racing auto tranny questions

[johneyou]

i recently learned that flooring, neutral drops, shifting through 1,2,d3,d4 and stuff like that are bad for my automatic transmission :/ yea i dont know that much about racing but im learning

ive heard many different suggestions from different people and even some flames and shit about swapping to manual but i dont have the money for that

uhh do i get better results from shifting at redline? or shifting around like 5500?

and to get it to redline or 5500, i would have to either floor it (since normal driving in d4 it usually shifts around 3-4000) or use 1,2,d3,d4

which way is safer? with 1,2,d3,d4 i wouldnt have to floor it to get high rpms, but i hear shifting it is bad, and even if i dont floor it while shifting and getting high rpms, does that even make me any faster?

with flooring it to redline, i heard its also bad

umm also if i was to take a corner, would it be better to downshift before or after the turn?

i could downshift to from d4 to d3 after the turn so that i could get better acceleration on the straight and then shift up, but then i could also downshift as i am braking for the turn (also for better acceleration later)

OR i could just brake , turn, and floor it (since flooring automatically downshifts) but this would have to be at the end of the turn and the beginning of the straight


finally if i do shift my auto transmission, would it be safer to lighten up on the gas as i am shifting since theres no clutch?

if i do this as i am downshifting i would feel a jerk though, and isnt that bad for the tranny? or would it be better to gas it so there wont be the jerk (kinda like heel toe for manuals) ?

would gassing it while it shifts on an auto be bad also?

if i am upshifting , and i let go of the gas as it shifts ( if this is actually safer) wouldnt it be better if i might as well just floor it with no shifting? but then again i heard flooring is bad for auto trannies


what should i do, i dont give a shit if u call me noob so go ahead but i would like to learn how to deal with my auto, im not getting a manual swap any time soon, so i would like to keep my auto transmission in the best condition while having the using it to its best potential

[Igovert500]

Well, a few answers to your questions...
first off, your asking questions and that's the best way to learn, so anyone who flames is a jacka55, because at some point way back in the day they didn't possess all their knowledge. As far as swapping, well very few people have the money to do everything they want to with their cars, so that is completely understandable.

Now as far as your car..any racing is bad for the tranny, engine, everything. That is because racing puts more stress on your car then everyday driving. That is obvious. That forewarning aside, I assume you will still race your car. If you are racing, you wish to get the most out of the performance your car is possible of. Each model car has different gear ratios, hp, torque, powerbands...etc. The goal is to maximize this potential your car offers. When racing, the idea is to shift at the points where you have equal power before and after the shift(whereby not staying in one gear too long and going past the point of ideal power of the engine and where it starts to decline. And also not to shift too early into a gear and waste time while it regains the power in the new gear.) So you want to shift when the power output is equal prior and after the shift, so that you don't overdo it and lose power or shift to early and waste time while it gets back into the ideal powerband.
Now there are equations to determine exactly when and where the best rpm shift points are in your car. It has alot to do with physics, I am not a physics major and will leave this part of the explanation to someone far more knowledgable than I to explain..
However, generally speaking, a car's redline rpms are where it reaches a point that it is past its optimum performance and starts losing power. That is why most people, when they don't know the exact ideal shift points, choose to go to redline before shifting. It is a guess, but it's a good one. It has to do with gear ratios and torque and such, but if one goes past redline their engine is working too hard and therefore past its peak performance. In racing this would be bad. You don't want to waste time on your engine regaining lost power, you want it to shift into a higher gear when the power is optimal. Say you are in 2nd gear, you would want to shift to 3rd gear when 2nd has reached its peak. (consider hypothetical rpm numbers)if you are at 5000rpms in 2nd and shift to 3rd, it will be at 3500rpms in 3rd. If you are in 2nd at 2000rpms, and shift to 3rd your rpms will drop to 1000. at 1000rpms 3rd gear is producing alot less power then at 3500rpms, therefore you want to stay in 2nd longer to get the rpms higher for when you shift to the next gear. I assume this makes sense by now.

So to answer some questions, most people take it to redline because they don't know the ideal shift points of their cars...I would recommend(if racing) to do the same to get the maximum power out of your engine.
I think I answered this question before, but from my experience in my 90 accord, ratchet shifting was not any faster, try it in yours...it might be. But yes, to prolong the shift you will have to floor it(that's racing). If you ratchet shift it from 1st, 2nd, d3, d4, that is another option. I personally don't think it's faster...but it may be. If racing all out, then yes floor it the whole time, even when shifting. As I said, racing and being gentle to your car don't go hand in hand.

If you are going for time slips, just race it. Everyday I wouldn't recommend redlining it all the time or flooring it while you shift(if you must shift). But if you are racing it, and you let off the gas while shifting you lost any advantage of shifting it yourself anyways.
Honestly, unless you are doing autocross, there is no need to downshift in an automatic, but in reply to your question, complete your shift before the turn. And then give it gas at the apex of the turn. If you have a higher powered car, and shifted mid-turn you could cause the car to slide.
Also realize that in an automatic (not the new manumatics or whatever they are called) but in ordinary automatics, just becuase you have it in d3 doesn't mean its in 3rd gear. They shift when they want. Thats the beauty of an auto, it takes car of downshifting. So even if you went from d4 to d3, it may have already downshifted to 3rd, or even 2nd, and wont necessarily shift back to 4th the second you try and shift it. If you have it in d3, that means that it acts like an automatic until 3rd gear, and then holds 3rd and doesn't shift to 4th, it doesn't mean it goes immediatly to 3rd gear.
I hope this answers some of your questions...sorry if it didn't cover them all, but I hope it helps. Post if you still have othes.

[92lx]

I have found that honda automatics tend to lag a great deal when shifted manually. It's faster to run a car down the quarter mile drag strip (you're not racing on the streets, right?), and let the car shift in my experience. In some cases you may need to keep it in a lower gear just because you are having to shift right before the finish line, which is obviously just going to slow you down.

- Nathan