So I'm definitely new to performance cars and in my case a manual-ish one. Ive had my MR for 3 months and finally thought about using manual mode a few times. But as I've never driven a manual car (my last car was an automatic 05 civic) I'm not sure when I should be shifting. Any answers?

 

Bump

 

Put on super sport mode and shift before red line. MMVEC yo!

 

I suggest driving in Sport - Automatic and seeing when the car shifts for itself. Learn to pick up on the tach points it's shifting at, and more importantly pick up on the engine sound and vibration at those points because you can't drive a manual or manually shift our DCT looking at the tach. You need to be focused ahead, where you're driving. Learn the feel and sound of the car shifting itself, and then try it out in Sport or Super Sport manual. Don't drive in Super Sport Auto on the street. Remember when you're manually shifting the computer has some lag, so don't run it up to redline and then try to shift, you need to anticipate the delay a little (even in Super Sport) and pull the paddle before you get to redline.

Most important thing to remember is in manual mode you are in full control. It will never upshift for you, and it only will downshift when you have slowed down so much that it thinks you are stopping at a light. The latter is a safety issue if you're not paying attention, just coasting along in 5th or 6th, coming up to a stale green light that goes yellow on you, and you gun it to get through before it goes red...nothing happens because you forgot to downshift and smack you run a red light accidently killing yourself and a family of four going the other way.

Manual shifting is a ton of fun, but get used to it slowly, and then I suggest you drive manual only once you have the hang of it. Switching back and forth will confuse you and make you forget to downshift in the above scenario. I only use auto mode on highway trips when I want to use cruise control, which is almost never.

 

I've noticed in sport mode it seems to shift based on throttle response too. For instance if I'm accelerating at I guess a "normal" pace it seems to shift around 4300-4500 RPM. But if I noticed correctly under "heavy" accelerating it was shift at much rpm's. So could I shift it 7000 rpm in sport mode doing it manually as it would on its on in s-sport mode?

 

Sport Automatic is a good simulation of how most performance car owners would shift their manual transmissions. It's only mildly aggressive under normal acceleration/throttle as you observed, but it aggressively holds on to gears close to redline if you are accelerating aggressively. It downshifts at the proper times too, although perhaps more aggressively than a human would, but that is because it doesn't know what your next move is, it can only try and predict and react accordingly. You can drive around shifting at redline all the time, but that's not how most people drive a manual trans car. There are many factors that go into shift points but Sport Automatic is a good approximation of how a manual would be shifted by a real person.

 

1. Downshift when RPMs get down to 2K (or less) i.e. going uphill...
2. Downshift one gear (or two if you are below 3K) prior to flooring it to pass...
3. Upshift when warranted. I generally upshift at 3K for economy.
4. Keep downshifting at 2K as you approach a stop.
5. Downshift just prior to entering the turn (before the apex) or just to slow the car...

Relax. Practice.
You can't hurt it. It will downshift for you if you forget. The fuel cut-off will keep you from grenading the engine if you forget to upshift