Which is faster, and the best technique for downshifting a CLK55?
07-01-2004, 11:34 PM
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2002 CLK55
Which is faster, and the best technique for downshifting a CLK55?
Recently posted a story and a question in the kill stories forum. Regarding a 208 CLK55, which is the fastest way to go from 70-90 mph? Leaving it in full auto, or manually downshifting?
07-01-2004, 11:51 PM
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C32 AMG
Originally Posted by rev
Recently posted a story and a question in the kill stories forum. Regarding a 208 CLK55, which is the fastest way to go from 70-90 mph? Leaving it in full auto, or manually downshifting?
manually, because if you leave it in auto it almost always downshifts 1 gear above the best gear.
lets say 1st gear tops out at 45 2nd gear at 65 and 3rd gear at 100 if you were going 30mph and you floored your car and hit the kick down button, the automatic only shifts to 2 gear instead of 1st gear
if your going 50mph and you floor it, it down shifts automatically to 3rd gear instead of 2nd gear
also the car almost never downshifts to 1st gear, even if you are going 20mph
so just down shift for yourself. your car will pull harder
07-02-2004, 12:05 AM
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CLS55 AMG
If you stomp it at 70, it will downshift to 3rd...
...this is, after all, just above redline for second, about midrange for third...so, manually selecting the gear won't do anything insofar as which gear is selected.
Insofar as actual speed of shift into third: it takes about 1 sec from the time you stomp it (at least mine does) for it to actually get into gear and get moving, which is somewhat sluggish; a Jaguar I drove recently had a much quicker reaction to a stomp. So, if you're anticipating a race or something, it's better to start in gear, in which case you'd do it manually, *before* the festivities commenced...otherwise, it won't give you any advantage, as manually downshifting from 5th-3rd takes two hits on the shifter, followed by the time lag for it to downshift, which won't be any faster than stomping it.
I do share IdriveFast's complaint, although for me it's mainly a problem in first gear: if I stomp it going 20, 9 times out of 10 the stupid thing will only downshift to second, which SUCKS! I have had a few runs which otherwise would have been over very quickly where I had to play a bit of catch-up thanks to this "feature", which is unforgivable on a high-performance car of this type...*as* is equipping it with an open diff when the sub-$30K Pontiac Grand Prix comes with a limited-slip, or putting 245-series rear tires on a car with nearly 400 lb-ft of torque, but don't get me started on those...
Insofar as actual speed of shift into third: it takes about 1 sec from the time you stomp it (at least mine does) for it to actually get into gear and get moving, which is somewhat sluggish; a Jaguar I drove recently had a much quicker reaction to a stomp. So, if you're anticipating a race or something, it's better to start in gear, in which case you'd do it manually, *before* the festivities commenced...otherwise, it won't give you any advantage, as manually downshifting from 5th-3rd takes two hits on the shifter, followed by the time lag for it to downshift, which won't be any faster than stomping it.
I do share IdriveFast's complaint, although for me it's mainly a problem in first gear: if I stomp it going 20, 9 times out of 10 the stupid thing will only downshift to second, which SUCKS! I have had a few runs which otherwise would have been over very quickly where I had to play a bit of catch-up thanks to this "feature", which is unforgivable on a high-performance car of this type...*as* is equipping it with an open diff when the sub-$30K Pontiac Grand Prix comes with a limited-slip, or putting 245-series rear tires on a car with nearly 400 lb-ft of torque, but don't get me started on those...
