as the power doesn't really kick in until then (p.s. Not a Scoob! ), so it just starts to take off.

Thrashing it is when I take it right up to 7500rpm in every gear!

Your dad is living in the past when engines didn't rev that high unless they were specially built and by 50,000 miles they were f*cked, nowadays they are desinged a hell of a lot better and the manufacturing tolerances are a lot tighter.

A Honda VTEC lump will rev to over 9000rpm and if you dont take it over 5500rpm you'll never even reach the VTEC power stage!

It is okay to rev it!

Si James

I define thrashing a car as revving it to the rev limiter
in every gear.

When you drive a hire car, you normally end up trashing it. :-)

Si

catflap

I drive my car almost to the red line in ever gear (not breaking speed limit) on open roads, does this meen im damaging my engin?

I thought the whole point of having a red line was that it was a safe poin in the rev rainge. i.e the car can rev alot more but its deemed safe to stop it here

PeterPerfect

LOL catflap...."I drive my car almost to the red line in ever gear (not breaking speed limit)"
I assume you are talking about a type RA...because a UK will red-line @66mph in 2nd
Therefore "...in every gear..." means the first two gears

Pete

SUNDAY DRIVER

Narrow B+C roads with 100mph+ speeds,involving use of handbrake and situations where all 4 wheels leave the ground would be considered a thrash.I suppose...

scooby whip

take a good length branch off a tree, young and flexible is best, and in the style of Basil Fawlty, whack several times in quick succession, preferably from slightly different angles...

thats how you give your car a good thrashing...

catflap

lol

but no one seems to know

Ive read that subaru test the engns by runing them at their limmt for 24 hrs (read it on here actualy)

SO is anyoine going to give a use full answer insted or rolling their eyes ??? very usefull indeed

scooby whip

Well seriously folks...

I am no engineer but I think it is quite safe to rev your engine to the red line. Manufacturers build tolerance levels into engines and if it wasnt safe to rev to the redline then the redline would be lowered on that engine otherwise lots of blown engines. I think engines that are not revved often enough coke up and that does even more damage.

It is important to make sure the engine is at normal operating temperature before revving hard and after a fast session let the engine idle for 1-2 minutes to cool down the turbo before switching off. Regular servicing and oil change with good quality oil and everything should be fine.

lpitt

Tend to keep mine around 4,500-5,000 rpm for normal cruising.

Guarantee to have at least some fun on every drive though and take as close as possible to the 8,500 rpm redline for at least two gears

Laurence

bobfrog1

You're thrashing the car when you pop the bonnet open and the turbo is glowing red!!

Katana

Maybe but doesn't the materials in the engine ends up with fatigue with the constant vibration that accompanies with reving the engine? I think age also has a certain factor.

Neil Smalley

In an Impreza there is little point in thrashing the engine to the redline as peak torque is produced further down the rev range. So all your doing in going to the redline is keeping the car out of it's peak torque curve.

father_jack

Thrashing means doing damage, yes?

So that would be giving it abuse when cold.....

But once warmed up that's what engines are for i.e. revving to a particular point where you should change gear otherwise the car will go slower.

QED

catflap

Where is the best point to shft up? or how do yo ucalculate it, i have a rr graph of my car,

Possible watch how long my average shift takes(n terms of rpm drop) and enshure that my shift brings me just the other side of the torque curve peak?

Any ideas?

Would like to maxmise acceleraton and mimimise damage to engin

boomer

If by "thrashing" you mean dropping the clutch at 6,500rpm and spinning the wheels whenever you pull away, then yes, that is going to do some damage (clutch, transmission, gearbox, tyres etc.).

Making full use of the rev-range but changing gear smoothly should be fine (so long as you keep all four wheels on the ground ).

mb

Hoppy

Catflap, torque is what produces bhp. But it's bhp (torque multiplied by gearbox) that makes you go.

Using your method, changing up after peak torque, you might never get past 5,000rpm as some motors produce peak torque well below 4,000rpm.

For max accelleration you need to feed as much bhp to the wheels as you can. Almost always, this means revving to the redline, usually just beyond peak bhp, so that the next gear drops you as high up the bhp curve as possible. This way, average bhp to the wheels is optimised.

This definitely means 'thrashing' your engine. Maximum stress comes at maximum engine speed. Turbo blowing max, injectors at max, intercooler probably past its best, and pistons/con-rods right at their limit.

On the other hand, it's torque that kills clutches and gearboxes, no matter what the engine speed.

Richard.

Vinesh

These cars have been designed for a good caining. Once its nice and warm , then let it cool down

catflap

thats good to know, i drive her hard on weekends, and by week she gets her rest.


I sometimies drive the car hard as well (yeh you knew that was comming)

Great~taste~Bloke

Red line once warm daily! Hold the gears most of the time and some time forget to change from forth and redlining! Well you have the car to do it, you pay the high insurance, petrol and so on etc. So you may as well have the fun!
Matthew

U2Slow

I used to love thrashing my car! But I've just picked up my STi - I've been told to take it gentle for the first 1000 miles (i.e. not above 4000 revs). Now, im normally a red line driver and this is very hard. Im not one to ignore good advice, especialy after hearing about some of the demo cars!! But i've only done 110 miles in 12 hrs.... In fact what am I doing wasting time on hear - I could have 500 on it by morning!! The quicker I get to 1000 the better, I can put my shoes back on and give this thing a good thrashing!!!

Great~taste~Bloke

that's all for a very good reason though U2Slow!

skiddusmarkus

Only the Max Power brigade thrash their cars-I prefer to call it utilising the cars potential.When you've got where you're going and the engine is ticking(not like a clock,with it rapidly cooling down)then that has realised it's potential.For optimum acc.check where your peak torque is and try and change gear so that when you gear up the revs fall into those particular revs and so on.

yoza

Hmmm Thrashing,best person to ask is a car thief loads of them round here but try not to speak to them!once put me brothers is200 from 5th to 4th on red line instead of snicking into 6th strange noises ensued,and like someone had slammed on the anchors ooppps.

Knowlesy

Silver birch or instrument of wood such as bamboo, stating "this is going to hurt you more than me" & thrashing the hell outta the car

dazc2

the limiter is there to prevent damadge. thrashing is constantly reving it out in all gears i suppose.

the bit about full throttle engine testing over 24 hours....not sure about subaru but ford and jaguar durability tests are carried out at full and part load over 180 hours

eyeMAJIC

I think I must be thrashing my car.

7500 miles just turned over, and all 4 tyres are a ball hair away from being illegal.
Oops.

muppet paster

take a good length branch off a tree, young and flexible is best, and in the style of Basil Fawlty, whack several times in quick succession, preferably from slightly different angles...

thats how you give your car a good thrashing...


Oh bugger, beat me to it!


7500rpm a thrashing? That's about when a proper internal combustion engine is just starting to make some power isn't it?