I've had my evo for about 6 months now.. and i'm still guessing a little when to use 5th gear during normal driving.

45mph feels about right for 5th, but according to my boost gauge.. i'm sucking alot more gas in 5th at that speed than i am in 4th.

I guess coming from the mustang world ..( a world where anything over 3k feels like you're taxing the engine).. i'm not used to the higher rpms.

when does our motor like 5th gear?

 

Right after redline in 4th.

If the road is flat and I'm keeping a constant speed 45-50, if you are on a huge *** hill or trying to rapidly pick up speed 60ish.

 

It'll be more down to engine load than anything else. I know when I'm puttering around in town or traffic, 5th gear actaully feels a little high but given the performance of the Evo that's exactly as it should be.

Coming from a Mustang, I'm sure your driving habits will need to change a little. The Evo isn't about low down torque, it's about the turbo blast!

Enjoy getting to know it,

- Nellie

 

I think the only time i've put the evo in 5th is highway driving...i can cruise around town 45-60mph in 4th gear no problems.

 

50 is the limit for me, but even that is kinda bordering 2000rpms.

 

yeah I usually will go up to 5th around 55-60 (normal driving) but it does all depend on the load... if you are going up a big hill or something at 50 and you shift to 5th then you will probably bog it pretty bad... anyways, good luck

 

I think it's a good idea to keep RPMs as low as possible as long as you don't do two things:

1) Lug the motor
2) Hit boost unecessarily while normal driving (by having to put to much throttle to overcome the lugging motor). In this case, you are in too high of a gear.

Save gas and wear. Don't keep it in a low gear when you don't have to. If the motor feels responsive and good in 5th at 40 MPH (probably not) then that is where it should be. It depends if you are uphill, downhill, flat road. It depends on what you want you rate of acceleration to be. It all depends.

 

50 - 55 for me.

98% of my city driving is in 4th.

 

never use 5th on city driving. It's just wrong and dangerous too. I'm always on 4th at 3000 Rpm for city driving.

 

I've been paying attention to my shift points more and I feel like I'm hurting the car if I'm under 50 in 5th. I like to shift no less then 55 and sometimes closer to 60.

 

you're hanging on to the lack of boost portion on 5th gear when in City driving. That sucks. The car shakes and wants to die.

 

Here's a n00b question to all of you Evo owners. At what RPM does the boost kick in?

 

I start boosting as low as 2000RPM and can reach full 20PSI by 2900RPM. This is in 4th gear

 

I usually drive around the city in 5th gear @ 40-45mph to save on gas.

Not a good idea?

 

Ditto, I usually dont let rpms fall below 2k.