ezatnova

Sorry if this was in the manual and I missed it. What exactly is the point of the numbered shifting mode that engages after the car is in C or S and a paddle is touched?

I've noticed a few things:

- The car seems to lock into the selected gear, but, it will still upshift if necessary (i.e. won't bounce off redline)

- If the was in, for example S5, and you came to a stop, the car would upshift normally back through the gears once you got going again...acting the same as if it was in standard S mode.

- The # of the indicated gear sometimes seems to act like a "ceiling" of the highest gear it will upshift to (again, unless redline is going to be reached). What I mean by this is, if the car was in S3, and came to a stop, after getting moving again, it would shift 1 -> 2 -> 3, and then kind of hang in three unless it HAD to shift.

Am I missing anything else? The third point above, if I'm correct, would be really useful for spirited back road driving, when not in M. You could "cap" the transmission in 3rd or 4th gear, and just let it do its thing, knowing it won't try and upshift to 5th or 6th, necessitating a kick down after the next corner.

Cavu

You are correct in your assumption. The number shown becomes the highest gear that the car will shift to. If you stop, the car wil go through 1,2,3... up to the number shown.

ezatnova

Thanks. One more thing I'm confused about though. Someone on here recommended that, for optimal track acceleration, put the car in S and pull the left paddle to have it enter S1. Then the car would "shift at higher rpm", but, according to the theory above, the car wouldn't shift past 1. I guess the key is, it's still not pure M mode. It WILL shift up EVENTUALLY. So maybe it does hold off on the upshift until higher RPM's, in the S# mode?

CoolBDPhenom03

Another trick is if you hold the left/downshift paddle or the shifter knob to the left, it doesn't just shift down one gear, it'll shift down to the lowest possible gear for overtaking or revving high.

SonnyakaPig

When you're in D1, D2, D3 or S# (whichever way you want to designate it), the car only upshifts if you manually upshift or the rpms reach redline. So, this mode is meant for driving situations where you are in automatic mode but don't want the car to shift before redline.

I'm not sure on this but I think S mode has a slightly higher redline than C mode. And if I recall correctly, you can use the D1, D2, D3, etc. in C or S mode. So, C1, C2, C3, etc, or S1, S2, S3...

SonnyakaPig

Yeah, this is a cool feature.

CoolBDPhenom03

I should have added that conversely, holding the right/upshift paddle or the shifter knob to the right will return you to full auto mode in C or S.